Hi. I have XP Pro SP2 and Leopard each installed in their own primary partitions on the same hard drive (iATKOS V7, XP installed first). It's been working fine for months, but recently stopped working. I can boot into Leopard fine, but if I choose XP I get the "insert system disk" message. If I run the XP installation CD, it gives me an error that there are no hard drives attached and says that it can't proceed.

Any ideas how I can get my XP back without losing my data?

Thanks

Originally Posted by polar45

Hi. I have XP Pro SP2 and Leopard each installed in their own primary partitions on the same hard drive (iATKOS V7, XP installed first). It's been working fine for months, but recently stopped working. I can boot into Leopard fine, but if I choose XP I get the "insert system disk" message. If I run the XP installation CD, it gives me an error that there are no hard drives attached and says that it can't proceed.

Any ideas how I can get my XP back without losing my data?

Thanks

If it has been working for months then mostly there is problem with hdd sector damage or file corruption/virus deletion.
Backup your data first just in case.

The problem did start when I was trying to remove a couple of viruses.

Is there a tool that would repair the drive to at least allow the XP installation CD to see the drive?

I can get as far as seeing the 2 OS's listed. It's just that if I choose XP, the computer can't see the drive.

If someone could point me to a tutorial on how all this dual booting works, that would be great. I don't know an mbr from a boot sector.

I don't think so. Here's a way you could do it too.

1. Insert your leopard DVD, Go to Utilities > Disk Utility and reformat the partition that XP is on as FAT32. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like you can recover the XP installation.
2. Put in the XP installation and reformat the partition you just made with Leopard and format it as NTFS. Then Install XP.

I don't know how well Leopard would take the new installation, but I am assuming that EasyBCD would help, and if that doesn't work, I don't know.

Don't take my suggestion to heart though.

Thanks. I was hoping to repair my XP installation rather than re-install it. I can see my XP partition and its files from OSX, it's just that it won't boot.

Originally Posted by polar45

Thanks. I was hoping to repair my XP installation rather than re-install it. I can see my XP partition and its files from OSX, it's just that it won't boot.

1. Start your OSX and backup your XP data/personal files from it.
2. You don't need any boot utility as chameleon could boot both os's.
3. Your problem would be with XP due to virus file deletion/system file damage.
4. Make an Chameleon USB boot stick, just in case you need to reinstall XP, so you can boot back into OSX (or you can use distro DVD).
5. Search on net/google for Windows virus/utility to scan/repair XP.
Worst case, as it could be damage beyond repair, XP reinstallation would be needed.

Originally Posted by ratvn

1. Start your OSX and backup your XP data/personal files from it.
2. You don't need any boot utility as chameleon could boot both os's.
3. Your problem would be with XP due to virus file deletion/system file damage.
4. Make an Chameleon USB boot stick, just in case you need to reinstall XP, so you can boot back into OSX (or you can use distro DVD).
5. Search on net/google for Windows virus/utility to scan/repair XP.
Worst case, as it could be damage beyond repair, XP reinstallation would be needed.

re: step #5 - so I would be looking for an OSX utility to scan/repair the XP installation?

Originally Posted by polar45

re: step #5 - so I would be looking for an OSX utility to scan/repair the XP installation?

No, it would be with Windows world now
There are utilities for repairing virus problem. They usually come as bootable CD (self booting without your XP so they can repair your damage partition files system).
If not feasible and/or damage is beyond repair then reformat XP partition and reinstall (this is always best as repair sometimes is not very effective)
Follow step #4 so you can get back to your OSX and reestablish your dual booting setup.