Desperately Need XP Back

Hi,
I desperately need my Windows XP back. This morning I was using my PC and everything was A1, I shut it down no problems, tonight on boot up I have no Windows XP only 98SE.
As you might guess I am dual booting 98SE with XP Pro my 98SE can see drive F which is XP witch is on a separate HD to 98SE. It is showing the My Documents and I did a defrag it seems all there both OS are Fat32. On boot up I am using “Acronis OS Selector†and Acronis recognises a second HD and names partitions #2-5 but no OS. Although I have no partitions on that drive.
What will happen if I turn off Acronis or uninstall it.
How can I get my PC to boot into XP I have no problems booting into 98.
Can the boot just vanish like that or could Acronis be at fault here.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hawk22

 

Some more info trying to get help. This is the setup in the BIOS

First Boot Device [CD Rom]
Second Boot Device [Floppy]
Third Boot Device [HDD 0 ]

Does this give anyone any ideas.
I have downloaded "BootIt Ng" but I don't know if it is safe to uninstall Acronis Boot Selector and then install BootIt Ng or do I have to do a XP Repair.
anyone know
thanks hawk22

 

I know zero about either boot manager you mention but with only 98 and XP, what is wrong with using the native XP boot manager, boot.ini?

For one thing, more folks could help you with problems.

I'd normally recommend booting to the CD recovery console and running the fixboot command but I have no idea what effect that would have with the boot manager you are using.

 

Go to Acronis and check out the faqs and anything else they have http://www.acronis.com/support/ Maybe post your boot.ini it will be in the "C" drive normally. Since you can see your files it might be a good idea to get important ones off the computer or if there is room onto the 98 drive. Copy and Paste. I wouldn't uninstall Acronis right now, not a good idea. http://www.acronis.com/products/osselector/faq.html

 

More help from here:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65 Acronis forum at Wilders.

Regards - Charles

 

Thank you all, for your efforts.
No response so far from the Wilders Acronis Forum, but by going through the options and settings in Acronis OS Selector it has a option to turn it off.
I really feel though it is not the OS selector that is at fault here I think the XP boot has gone walkabout.
Newt you would run the fix boot, please tell me in detail on how to do that I think that this is my solution.
I have the XP Pro CD will it require re-activation of XP.
I also have changed the Third Boot Device in the BIOS to[ HDD 1]
but this made no difference. Should I try setting it to [ HDD 2] as XP is on HDD2
or could this stuff me up completely.

 

No reactivation needed.

Boot from the XP CD and make your way to the Recovery Console. Should be a black screen like MS-DOS with a prompt where you can type stuff in.

fixboot and ENTER.

Read up on the things you can do from there first.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314058

 

OK Newt, first of all thank you for your help. And of course to anyone who contributed, thank you.
Now if you can, or for that matter anyone please, I could not believe how few responses I had received and I Goggled for some more Forums and put the question, but very few answers, especially ones that would make sense.
But we won’t worry about that now as I have some good news I am typing this response from within XP yes, but who knows I am not celebrating yet till I do a few re-boots.
Now as I said Newt or anyone please if you can explain what happened and why and how it should have been.
As I mentioned in my response, I felt that the XP boot was the problem and not the OS Selector and you advised to do the fixboot I also went to the MS site you recommended and copied all the instructions regarding the Recovery Console.
I inserted the XP Pro CD restarted the computer and the Screen “Windows XP Professional Setup†comes up “Please wait while Setup copies files to your hard diskâ€. Ok it copies the files then
The MS-DOS based portion of setup is complete. Setup will now restart your computer. After your computer restarts Windows XP Setup will continue.
Press Enter to restart your Computer and continue XP setup.
I do ( and change my underwear) well it restarted and went through the same process 3 times. I then decide to press F3 Exit and take the CD out. The computer restarts again and up comes a screen asking if I want to upgrade / repair so I click ok it then asked which OS go for XP and I get:
ATTENTION
You have choosen “Upgrade / Repair†successful upgrade to Windows 2000 / XP is only possible if you start Windows 2000 /XP installation from existing Windows to be upgradet directly.
If you start Windows 2000 / XP installation from bootable CD-Rom or from another operating system, upgrade may not be successful (change underwear)
With no other option at hand I click OK next thing my OS Selector pops up with the Windows XP option on it I click XP and here I am.
At no stage did I get the option for the Recovery Console to enter the fixboot command. Nighter was there anything like that on the MS website.
Would anyone be able to tell me what I did.
Curious
Hawk22

 

Hawk,

I'm pasting here my copy of RC run instructions - for home but otherwise should be the same.

