Fox92 Posted 14 October 2010 Share Posted 14 October 2010 So I have this big problem. I have Windows 7 on my external drive which I tried to boot up and use by going into the bios and selecting that as the first boot device. That did not work. Now, when I turn my PC on (to try and get into XP) a message comes on reading: "Choose an operating system to start: Windows 7 Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" What the hell has happened, I cant get into XP now and have lost everything if I can't fix this problem. I went into bios and reseted the first boot device to my hard drive but this problem still goes on. I don't think I can get XP back now. Any help is a big help. Thanks, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trav Le Bleu Posted 14 October 2010 Share Posted 14 October 2010 This may be obvious, but have you reset your bios to boot from your internal hdd, which I assume is where you have Win XP? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox92 Posted 14 October 2010 Author Share Posted 14 October 2010 Well, I go into bios and select the hard drive as first boot device but then the message still appears which I cannot get passed. Currently running the Compaq PC recovery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Doctor Posted 14 October 2010 Share Posted 14 October 2010 is the external drive still attached? try loading windows 7, when that choose OS to start message comes up, if it loads you should be able to access the hard drive through what used to be "my computer" (not sure what it's called on Windows 7) but you should have a list of drives connected to the pc through which you can access the files on the drives connected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox92 Posted 14 October 2010 Author Share Posted 14 October 2010 is the external drive still attached? try loading windows 7, when that choose OS to start message comes up, if it loads you should be able to access the hard drive through what used to be "my computer" (not sure what it's called on Windows 7) but you should have a list of drives connected to the pc through which you can access the files on the drives connected. Yes it still attached. I tried to load windows 7 via that message but another error comes up which I fix. But then, it gets stuck on the loading part of Windows 7, restarts the PC and starts this process all over again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Doctor Posted 14 October 2010 Share Posted 14 October 2010 sounds like a similar problem i had last year. the bootstrap of the hard drive had become corrupted and it couldn't load up. Fixed it by piggybacking another hard drive so it booted the OS from that hard drive but kept all stuff on the old hard drive available as well as whatever memory space was on the old one. Not sure if that will help. edit: this website explains how to piggyback the drives if you want to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox92 Posted 14 October 2010 Author Share Posted 14 October 2010 Can I just add within the bios First channel device 0: (my hard drive) First channel device 1: (none) Is this a problem? Isn't it booting from my hard drive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox92 Posted 14 October 2010 Author Share Posted 14 October 2010 I dont think my hard drive is corrupt - well I hope not. My external is now booting Windows 7 startup repair which states I have over an hour to wait while it attempts to fix any errors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red5 Posted 14 October 2010 Share Posted 14 October 2010 Sounds like the boot loader has changed, remove the usb drive and try, if it doesn't boot insert the xp disc and start recovery console and run, fixmbr, and, fixboot, that should fix it, if not run bootcfg /rebuild Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox92 Posted 15 October 2010 Author Share Posted 15 October 2010 The problem is out of hand and doing my head in so I am installing XP again now because I'm fed up. Good job I backed up my pictures, but I'll have to import all my music again and install everything again because I think I'll looose everything? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox92 Posted 15 October 2010 Author Share Posted 15 October 2010 I inserted the XP disc and selected repair my current version. But now it gets to the XP loading bit and then restarts my system. What the hell is wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox92 Posted 18 October 2010 Author Share Posted 18 October 2010 I got fed up with it and although I didn't back up any data apart from my pictures before the crisis, I just deleted the partition and started over. So it's back to it's normal self now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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