[H] Free new years gift for HWG!

[Naushad Zulfiqar]

Read, download and enjoy!

http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/special/komputerswiat/



-- 
Best Regards,


Zulfiqar Naushad

Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!

[Bryan Seitz]

Nice, thanks!

On Fri, Jan 01, 2010 at 11:14:46PM +0300, Naushad Zulfiqar wrote:
> Read, download and enjoy!
> 
> http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/special/komputerswiat/
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Best Regards,
> 
> 
> Zulfiqar Naushad

-- 
 
Bryan G. Seitz

Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!

[Steve Tomporowski]

Maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I've got a key now, how the 
heck do I download it?


Bryan Seitz wrote:

Nice, thanks!

On Fri, Jan 01, 2010 at 11:14:46PM +0300, Naushad Zulfiqar wrote:
  

Read, download and enjoy!

http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/special/komputerswiat/



--
Best Regards,


Zulfiqar Naushad



  




__ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature 
database 4736 (20100101) __

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com

Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!

[Jeff Lane]

They give you the link in the email they sent, or go to the website and 
download the trial, which can be activated.

Jeff

Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 1:10 PM
Subject: Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!


Maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I've got a key now, how the
heck do I download it?

Bryan Seitz wrote:
> Nice, thanks!
>
> On Fri, Jan 01, 2010 at 11:14:46PM +0300, Naushad Zulfiqar wrote:
>
>> Read, download and enjoy!
>>
>> http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/special/komputerswiat/
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Best Regards,
>>
>>
>> Zulfiqar Naushad
>>
>
>



__ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature 
database 4736 (20100101) __

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com

Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!

[Steve Tomporowski]

Have you been to that link?  It only has version 12, not 10

Jeff Lane wrote:
They give you the link in the email they sent, or go to the website and 
download the trial, which can be activated.


Jeff

Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 1:10 PM
Subject: Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!


Maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I've got a key now, how the
heck do I download it?

Bryan Seitz wrote:
  

Nice, thanks!

On Fri, Jan 01, 2010 at 11:14:46PM +0300, Naushad Zulfiqar wrote:



Read, download and enjoy!

http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/special/komputerswiat/



--
Best Regards,


Zulfiqar Naushad

  





__ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature 
database 4736 (20100101) __


The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com






__ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature 
database 4736 (20100101) __

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com


  




__ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature 
database 4736 (20100101) __

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com

Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!

[Jeff Lane]

Steve,

It's the same on their site in their download section, unless you found 
something else. I downloaded  the 64-bit version and haven't installed it in 
Win 7 yet as I have a dual boot and have a lot to do in XP right now, 
including email. You might try to install ver. 12 with what they sent. Let 
us know if it works. Thanks.

Jeff


Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 1:33 PM
Subject: Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!


Have you been to that link?  It only has version 12, not 10

Jeff Lane wrote:
> They give you the link in the email they sent, or go to the website and
> download the trial, which can be activated.
>
> Jeff
>
> Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 1:10 PM
> Subject: Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!
>
>
> Maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I've got a key now, how the
> heck do I download it?
>
> Bryan Seitz wrote:
>
>> Nice, thanks!
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 01, 2010 at 11:14:46PM +0300, Naushad Zulfiqar wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Read, download and enjoy!
>>>
>>> http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/special/komputerswiat/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Best Regards,
>>>
>>>
>>> Zulfiqar Naushad
>>>

Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!

[tmservo]

http://www.oo-software.com/en/download/


Sent via BlackBerry 

-Original Message-
From: Steve Tomporowski 
Date: Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:10:54 
To: 
Subject: Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!

Maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I've got a key now, how the 
heck do I download it?

Bryan Seitz wrote:
> Nice, thanks!
>
> On Fri, Jan 01, 2010 at 11:14:46PM +0300, Naushad Zulfiqar wrote:
>   
>> Read, download and enjoy!
>>
>> http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/special/komputerswiat/
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Best Regards,
>>
>>
>> Zulfiqar Naushad
>> 
>
>   



__ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature 
database 4736 (20100101) __

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com

[H] Need MAJOR help with fubar'ed WinXP install

[Bino Gopal]

Hey guys, so I think I majorly screwed up my WinXP install on my IBM T61
laptop and am *hoping* (I think against all hope at this point) that I can
at least recover the data on the HD, if not even fix the WinXP install.  So
here's what happened:

 

I had a normal working WinXP SP2 install on my laptop.  I have a USB key
from work with Win7 Enterprise on it, and apparently it's a bootable,
SELF-INSTALLING image of Win7 (the bootable, self-installing part will
become key in a second).

