Oh wow, xp boot help needed urgently

[Rampant CL]

Ok, so heres the dealyo.

Facts:
1. My xp install is on a sata drive
2. I have no floppy drive
3. Im very pc literate and ahve tried the firt 3 things your going to say.
4. I have another install of xp on an ide drive which im currently using

Problem:
Xp randomly blue screened me with a page fault error, the hard blue screen type, with auto reboot, right after i cancelled a java vm install before it had begun properly, i.e after unpacking files before copying.

Now xp doesnt boot into safe more, doesnt boot into command propmt, doesnt boot normally obviously, last known config doesnt work. I dont want to have to resintall ATM since i have a ton of work to do till friday.

What i need to know is how/ if its possible to force a system restore to the problematic partition, bearing in mind that since facts 1 & 2 are there the xp install disk cannot read the drive or use the recovery console.


Any ideas? Or antyhing that will kick it back into gear, or at least get me into safe mode.


EDIT:

i want to give this a shot but it requires command prompt capabilities. Would a boot disk be able to do this? then i need a boot cd.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449

EDIT2:

i would also like to try using the reapir windows install from the actual windows cd when doing a new install, but since its on an sata disk and no floppy drive it doesnt load the sata drivers prior to attempting to run that. Maybe a bootcd that loads those drivers then xp? or something? i dunno. help plzzzz.

[Clay]

Sounds like this may help you out:
http://ultimatebootcd.com/

Don't let the spartan look of the website fool you. This thing is awesome, there are many choices so read through to see what you need.

[Rampant CL]

i checked that our, but theres nothing in there that i cant do already. ATM the primary problem is windows is so ghey it doesnt load sata drivers prior to setup from cd unless you have a floppy drive. I could always go buy one but that would ahve to wait a day or so, and i have 3 midterms and 2 assignments between now and friday and just dont have the time.

[Clay]

do you have a USB drive? (keychain drive would work) If so, have you tried making it bootable? Not sure if this will work for you or not, just trying to help out before I crash for the night :)
http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootfromusbstick.php

EDIT: no need to make it bootable actually, but just to get your bios to recognize it as the A drive should do the trick (of course you'd have your SATA driver on the USB key)

[Clay]

One last thought would be to use a Windows XP SP2 slipstream CD with your SATA drivers on it (http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=220145)

While a slipstream CD is easy to make, it takes some time which I know you don't have much of. I'm sure you're aware of slipstreaming but in the off chance you are not this is a good guide (there are many others of course) http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

Good luck!

[Rampant CL]

k, will check if the bios supports it now and hopefully give it a shot tomorrow morning.

[Rampant CL]

k, the bios will support a usb a drive, now to find a usb drive/key.


Also, i tried slipstreaming int he past, but that was a ghey guide, this one seems a bit more accurate, so will maybe give it ashot if i have time today.

[Clay]

Cool, I hope you are able to make some progress with the USB key approach. I would imagine someone you know has one and wouldn't mind lending it to you for a bit.

Regarding slipstreaming. It's nothing new, been around sind Win 3.11 days IIRC. However, it is very, very nice. I've got mine configured to only ask me for the initial partitioning information. After that, I can walk away, come back in 20 minutes or so and my machine is completely ready to go with XP Pro and SP2 installed. You can automate the product key entry, timezone, other preferences, etc. This guide I linked you to is excellent.

[Rampant CL]

well that was a mission. My old sp1 xp cd has now been slipped with sp2, the sata drivers should work, now to burn it. Just waiting on a copy of nero to complete the works