I’m not sure which forum to post this in so I’ve cross-posted in Hard Drive and Windows OS forums. So….I have some very strange behaviour on my computer at the moment and I think I know the root cause, but I’m unsure on the safest way to proceed. I’m running windows XP home edition, but I have a previous corrupted install of windows XP pro lurking in the background (on a hidden partition I think) which is causing a problem and I’ve not been able to remove (because I can’t see the partition in windows).
The symptoms: computer refuses to boot and stalls at windows XP screen. In safe mode it also refuses to boot but returns a windows XP Pro error – the OS which is lurking in the background. When I remove the HDD, try and boot, then add the HDD back again the computer boots normally.
So, it looks like I need to remove the old corrupted windows XP Pro partition so that it recognizes the XP home OS and boots accordingly. The question is what’s the safest way?
The choices: I have Norton utilities which could try and repair the partition using Disk Doctor. I’ve no idea if this will work, but I could give this a go. Will it recognize the problem and remove the old partition or merely try and repair it. I’ve no idea how Norton Disk Doctor works.
I also have the windows installation disk which I could use to hopefully recognize the hidden partition and delete the partition. I’m not sure how this would work – do I simply try to reinstall windows and it will give me the opportunity to format the hidden partition?
So which strategy is best? I’ve copied the ‘My documents’ folder onto a second HDD so I have my important docs backed up. Are there other folders I need to copy?
The symptoms: computer refuses to boot and stalls at windows XP screen. In safe mode it also refuses to boot but returns a windows XP Pro error – the OS which is lurking in the background. When I remove the HDD, try and boot, then add the HDD back again the computer boots normally.
So, it looks like I need to remove the old corrupted windows XP Pro partition so that it recognizes the XP home OS and boots accordingly. The question is what’s the safest way?
The choices: I have Norton utilities which could try and repair the partition using Disk Doctor. I’ve no idea if this will work, but I could give this a go. Will it recognize the problem and remove the old partition or merely try and repair it. I’ve no idea how Norton Disk Doctor works.
I also have the windows installation disk which I could use to hopefully recognize the hidden partition and delete the partition. I’m not sure how this would work – do I simply try to reinstall windows and it will give me the opportunity to format the hidden partition?
So which strategy is best? I’ve copied the ‘My documents’ folder onto a second HDD so I have my important docs backed up. Are there other folders I need to copy?