 

My plan was to grab all my data off of the laptop and back it up and then
install Win7 on it.  The laptop is having issues where it loses internet
access (which gets fixed on reboot) so w/o thinking about it, I rebooted it
with the USB key still attached! *sigh*

 

So of course the laptop boots up off the key (and I'm not paying attention
right then) and Win7 starts the setup process (no prompts too; it just
goes!!), and it's about 30 secs or so, and it gets to a point where it opens
a cmd window and starts showing percentages and it gets to 1% and then I
close the cmd window by hitting the X in the top right corner and that
restarts my computer.

 

It said it was doing some stuff before that and maybe I should've stopped it
a little sooner but I was afraid I'd screw things up if I stopped it in the
middle of redo'ing partitions or something, but once I saw the percentages I
figured I'd better stop it sooner rather than later.

 

In any case it rebooted and came up with "windload.exe is missing".  That's
when I started troubleshooting.  So here's what I did:

 

1)  Put in my IBM rescue and recovery CD (which took a while to load; I
don't think it was doing anything to my install, though it's possible, but
seems unlikely) and looked at the options but decided nothing there would
help me.

2)  So then I found and put in my WinXP CD and got to its blue screen,
and started the recovery console.  I read some stuff so I did "fixboot" and
restarted.

3)  Then I got the "ntldr is missing" message.  So reading some more I
copied ntldr and ntdetect.com from the winXP CD to c:\ using the recovery
console and restarted.

4)  THEN I got the "hal.dll is missing or corrupt" error message this
time!  Read even more and I tried to expand the file from the recovery
console but got an error (which is weird)!  No idea why that happened and
that's when I paused and decided to take stock and ask for help and not make
things worse.

 

At this point, I went back to the recovery console and looked at my HD and
that's when I got the sinking feeling...  I don't see a lot of the dirs I
expect in WinXP, and all the dirs have a date of 01/02/10, and there's no
Doc Settings dir, but a Users dir, but my username isn't there and it looks
like somehow Win7 wiped the disk and started the install in like 30 secs or
something!!  How did it do that?!  I also noticed the dirs are there, but no
files in any of the dirs, which looks like an aborted install of Win7.

 

So at this point, is there any way to recover my data?  Do I need to send my
HD to Tim or can I use a program to recover stuff (assuming it's not
overwritten)?  I'm hoping that I can get the data but give it to me
straight; if I'm screwed, then let me know so I can stop wasting my time
trying to recover it, and just write the data off as lost and move on.

 

Thanks so much for any help guys, and Happy New Year!!

 

 
BINO

Re: [H] Need MAJOR help with fubar'ed WinXP install

[Richard Quilhot]

If it's just data files your after you can do a new install of xp.
Just make sure you pick the do not format option.
If you don't need the oridginal xp info you can overwrite the windows
directory, otherwise specify
a different location.  Once installed, copy your data off drive.

Next option is to boot from a live linux cd/dvd & transfer your data, then
do your fresh install.

Richard E. Quilhot C.N.A.
quilh...@gmail.com


Stephen 
Leacock
- "I detest life-insurance agents: they always argue that I shall some
day
die, which is not so."

