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Running chkdsk /f without windows

post #1 of 8
7/9/09 at 10:50am
Thread Starter 
Hi all,

When windows is starting up I get a BSOD and it wont boot. I want to run chkdsk to hopefully help solve the problem, but I cant start windows to run it. I thought I could run it in DOS, so I made a boot CD and got DOS working but as far as I understand DOS wont recognise my NTFS formatted hard drive with windows on it.

How can I run chkdsk /f without using windows (xp) ?

Thanks
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post #2 of 8
7/9/09 at 10:57am
Would it start under Safe Mode? Can you share the BSOD error code and message?

cheers ...
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post #3 of 8
7/9/09 at 11:04am
Thread Starter 
As far as I understand the message is a fairly common one :

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent
damage to your computer......and so on.

The error code is 0x00000024 with a few parameters after it. I think that corresponds to NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM.

I was resizing my main boot partition using PartitionMagic when the resizing process gave an error and then restarted the computer - then on startup I received this error message which it now gives every time I startup. I reaaaallllyy want to avoid doing a re-format/re-install and losing all of my stuff.

I wont start in safe mode, or in 'last known good configuration'.

The partition resize it was doing when things went wrong has appeared to work, it left 4GB of space (which is what I wanted) I have since partitioned this space, formatted it to ext3 and installed Ubuntu (which is how I am now on the internet typing this message!).

Any ideas ? I figured the first step was to run chkdsk /f ? But I cant without windows !!! And I cant appear to do it in DOS either !

Thanks
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post #4 of 8
7/9/09 at 11:14am
I have the feeling that your partitioning overlapped the boot sector of the OS partition. Your best bet in this case is a re-installation. There are some NTFS tools out there to help "clean" the "borderlines" of the partitions, but by the time you end up doing it, might as well as re-install the OS.

chkdsk will not help! fixing the MBR will not help! If my feeling is right about the partitions being overlapped.

cheers ...
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post #5 of 8
7/9/09 at 11:20am
Thread Starter 
Surely PartitionMagic will know not to mess around with the bootsector ?

Is there anyway I can restore the OS boot sector files without doing a reformat ?
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post #6 of 8
7/9/09 at 11:23am
A repair? This way you won't lose the data.

cheers ...
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post #7 of 8
7/9/09 at 11:35am
Thread Starter 
Am I right in saying there are 2 types of repair ? The type where you lose all your data, and the type where you won't ?

I have XP MCE 2005 SP2 but its the dell installed version (OEM?), and the only disc I have is XP Pro SP3 (from a friend). Would it be ok to use this disc or do I need a SP2 version ?
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post #8 of 8
7/9/09 at 11:40am
You need XP MCE 2005 installation disk for a repair. SP2 can be updated afterward. I am not 100% sure about using XP Pro disk to repair the MCE.

OS repair does not wipe out your data.

cheers ...
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