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| Thread ID: 31446 | 2003-03-22 04:12:00 | XP won't boot, PartitionMagic at fault | agent (30) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 130030 | 2003-03-22 04:12:00 | Shortly after installing PartitionMagic and BootMagic (I think that is the program that's causing my troubles'), I installed a display driver for my graphics card. I happen to know that the display driver has nothing to do with my problems. After rebooting, the little warning saying "YOUR MASTER BOOT RECORD IS ABOUT TO BE OVERWRITTEN. PRESS 'Y' TO CONFIRM OR ANY OTHER KEY TO STOP" came up. I allowed it, assuming it was just BootMagic rearranging the MBR according to how it wanted it to be. Then the Windows boot manager came up (this is normal), and I left it to select Windows XP Professional as the OS to boot. Shortly after displaying the splash screen, it came up with the problem background (eg. scandisk after resetting etc), and said something along the lines of "autochk not found. AutoCheck will not continue" or something like that. Then it proceeds to reboot, and go in the same stupid loop over and over and over. Doesn't matter if I deny the MBR being written to (yes, that loops too), as that causes it to reboot too. I've looked on PowerQuest's website, and the only helpful thing I could find was this (www.powerquest.com). However, it's of no help to me, because I cannot actually boot into Windows, and I didn't make a BootMagic or PartitionMagic rescue disk. I've searched elsewhere on the internet for the problem, and so far, it appears that BootMagic has made the drive XP is installed on "hidden", which is why autochk.exe cannot be found. The people who had similar problems ended up using the Linux fdisk command or GRUB, and one even mentioned that some Linux boot floppy disks allow you to unhide a drive/partition. Is there anyway I can get my computer back? Is it possible for someone to upload a copy of the files on a BootMagic (7.0 or later) rescue/boot disk so I can put them on a floppy? |
agent (30) | ||
| 130031 | 2003-03-22 04:47:00 | I don't know, but I suspect that a rescue disk for Partition Magic and Boot Magic will need a copy of the partition table so it can be restored. Why didn't you make the rescue disks? I'm sure the programmes urged you to do that. :_| If it's just a matter of the partition being not active the Linux fdisk could fix that, non-destructively. Even MS FDISK might do that, but I can't guarantee that. ;-) |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 130032 | 2003-03-22 05:11:00 | You could try using the dos pqmagict.exe text based version of Partition Magic, this will hide/unhide/delete etc partitions. It certainly comes with earlier versions of PM, I dont know about versions for XP, but if you dont have it you can download it from here: www.wcug.wwu.edu You will need to have a dos boot disk and put pqmagict.exe on it in order to use it. |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 130033 | 2003-03-22 05:17:00 | Option 1 Search to repair the XP installation. Option 2 Indulge in data recovery. Option 3 Format, reinstall and risk losing access to data files. Backup, backup, backup Assume = Ass/u/me |
Merlin (503) | ||
| 130034 | 2003-03-22 05:33:00 | I did it! I had to download BootIt NextGeneration (BootIt NG), and install it, but I unhid my XP partition and successfully logged on. And the first thing I'm doing? Punishing BootMagic... ]:) In any case, thanks for your help people. |
agent (30) | ||
| 130035 | 2003-03-22 06:22:00 | Oh yes, that's right, you stupid folks at PowerQuest. You suck. I uninstalled BootMagic, and then had to change my MBR many times with BootIt NG because you stupid people over in the USA don't bother to also uninstall it from the MBR at next boot. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. BOOTMAGIC IS GONE. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. And the only reason I'm keeping PartitionMagic is because it's good. |
agent (30) | ||
| 130036 | 2003-03-22 07:52:00 | Fine - try reading the manual next time too | Merlin (503) | ||
| 130037 | 2003-03-22 08:30:00 | Hmmmm.... Partition Magic good!!! Boot Magic .... Not good..... Maybe. You had the option NOT to install Boot Magic but elected to do it anyway? Did you read the Readme.txt file before installing? When the software asks you to create rescue disks then it's best to do it unless you want to find yourself with a system that won't boot from the hard drive. In this day and age you can boot off CDRom drives, one or more hard drives or partitions, network boot or floppies. If you want to play with more than one operating system on one PC then you need some sort of boot manager. I just use WinXP Pro these days. It works for ME. I'm just about to build a second computer to play with other operating systems. YMMV ( Your Mileage May Vary ) |
Elephant (599) | ||
| 130038 | 2003-03-22 09:36:00 | > Hmmmm.... Partition Magic good!!! > > Boot Magic .... Not good..... Maybe. Nothing wrong with it. I use it for a dual boot machine that has Windows XP Pro and Windows 2000 Server on it. Not a beep out of it and works 100% of the time. |
Big John (551) | ||
| 130039 | 2003-03-23 02:45:00 | When a software manufacturer says you should make a recovery disk they are being a bit hopeful. But they are trying to protect the users from "accidents". If the user "knows better" and doesn't make the rescue disk, that is not the manufacturer's fault. Accidents happen. Users make mistakes. | Graham L (2) | ||
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