On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 10:58 PM, Bino Gopal  wrote:

> Hey guys, so I think I majorly screwed up my WinXP install on my IBM T61
> laptop and am *hoping* (I think against all hope at this point) that I can
> at least recover the data on the HD, if not even fix the WinXP install.  So
> here's what happened:
>
>
>
> I had a normal working WinXP SP2 install on my laptop.  I have a USB key
> from work with Win7 Enterprise on it, and apparently it's a bootable,
> SELF-INSTALLING image of Win7 (the bootable, self-installing part will
> become key in a second).
>
>
>
> My plan was to grab all my data off of the laptop and back it up and then
> install Win7 on it.  The laptop is having issues where it loses internet
> access (which gets fixed on reboot) so w/o thinking about it, I rebooted it
> with the USB key still attached! *sigh*
>
>
>
> So of course the laptop boots up off the key (and I'm not paying attention
> right then) and Win7 starts the setup process (no prompts too; it just
> goes!!), and it's about 30 secs or so, and it gets to a point where it
> opens
> a cmd window and starts showing percentages and it gets to 1% and then I
> close the cmd window by hitting the X in the top right corner and that
> restarts my computer.
>
>
>
> It said it was doing some stuff before that and maybe I should've stopped
> it
> a little sooner but I was afraid I'd screw things up if I stopped it in the
> middle of redo'ing partitions or something, but once I saw the percentages
> I
> figured I'd better stop it sooner rather than later.
>
>
>
> In any case it rebooted and came up with "windload.exe is missing".  That's
> when I started troubleshooting.  So here's what I did:
>
>
>
> 1)  Put in my IBM rescue and recovery CD (which took a while to load; I
> don't think it was doing anything to my install, though it's possible, but
> seems unlikely) and looked at the options but decided nothing there would
> help me.
>
> 2)  So then I found and put in my WinXP CD and got to its blue screen,
> and started the recovery console.  I read some stuff so I did "fixboot" and
> restarted.
>
> 3)  Then I got the "ntldr is missing" message.  So reading some more I
> copied ntldr and ntdetect.com from the winXP CD to c:\ using the recovery
> console and restarted.
>
> 4)  THEN I got the "hal.dll is missing or corrupt" error message this
> time!  Read even more and I tried to expand the file from the recovery
> console but got an error (which is weird)!  No idea why that happened and
> that's when I paused and decided to take stock and ask for help and not
> make
> things worse.
>
>
>
> At this point, I went back to the recovery console and looked at my HD and
> that's when I got the sinking feeling...  I don't see a lot of the dirs I
> expect in WinXP, and all the dirs have a date of 01/02/10, and there's no
> Doc Settings dir, but a Users dir, but my username isn't there and it looks
> like somehow Win7 wiped the disk and started the install in like 30 secs or
> something!!  How did it do that?!  I also noticed the dirs are there, but
> no
> files in any of the dirs, which looks like an aborted install of Win7.
>
>
>
> So at this point, is there any way to recover my data?  Do I need to send
> my
> HD to Tim or can I use a program to recover stuff (assuming it's not
> overwritten)?  I'm hoping that I can get the data but give it to me
> straight; if I'm screwed, then let me know so I can stop wasting my time
> trying to recover it, and just write the data off as lost and move on.
>
>
>
> Thanks so much for any help guys, and Happy New Year!!
>
>
>
>
> BINO
>
>
>
>

Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!

[Naushad Zulfiqar]

More specifically here...


http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/download/archive/index.php?product=oodefrag10pro



On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 12:46 AM,  wrote:

> http://www.oo-software.com/en/download/
>
>
> Sent via BlackBerry
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Steve Tomporowski 
> Date: Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:10:54
> To: 
> Subject: Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!
>
> Maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I've got a key now, how the
> heck do I download it?
>
> Bryan Seitz wrote:
> > Nice, thanks!
> >
> > On Fri, Jan 01, 2010 at 11:14:46PM +0300, Naushad Zulfiqar wrote:
> >
> >> Read, download and enjoy!
> >>
> >> http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/special/komputerswiat/
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Best Regards,
> >>
> >>
> >> Zulfiqar Naushad
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
>
> __ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature
> database 4736 (20100101) __
>
> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
>
> http://www.eset.com
>
>


-- 
Best Regards,


Zulfiqar Naushad

Re: [H] Need MAJOR help with fubar'ed WinXP install

[Bino Gopal]

Mother of cr*p.  So now that I'm facing reality, I think the Win7 USB key
did more than I expected b/c when I'm in the recovery console and go to C:\
and type "dir" I see very few files and dirs and I also see 99,756,855,296
bytes free on a 100GB HD (which had a lot more data on it)... *SIGH*

So I figure Win7 wiped the MBR or something right?  It's also installed and
written a bunch of dirs but no files b/c I assume that's what I prevented
when I aborted the process at 1%...

