boot error - missing operating system

[trotter]

Converted from FAT32 (XP upgrade from Win98). Then to NTFS on clean install of Win XP Pro failed. After intial blue screen boot during install, the subsequent rebboot gave missing operating system.

Have tried Fixmbr & Fixboot. (after re formating the disk to FAT 32 from NTFS).

On boot (from C :
Missing operating system

On booting from floppy after formating:
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll
Please reinstall a copy of the above file

Having done the more obivious checks (boot order, acitive partition, boot.ini and fixing boot records etc - see above.), I think the orginal Maxblaster easy install MBR overlay done for win 95 (see orginal posting) is causing the problem (not compatible with XP - NTFS, but orginally OK with XP & FAT32?!).

Any ideas how I can get around this and make the disk bootable again? Or any other pearls of wisedom?

Cheers

[Rick]

If your running Maxblaster for the MBR / overlay
I’m going to assume your Bios doesn’t support the drive you installed in the system.
When you installed XP on fat32 you didn’t modify the overlay.

If you reinstall the overlay and keep it Fat32 you should not have any hassles.
Unless your XP install overwrites it. This may in fact be the reason of the BSOD during xp install

The files you are showing as missing are the NT loader

[trotter]

Thanks Rick.

Had tried the newer version of Maxblaster (used it orginally to copy image from old drive), it skips format (although it appears to indicate it has successfully formated my drive). No further progress. The orginal version crashes (divide error). So, back to square one!

Oh dear...

[mjc]

If there isn't much on the dirve that you want to keep you may have to start all over from scratch......and reinstall the original overlay and keep everything FAT32, or update the overlay and try again. You may need to use the wipe utility from Maxtor to totally wipe the drive before you begin.

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mjc
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