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Dangman
Ninja Editor SuperMod
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2005
- Messages
- 46,056
Ok, I've run into a problem that's become a bit of a challenge. I have a HP Mini 1010R netbook with a 8GB SSD. Rest of the specs seen here.
Now the problem is that the netbook does/will not boot from the Windows XP Home install on the SSD. When the PC is booted up, once past the BIOs, all I see is a blank screen with a blinking underscore.
I checked the BIOs and the SSD was still listed. I didn't have an external DVD or CD drive so I loaded Ubuntu Linux on a USB flash drive and booted from there. Mounted the SSD and clearly saw that all (AFAIK) of the files were still there. Backed whatever files I needed just in case.
So from there, I created a Windows XP USB drive using the instructions here. When I booted from the XP USB drive, there were two options:
2. GUI Mode Setup Windows XP, Continue Setup + Start XP
1. TXT Mode Setup Windows XP, Never unplug USB drive
I selected option 1. loaded into the Recovery console, and did "fixmbr" and "fixboot". That didn't work. Still the same blank screen with the blinking underscore
When the netbook rebooted again from the XP flash drive, I selected option 1. From there, the netbook booted directly into the existing Windows XP Home install on the SSD. It was as if nothing had changed. Rebooted again, selected the SSD as the boot option, still the same blinking underscore. Reboot again, boot from the XP USB drive, selected option 2, and Windows XP booted in all its glory.
Other failed attempts at fixing this weird boot issue:
- Followed instructions on How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting from this link.
- Tried fixing the boot.ini from within the Windows XP OS and the Windows XP Recovery console.
So now I am thoroughly confused. Short of a reformat and reinstall, does anyone else know if there's another way I can get the XP Home install to boot like it use to do without the XP USB drive?
Now the problem is that the netbook does/will not boot from the Windows XP Home install on the SSD. When the PC is booted up, once past the BIOs, all I see is a blank screen with a blinking underscore.
I checked the BIOs and the SSD was still listed. I didn't have an external DVD or CD drive so I loaded Ubuntu Linux on a USB flash drive and booted from there. Mounted the SSD and clearly saw that all (AFAIK) of the files were still there. Backed whatever files I needed just in case.
So from there, I created a Windows XP USB drive using the instructions here. When I booted from the XP USB drive, there were two options:
2. GUI Mode Setup Windows XP, Continue Setup + Start XP
1. TXT Mode Setup Windows XP, Never unplug USB drive
I selected option 1. loaded into the Recovery console, and did "fixmbr" and "fixboot". That didn't work. Still the same blank screen with the blinking underscore
When the netbook rebooted again from the XP flash drive, I selected option 1. From there, the netbook booted directly into the existing Windows XP Home install on the SSD. It was as if nothing had changed. Rebooted again, selected the SSD as the boot option, still the same blinking underscore. Reboot again, boot from the XP USB drive, selected option 2, and Windows XP booted in all its glory.
Other failed attempts at fixing this weird boot issue:
- Followed instructions on How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting from this link.
- Tried fixing the boot.ini from within the Windows XP OS and the Windows XP Recovery console.
So now I am thoroughly confused. Short of a reformat and reinstall, does anyone else know if there's another way I can get the XP Home install to boot like it use to do without the XP USB drive?