So I tried fixboot and copying over ntldr and ntdetect.com from WinXP but I
am apparently trying to fix a Win7 install (since as mentioned there's no
Doc Settings dir like in XP, but a Users dir, which I'm sure is Win7
right?)...

So don't I need to do something with some sort of repair program to try and
figure this out (i.e. fixing the MBR and stuff) or is my data all lost at
this point?  Thoughts?

BINO


-Original Message-
From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com
[mailto:hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of Richard Quilhot
Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 8:30 PM
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Need MAJOR help with fubar'ed WinXP install

If it's just data files your after you can do a new install of xp.
Just make sure you pick the do not format option.
If you don't need the oridginal xp info you can overwrite the windows
directory, otherwise specify
a different location.  Once installed, copy your data off drive.

Next option is to boot from a live linux cd/dvd & transfer your data, then
do your fresh install.

Richard E. Quilhot C.N.A.
quilh...@gmail.com


Stephen
Leacock
- "I detest life-insurance agents: they always argue that I shall some
day
die, which is not so."

On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 10:58 PM, Bino Gopal  wrote:

> Hey guys, so I think I majorly screwed up my WinXP install on my IBM T61
> laptop and am *hoping* (I think against all hope at this point) that I can
> at least recover the data on the HD, if not even fix the WinXP install.
So
> here's what happened:
>
>
>
> I had a normal working WinXP SP2 install on my laptop.  I have a USB key
> from work with Win7 Enterprise on it, and apparently it's a bootable,
> SELF-INSTALLING image of Win7 (the bootable, self-installing part will
> become key in a second).
>
>
>
> My plan was to grab all my data off of the laptop and back it up and then
> install Win7 on it.  The laptop is having issues where it loses internet
> access (which gets fixed on reboot) so w/o thinking about it, I rebooted
it
> with the USB key still attached! *sigh*
>
>
>
> So of course the laptop boots up off the key (and I'm not paying attention
> right then) and Win7 starts the setup process (no prompts too; it just
> goes!!), and it's about 30 secs or so, and it gets to a point where it
> opens
> a cmd window and starts showing percentages and it gets to 1% and then I
> close the cmd window by hitting the X in the top right corner and that
> restarts my computer.
>
>
>
> It said it was doing some stuff before that and maybe I should've stopped
> it
> a little sooner but I was afraid I'd screw things up if I stopped it in
the
> middle of redo'ing partitions or something, but once I saw the percentages
> I
> figured I'd better stop it sooner rather than later.
>
>
>
> In any case it rebooted and came up with "windload.exe is missing".
That's
> when I started troubleshooting.  So here's what I did:
>
>
>
> 1)  Put in my IBM rescue and recovery CD (which took a while to load;
I
> don't think it was doing anything to my install, though it's possible, but
> seems unlikely) and looked at the options but decided nothing there would
> help me.
>
> 2)  So then I found and put in my WinXP CD and got to its blue screen,
> and started the recovery console.  I read some stuff so I did "fixboot"
and
> restarted.
>
> 3)  Then I got the "ntldr is missing" message.  So reading some more I
> copied ntldr and ntdetect.com from the winXP CD to c:\ using the recovery
> console and restarted.
>
> 4)  THEN I got the "hal.dll is missing or corrupt" error message this
> time!  Read even more and I tried to expand the file from the recovery
> console but got an error (which is weird)!  No idea why that happened and
> that's when I paused and decided to take stock and ask for help and not
> make
> things worse.
>
>
>
> At this point, I went back to the recovery console and looked at my HD and
> that's when I got the sinking feeling...  I don't see a lot of the dirs I
> expect in WinXP, and all the dirs have a date of 01/02/10, and there's no
> Doc Settings dir, but a Users dir, but my username isn't there and it
looks
> like somehow Win7 wiped the disk and started the install in like 30 secs
or
> something!!  How did it do that?!  I also noticed the dirs are there, but
> no
> files in any of the dirs, which looks like an aborted install of Win7.
>
>
>
> So at 

Re: [H] Need MAJOR help with fubar'ed WinXP install

[Greg Sevart]

You need to put the drive in another machine and run a recovery utility
against it. Given the amount of free space, it's unlikely that the W7
installer got much further than formatting and making a few directories, so
a decent data recovery tool should be able to scan the drive and reassemble
most of what was on it.

