Trying to avoid an XP Pro reinstall

[unfaithfulsfan]

I'm working on a Dell Latitude D600 that is missing NTLDR thanks to Verizon FIOS tech support. My problem is this: The Dell XP Pro disk doesn't give me a repair option and when I try to use Recovery Console, it prompts me for a password (leaving it blank doesn't work and the customer says he doesn't have a password). The customer has applications he would much rather not lose so I'm trying to avoid having to reinstall.

Password Crack swears up and down that the account is unlocked and the password is cleared but I still can't get in. Ol' Dummy here was going to try to copy NTLDR and NTDETECT.exe from the CD but you can guess how that turned out.

Any other ideas on how I can accomplish this?

Thanks,
Jack

[Bio-Hazard]

Try booting to a non Dell XP CD, then swap over to the Dell CD to do a repair install (second repair prompt).

[unfaithfulsfan]

OK I'll give that a shot. Thanks

I tried to "rebuild" the registry manually which so far hasn't produced squat. I'm also going to try to find a valid copy of NTLDR. I read somewhere there should be a backup copy somewhere on the drive. I was directed to REPAIR but it ain't there.

Jack

[KnightRid]

You sure the MBR isnt corrupted?

ntldr is in C:\i386 and C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386 on my laptop - both are 245KB in size.

Let mek now if you want a copy of it - I think this is XP Home, but I dont believe that matters.

Mike

You could also try a regular XP Pro disk to see if you can recover from it.

What is the actual error - just that the ntldr is missing?

[unfaithfulsfan]

It initially was the NTLDR error but no matter what copies I used, it wouldn't work. (so forgive my exuberance but.....)

I OWN THIS S.O.B.!!!!!!!!
OK Here's what I had to do:
1) Using ISOBuster, I extracted the i386 folder from the Dell CD
2) I copied NTLDR and NTDETECT.com from the i386 folder to the root of the laptop
Then it was flashing something about "boot.ini" then rebooting (That took me about 6 reboots to catch the error text) so...
3) I located the boot.ini.backup copied and renamed it
4) Success!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a relief. The customer was really breathing down my neck this morning!

Thanks guys!!!
Jack

[DMB2000uk]

Congrats!

It's a great feeling when you nail a hard problem like that.

Dan

[KnightRid]

good job!

It IS a great feeling when you get something to work again without doing the lame reinstall thing!!!!!

Mike

[unfaithfulsfan]

OK, my problems never cease. Same customer just called and said his sent email is not showing up in his sent folder in Outlook Express. I had him check tools->options->send and made sure the save...to sent folder was checked.

Everything I've found on the 'Net says the same thing. Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Jack

[Darkstar]

i'm not an expert in office or mail programs, but did he reboot (or at least close / reopen) after checking for the option or was it already checked? also is there a sentitems.dbx file anywhere on the system? Maybe the inbox repair tool if its still not working?