basically...

sonxEr77

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is am gathering there's no way i can boot using USB flash and fix my XP MBR or boot loader ... now spent a week with no answers ... gr8:)
 
You gathered wrong.

Try out GPartEd.

Or create an XP bootable ISO and put it on the flash.

Of course, this depends on your PC being able to boot from USB.
 
try hiren boot disk.

Well, the biggest challenge is my PC won't detect the CD, any CD from boot ... Can i possibly fromat my c:drive from BartPE .. maybe after format PC will be happy to boot from CDs... OR can one install XP from within BartPE
 
Well, the biggest challenge is my PC won't detect the CD, any CD from boot ... Can i possibly fromat my c:drive from BartPE .. maybe after format PC will be happy to boot from CDs... OR can one install XP from within BartPE

Formatting a hard drive isn't gonna change your boot options / what's happening at post.

are you sure you got your boot settings correct, in your BIOS?
 
Formatting a hard drive isn't gonna change your boot options / what's happening at post.

are you sure you got your boot settings correct, in your BIOS?

Yes, i really think the MBR is corrupt or something ... I can boot fromUSB if bartPE is loaded, but if i load XP on USB, it just bypasses it and show the dual boot menu (Vista/XP) ... Can't i boot to BartPE and run my partition and just wipe the windows partition, surely that should wipe everything including boot loader/mbr
 
Well, the biggest challenge is my PC won't detect the CD, any CD from boot ...

There is a way to load hiren boot disk onto a usb stick... Trust me there are many great utils on hirens disk.
 
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-and-boot-ultimate-boot-cd-ubcd-from-a-usb-device/

Ultimate Boot CD can be installed to a USB flash disk if you follow the above procedure.

Why don't you simply install a boot manager to a stiffy disk and boot of that? Or even easier just copy Fixmbr to a bootable stiffy, http://www.ambience.sk/fdisk-master-boot-record-windows-linux-lilo-fixmbr.php

Don't tell me you don't have a stiffy drive?

I also find it very strange that you cannot boot of any cd. What PC & Cdrom do you have?
 
Last edited:
Question: Where does MBR lie? On BIOS or HDD, isn;t deleting the XP partition gonna solve my problem?

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-and-boot-ultimate-boot-cd-ubcd-from-a-usb-device/

Ultimate Boot CD can be installed to a USB flash disk if you follow the above procedure.

Why don't you simply install a boot manager to a stiffy disk and boot of that? Or even easier just copy Fixmbr to a bootable stiffy, http://www.ambience.sk/fdisk-master-boot-record-windows-linux-lilo-fixmbr.php

I even tried booting from Ubuntu Live CD, get this error .. extremely broken BIOS detected, last ditch attempt with drive = 9f .. Initially, i got this from an XP cd "cdboot couldn't find ntldr" Can you explain all this madness from my very good spec PC?

Don't tell me you don't have a stiffy drive?
i bet 60% of people here do not have either ...

I also find it very strange that you cannot boot of any cd. What PC & Cdrom do you have?

Core2Duo 6600 2.4GHz, 320 HDD
LightScribe Multirecorder DVD UltraSpeed
 
Just a guess here, but I think your BIOS has been infected by a nasty virus.
And, if you load up your disk boot sector, it re-infects you.

You're going to have to unplug the hard drive, and set the BIOS to only load from the device that you have prepared with a program to re-flash your BIOS.

Once your BIOS is re-flashed, if it tries to boot off of the infected drive, it will be reinfected, so don't do that.

Just take it to an expert mkay.
 
The MBR (Master Boot Record) is located on the HDD
More::erm:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbr

Could be a virus infected BIOS.
I assume you bought this from a PC store.
Take it back and ask the guys nicely, to have a look... :D

The not booting DVD story was because of the IDE controller card. After replacing the IDE cable to the Motherboard IDE slot, all worked well
 
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