I've used and had good results with Runtime Software's GetDataBack before.

> -Original Message-
> From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware-
> boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of Bino Gopal
> Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 11:54 PM
> To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> Subject: Re: [H] Need MAJOR help with fubar'ed WinXP install
> 
> Mother of cr*p.  So now that I'm facing reality, I think the Win7 USB
> key
> did more than I expected b/c when I'm in the recovery console and go to
> C:\
> and type "dir" I see very few files and dirs and I also see
> 99,756,855,296
> bytes free on a 100GB HD (which had a lot more data on it)... *SIGH*
> 
> So I figure Win7 wiped the MBR or something right?  It's also installed
> and
> written a bunch of dirs but no files b/c I assume that's what I
> prevented
> when I aborted the process at 1%...
> 
> So I tried fixboot and copying over ntldr and ntdetect.com from WinXP
> but I
> am apparently trying to fix a Win7 install (since as mentioned there's
> no
> Doc Settings dir like in XP, but a Users dir, which I'm sure is Win7
> right?)...
> 
> So don't I need to do something with some sort of repair program to try
> and
> figure this out (i.e. fixing the MBR and stuff) or is my data all lost
> at
> this point?  Thoughts?
> 

Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!

[Rick Glazier]

That link works here. (Thanks.)
I had previously found it by looking in their archive section.

I'm pretty sure it is a bad idea to install the ver 12 and try
the old ver 10 key...

Rick Glazier

From: "Naushad Zulfiqar"

More specifically here...

Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!

[Zulfiqar Naushad]

You could try. But I think the key would not work.

Regards,

Zulfiqar Naushad

On Jan 2, 2010, at 9:12 AM, "Rick Glazier"   
wrote:



That link works here. (Thanks.)
I had previously found it by looking in their archive section.

I'm pretty sure it is a bad idea to install the ver 12 and try
the old ver 10 key...

Rick Glazier

From: "Naushad Zulfiqar"

More specifically here...

Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!

[Zulfiqar Naushad]

Go to the archive section to dowload version 10.

Regards,

Zulfiqar Naushad

On Jan 2, 2010, at 12:33 AM, Steve Tomporowski   
wrote:



Have you been to that link?  It only has version 12, not 10

Jeff Lane wrote:
They give you the link in the email they sent, or go to the website  
and download the trial, which can be activated.


Jeff

Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 1:10 PM
Subject: Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!


Maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I've got a key now, how  
the

heck do I download it?

Bryan Seitz wrote:


Nice, thanks!

On Fri, Jan 01, 2010 at 11:14:46PM +0300, Naushad Zulfiqar wrote:



Read, download and enjoy!

http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/special/komputerswiat/



--
Best Regards,


Zulfiqar Naushad








__ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus  
signature database 4736 (20100101) __


The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com






__ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus  
signature database 4736 (20100101) __


The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com







__ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus  
signature database 4736 (20100101) __


The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com

Re: [H] Free new years gift for HWG!

[Zulfiqar Naushad]

Glad to be of help.

Regards,

Zulfiqar Naushad

On Jan 1, 2010, at 11:27 PM, Bryan Seitz  wrote:


Nice, thanks!

On Fri, Jan 01, 2010 at 11:14:46PM +0300, Naushad Zulfiqar wrote:

Read, download and enjoy!

http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/special/komputerswiat/



--
Best Regards,


Zulfiqar Naushad


--

Bryan G. Seitz

Re: [H] Need MAJOR help with fubar'ed WinXP install

[tmservo]

Depends.  You might find data recovery programs that will run a format recovery 
and get some back.  But anything that has been over-written with the new 
structures on the disc is toast. 