The complication is that you're using the Acronis boot loader - no idea what effect that has.

Regards - Charles

 

How should I set my BIOS
my present setup is:
First Boot Device [CD-Rom]
Second Boot Device [Floppy]
Third Boot Device [HDD0]

I did change it to 3rd [HDD1] but have now put it back to 0. I really have no idea what the best setting is.
hawk22

 

I have the same drive setups as you.

Boot order is the CD - HD 0- floppy

HD 0 because that is where the boot.ini is.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi again,
nice to see you guys, you are right, that is what I should have seen and I did follow the on screen instructions to the letter, and up to the point of where it says "Windows XP Professional Setup" Please wait while Setup copies files to your hard disk. Things went as you describe them, but from there on when after the files are copied from the CD and you are requested to hit "Enter" to reboot things went a different way, for starters after the reboot the same screen kept coming up Please wait while Setup copies files and I did that 3 times it would not progress from there on untill I decidet to call it quits and hit "EXIT" took out the CD and it progressed without putting the CD back in.
Well and here I am asking what the hell went on.
At no time was I presented with the "Welcome to Setup" screen to enter R or F10.

 

Thanks Charles,
a number of people suggested to me to set the third to HDD 1 or even 2 but I changed it back to HDD 0.
thanks
hawk22

 

Pete,
In your opinion could my troubles have stemmed from here. After doing some photo Scanning and editing my scanner was on USB 1.1 but the Canon 8000F is USB 2.0 much faster on that. I have a VIA USB 2.0 PCI card installed in my computer but the Canon Scanner was not compatible with its drivers and would only operate on USB 1.1 after finding a post on the BBS Forum someone pointing to a Link on testing speeds of USB 1 and USB 2 I found a link to the VIA website referring to those problems with the original drivers not being compatible and they offered a patch to download I did installed them and my Scanner was running on USB 2 I had to reboot after the installation and all was fine no yellow marks in the Device Manager and I scanned for hours great fun.
Later in the day I turned the PC off and after some 4hr I started up again and this was when I had no more XP. Could this have been the cause, the new drivers or just coincidence.

Regards
Hawk22

 

Hi Pete,
Well again I am not certain, the patch that I had installed for the USB 2 drivers seems to have gone I am back to USB 1.1 with the Scanner.
I wonder now should I have installed the patch via the upgrade drivers in Device Manager, because the last time I did not it is a exe file and I just double clicked it from my zip drive. What would be my safest bet to make sure the last episode would not occur again. I am not game enough to do the same again.
any good advice on that one
thanks
hawk22

 

Hi,
Yes unfortunately I have to say you are right. It is however very poor service on VIA’s behalf. I had been to their website and registered on their official VIAARENA Forum to find some resolution to the drivers for their PCI cards the VIA VT6202 and Windows XP.
Unfortunately I must say that VIA don’t care much about their costumers as there is page after page of customers like me who have purchased the VIA USB 2 PCI card and are unable to use them for USB 2. with Windows XP.
VIA have no solution, it is your bad luck. VIA stress that you must have SP1 installed well all them people including myself have SP1 installed but that makes no difference. The patch that I had installed, that stuffed up my XP was actually not intended for XP but 98SE.
Someone on the BBS here had posted a link in some thread to a website some weeks ago where you could download a Windows 98 upgrade patch especially intended for USB 2 as 98 SE, in its native form is not exactly friendly with USB 2. But I can for the life of me not find it anymore.
Are there people here that are using USB2 successfully on 98SE systems with PCI cards.
It would be good to know what they are using.

Hawk22