Windows XP Stuck During Boot

[Anders]

My Windows XP install hangs on a light blue splash screen, with dark blue boarder top and bottom and the XP logo off centre. No error message, mouse works, keyboard responds (num and caps lock work, pressing print screen makes the mouse cursors disappear for a second). It's not a BSOD.

To give you a brief bit of background; I bought a new hard drive and installed Ubuntu, which is working a treat. I've used partimage to transfer my Windows XP partition to my new hard drive. After some tweaking Grub, Windows XP now boots but gets stuck as described above.

Without any error messages or even knowing the correct name for the splash screen, I'm finding it hard to find a solution in Google.

I've tried so far:
Booting into Safe Mode (gets stuck at the same point)
Using bootcfg to rebuild boot.ini from the Recovery Console
chkdsk all drives from the Recovery Console

I've been trying to avoid re-installing Windows from fresh because I hardly use it after installing Ubuntu. Of course, in the time I've spent faffing around with partimage, Grub and now this I probably could have done a fresh install.

Thanks for reading,

Anders.

[8bit]

Sounds like the drive letter on the windows partition may have changed, or the partition is no longer marked as active. Not sure how you would be able to change drive letters assigned to partitions outwith the windows install in question tho...

[peterb]

Tricky one - if you have moved the system files from one partition to another, it may be a problem with the NT loader file (NTLDR).

I posted this recently on another query

The MBR is always at the first sector. Code in the MBR examines the partition table to determine which is the active partition, which will contain some hidden files required for the boot process. This is not something I am particularly familiar with (there is an excellent article by Paul Adams here...

http://forums.hexus.net/operating-sy...de-inside.html

that describes it. Read section 2 that describes the role of the NTLDR file

This link also gives a step by step guide that you may also find useful...

The computer does not start after you change the active partition by using the Disk Management tool

useful. I would re-iterate the advice given - back up any critical data file before you try changing anything.

However in your case it is slightly complicated by the fact that you are dual booting (presumably using GRUB)

The method described in the two links should work, but there is a risk of mucking up GRUB, so you should save your Brub confifuration and the MBR before you start. The details (if they aren't in the Ubuntu documentation, are on the GRUB website

GNU GRUB Manual 0.97

Evereything (and a whole lot more!) that you wanted to know about GRUB!

[Anders]

Thanks for your replies. I tried using FixBoot on the Windows partition. It made no difference. I'm reluctant to try fix MBR as I'm not convinced this is a MBR/VBR issue. If it were I don't think the boot sequence would even get into Windows XP. Before it gets stuck on the blue splash screen, I see the black Windows XP logo screen with the bar moving across to show progress like this one (not my screen shot).

This is the closest I have found in Google Image. (Instead of saying Welcome, it has a small Windows XP logo)


How do I check which partition is marked as active. GParted shows a "boot" flag, is that the same as active? When I boot in the Recovery Console the drive letter assignments are correct.

Is there anyway to get Windows to show me what it's doing while booting, similar to removing the splash and quiet options when booting Ubuntu? I feel sure I could sort this if only I had an error message or log file.

[peterb]

Doesn't F8 during the start up process give the option to log the start up? Or do an interactive start so that you can select what to load? (If you are getting that far)

[Softix]

I stay Reformate its the best thing to do so later down the road it doesnt crash agian

[8bit]

Just re-read your original post. You said you migrated your XP partition to a new drive? Have you tried disconnecting the drive it was originally on and attaching the new one to the port the original one was on?

It may be that the disk ID is different because it's attached to a different port. If that works then re-attach the old drive with Ubuntu. The chances are it won't boot so you might have to use the live CD to alter the grub config file to sort it out, or reinstall Ubuntu.