So, when was your last backup?
Sent via BlackBerry 

-Original Message-
From: "Bino Gopal" 
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 21:53:40 
To: 
Subject: Re: [H] Need MAJOR help with fubar'ed WinXP install

Mother of cr*p.  So now that I'm facing reality, I think the Win7 USB key
did more than I expected b/c when I'm in the recovery console and go to C:\
and type "dir" I see very few files and dirs and I also see 99,756,855,296
bytes free on a 100GB HD (which had a lot more data on it)... *SIGH*

So I figure Win7 wiped the MBR or something right?  It's also installed and
written a bunch of dirs but no files b/c I assume that's what I prevented
when I aborted the process at 1%...

So I tried fixboot and copying over ntldr and ntdetect.com from WinXP but I
am apparently trying to fix a Win7 install (since as mentioned there's no
Doc Settings dir like in XP, but a Users dir, which I'm sure is Win7
right?)...

So don't I need to do something with some sort of repair program to try and
figure this out (i.e. fixing the MBR and stuff) or is my data all lost at
this point?  Thoughts?

BINO


-Original Message-
From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com
[mailto:hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of Richard Quilhot
Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 8:30 PM
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Need MAJOR help with fubar'ed WinXP install

If it's just data files your after you can do a new install of xp.
Just make sure you pick the do not format option.
If you don't need the oridginal xp info you can overwrite the windows
directory, otherwise specify
a different location.  Once installed, copy your data off drive.

Next option is to boot from a live linux cd/dvd & transfer your data, then
do your fresh install.

Richard E. Quilhot C.N.A.
quilh...@gmail.com


Stephen
Leacock
- "I detest life-insurance agents: they always argue that I shall some
day
die, which is not so."

On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 10:58 PM, Bino Gopal  wrote:

> Hey guys, so I think I majorly screwed up my WinXP install on my IBM T61
> laptop and am *hoping* (I think against all hope at this point) that I can
> at least recover the data on the HD, if not even fix the WinXP install.
So
> here's what happened:
>
>
>
> I had a normal working WinXP SP2 install on my laptop.  I have a USB key
> from work with Win7 Enterprise on it, and apparently it's a bootable,
> SELF-INSTALLING image of Win7 (the bootable, self-installing part will
> become key in a second).
>
>
>
> My plan was to grab all my data off of the laptop and back it up and then
> install Win7 on it.  The laptop is having issues where it loses internet
> access (which gets fixed on reboot) so w/o thinking about it, I rebooted
it
> with the USB key still attached! *sigh*
>
>
>
> So of course the laptop boots up off the key (and I'm not paying attention
> right then) and Win7 starts the setup process (no prompts too; it just
> goes!!), and it's about 30 secs or so, and it gets to a point where it
> opens
> a cmd window and starts showing percentages and it gets to 1% and then I
> close the cmd window by hitting the X in the top right corner and that
> restarts my computer.
>
>
>
> It said it was doing some stuff before that and maybe I should've stopped
> it
> a little sooner but I was afraid I'd screw things up if I stopped it in
the
> middle of redo'ing partitions or something, but once I saw the percentages
> I
> figured I'd better stop it sooner rather than later.
>
>
>
> In any case it rebooted and came up with "windload.exe is missing".
That's
> when I started troubleshooting.  So here's what I did:
>
>
>
> 1)  Put in my IBM rescue and recovery CD (which took a while to load;
I
> don't think it was doing anything to my install, though it's possible, but
> seems unlikely) and looked at the options but decided nothing there would
> help me.
>
> 2)  So then I found and put in my WinXP CD and got to its blue screen,
> and started the recovery console.  I read some stuff so I did "fixboot"
and
> restarted.
>
> 3)  Then I got the "ntldr is missing" message.  So reading some more I
> copied ntldr and ntdetect.com from the winXP CD to c:\ using the recovery
> console and restarted.
>
> 4)  THEN I got the "hal.dll is missing or corrupt" error message this
> time!  Read even more and I tried to expand the file from the recovery
> console but got an error (which is weird)!  No idea why that happened and
> that's when I paused and decided to take stock and ask for help and not
> make
> things worse.
>
>
>
> At this point, I went back to the recovery console and looked at my HD and
> that's when I got the sinking feeling...  I don't see a lot of the dirs I
> expect in