I B0rked the laptop...

[funnelhead]

You know that laptop i was talking about earlier? well i b0rked it ..............


Well norton 2004 b0rked it

its win98 machine, i slip NS 2004 in so i can virus check before networking it to mine to back up her files.

norton says it needs to install windows installer (!) to continue, i say fine, it does so and reboots.

Upon rebooting it comes up with the message that makes everyone sweat a little : ''invalid system disk , replace and press any key"

gag

Bios can see the disk, and i can boot off cdrom, but thats it.
norton dos doctor finds nothing

Just to make it tricky, my winxp disk refuses to boot, so i cant use those tools or just put winxp over the top to get going.

and the machine doesnt come with a floppy drive so i cant just make a boot disk.


Well it smells like a fubard allocation table to me, any ideas?

i know its an odd one but any ides welcome

cheers guys

[funnelhead]

just in case im in the ****, anyone got a 2.5 inch -> 3.5 inch ide adapter they want to lend me

[Clstrphbc_donut]

you sure that you have the HDD as the primary boot device and that you havent left nortons in the cd-rom?

We all make stupid mistakes!

[funnelhead]

mmm cheers for the suggestion but it aint that...

i just put a bootable cd in that i made and ran scandisk.

It came up with a b0rked FAT and fixed it, then went and fixed 186 files (including command.com and other system files)

great, i thought.

reboot ---> and where before it said invalid system disk, it now says

"$£%^#[&**&^)(&*^%$%^.['@>[;.'}:~@/[[;.[{:L[[;;[l.;[{@

So im guessing its fairly rogered now ............


Considering this has my clients 1st year uni project and shedloads of coursework on it - i'm starting to get sweatycrack...

[Spud1]

nah thats easily fixed

you just need to set the parition active and write a new MBR

How you ask?

with Hirens Magic boot CD ofc =) [google it, theres plenty of links]

It has loads of tools for repairing disks - i myself had a very similar problem last week. Theres a special version of Fdisk on the CD that let me set the parition as active and then write a new MBR to let it boot =) saved alot of hassle

[funnelhead]

Sheeeeet negro, thats alll you had to saay!

Sounds like a plan Spud1, If your rep suddenly increases you know its worked


nah reps to both of ya for helping

ill let you know how i get on...

f

[Spud1]

=) yeah do let us know - any probs getting it to work let me know here or add me to msn and i'll guide u through it

[funnelhead]

i cant get my hands on broadband for a couple of days....which is the tool from the disk maybe i could grab it singly for speeds sake...

[funnelhead]

Spud1, which one of the fdisks did you use for this fine feat? Having run sys.com, the comp now just hangs after it checks the cd drive...... no words and no ctrl-alt-delete......

This is beginning to grate

[Spud1]

think it was called 'smartFdisk' or something, heres a link to the CD download [36meg]

ftp://ftp.multivox.ru/pub/temp/bootc...BootCD.6.0.iso