BSOD on XP laptop - NTFS drive not accessible in Hiren's MiniXP but visible in Linux?

[Apnomis]

I am trying to fix an old Dell laptop that is running Windows XP. When you try to start it normally just after the Windows XP splash screen is displayed it goes to the BSOD with a Stop: 0x00000024 error. Even trying to launch in Safe Mode with Cmd Prompt it goes back to the same screen.

I have tried repairing it using Hiren's BootCD to fix this issue but I'm not having much luck. When in the MiniXP environment the C drive is visible but the size data is missing, you cannot access the files, and when looking at properties it says its file system is RAW. Running Check Disk from MiniXP doesn't work as it doesn't list that drive as being there.

However when I went into Partition Magic which is a Linux environment it had no problem recognising the NTFS partition and I can access all the files and folders in it so the data is still there somewhere (it also says it's a Mounted drive if that makes any difference).

I tried using TestDisk and it found 3 partitions, a small FAT16 partition which is a Dell partition, the main NTFS partition, and another FAT32 Dell partition. I think the two small Dell drives are normally hidden in Windows. I set the two Dell drives as Primary and the NTFS drive as Primary Bootable and saved the structure and restarted, however it still goes back to the same BSOD when trying to boot Windows?

When I went back into MiniXP, the two Dell drives where no longer hidden and were visible with their size and free space data, but the NTFS drive was still not accessible and missing the size data. Check Disk allowed me to check the Dell drives but the NTFS drive was still missing.

Can anyone help me fix this? I'm guessing there has been some corruption of the Windows partitions but I don't know how to fix this from the Hiren BootCD and Partition Magic, given that TestDisk doesn't seem to do anything?

At least I know the HDD isn't complete dead, and the data isn't lost - so there must be a way to get Windows to find the drive again?

I no longer have the original Windows XP boot/restore disc unfortunately, just the Hiren's BootCD but I can't work out how to use the ChkDsk command (which Google seems to give as a solution) as I can't get the drive to appear in a Windows environment and I can't get to the Windows command prompt without getting the BSOD. Is there a way to restore it from Linux?

Any help or ideas appreciated...

[scaryjim]

Hmm, not 100% sure this would work, and it would take some effort ...

BUT

You could try creating a Windows To Go environment from the Windows 10 technical preview. There's plenty of guides out there if you google, it's a relatively straightforward process (although I'd strongly recommend having AT LEAST a 32GB USB drive to do it on) and it'll give you the absolute latest version of Windows which should be able to read any version of NTFS. Plus as a bonus you'll have your own personal Windows install to carry around wherever you go (I actually have a WtG Win 8 USB key in my wallet just in case I need to diagnose of fix up someone's PC at short notice!).

[Apnomis]

I managed to sort it. I saved the essential files via Linux and after researching a bit more about the Recovery drive realised there was an exe buried in there I could run from Hirens DOS mode which essentially replaced the entire HDD with a ghost image of the factory build.

It was quite amusing setting it up again with screens asking which dial up Internet service I would want to install etc. There was plenty of bloatware which I needed to get rid of and several hundred XP updates but getting there slowly... egardless though I managed to sort it. I saved the essential files via Linux and after researching a bit more about the Recovery drive realised there was an exe buried in there I could run from Hirens DOS mode which essentially replaced the entire HDD with a ghost image of the factory build.

It was quite amusing setting it up again with screens asking which dial up Internet service I would want to install etc. There was plenty of bloatware which I needed to get rid of and several hundred XP updates but getting there slowly...