This is more for info. Maybe it will help others and I hope I don't encounter this again.
Using Firefox on XP this morning, the PC hung - rebooted and Win XP went into an endless re-boot loop. Nothing worked - no recovery options <F8>.
The blue screen error read it could not mount the boot volume, and I had no recovery disk (I'm now scrambling to make one).
This was scary as there was just no way to start Windows and I attempted so many times, I started to worry that the HDD was being damaged, which would have left me without anything.
Put the Win XP Boot CD in and the only two option's provided was to format and reinstall Windows.
I was able to get an app off the net, which stated it will allow recovery of Windows and is Linux based (I now eat my words agaisnt Linux and only wish I learnt more about this OS - I'm poorer for not knowing it).
Anyway, it couldn't repair Windows, however, it was able to read a "restore point" from yesterday and this was the final try before formatting and installing XP - selected and ran this - and still could not boot into windows and so I accepted my fate to reinstall windows.
Put the XP CD in and this time round - it gave me an option (which wasn't there prior) to install XP and LEAVE THE FILE SYSTEM INTACT.
Selected this and how it did it, I don't know, but the XP CD seem to have fixed the boot files and finally got into the system.
Whether this will work for Win 7 or 10 is unknown, but I take my hat off to Linux for being able to access the system
Apparently, only 25% of PC's globally still use XP, so on this forum, I think I'm the only one.
Advice to all - CREATE YOUR BACKUP RECOVERY CD'S. BACKUP FILES DAILY.
Using Firefox on XP this morning, the PC hung - rebooted and Win XP went into an endless re-boot loop. Nothing worked - no recovery options <F8>.
The blue screen error read it could not mount the boot volume, and I had no recovery disk (I'm now scrambling to make one).
This was scary as there was just no way to start Windows and I attempted so many times, I started to worry that the HDD was being damaged, which would have left me without anything.
Put the Win XP Boot CD in and the only two option's provided was to format and reinstall Windows.
I was able to get an app off the net, which stated it will allow recovery of Windows and is Linux based (I now eat my words agaisnt Linux and only wish I learnt more about this OS - I'm poorer for not knowing it).
Anyway, it couldn't repair Windows, however, it was able to read a "restore point" from yesterday and this was the final try before formatting and installing XP - selected and ran this - and still could not boot into windows and so I accepted my fate to reinstall windows.
Put the XP CD in and this time round - it gave me an option (which wasn't there prior) to install XP and LEAVE THE FILE SYSTEM INTACT.
Selected this and how it did it, I don't know, but the XP CD seem to have fixed the boot files and finally got into the system.
Whether this will work for Win 7 or 10 is unknown, but I take my hat off to Linux for being able to access the system
Apparently, only 25% of PC's globally still use XP, so on this forum, I think I'm the only one.
Advice to all - CREATE YOUR BACKUP RECOVERY CD'S. BACKUP FILES DAILY.
