XP recovery console problem with RAID

[tekjunkie]

I was happily running XP on my OCed S2E and Qx9650 until I decide to install Vista and give vantage a try. The problem is that when I was installing Vista, my PC crashed(silly me installing OS when oced) and my MBR is screwed up and corrupt(now it gives an error message about the bootloader). I thought no problem just run fixmbr after going into the recovery console from the XP CD. But my XP CD that I slipstreamed the RAID driver onto, for some reason does not have the recovery option and I don't want to reinstall XP again. I managed to make a bootable CD with just the recovery thing, but I can't find a way to put the RAID driver on to the CD.Is there any way that I could fix my MBR with my raptors in RAID. Any help is appreciated.

[enteon]

ahm...you _do_ want to overwrite the whole drive don't you?

if so, can't the vista-install simply write its mbr to the disk??

or just clear the mbr and partition table via a live linux-cd and parted(text) or gparted(gui). well, if it recognizes your fake raid ^^
just clear both individually and redo the raid :rolleyes:

[Th3MadScientist]

This is a download of an .iso file of just the Recovery Console for XP.
Burn to CD with Nero or other 'disc image' capable tool and boot.
It looks just like the start of a normal XP CD, but will only offer the Recovery Console by pressing "R."

All normal Recovery Console procedures can be run from this utility.
Direct download: http://www.thecomputerparamedic.com/files/rc.iso

[tekjunkie]

ahm...you _do_ want to overwrite the whole drive don't you?

if so, can't the vista-install simply write its mbr to the disk??

or just clear the mbr and partition table via a live linux-cd and parted(text) or gparted(gui). well, if it recognizes your fake raid ^^
just clear both individually and redo the raid :rolleyes:

Vista install would fix the MBR, but I think I would loose my XP installation. It looks for an already existing OS in the MBR and if it's there it just modifies it with the vista booltloader and also adding the other windows installation to it's ini file. But the problem here is that vista won't see my XP installtion since the MBR is corrupt and I could then only boot into vista.

EDIT: I tried installing vista anyway and yes there is no option to boot into XP.


This is a download of an .iso file of just the Recovery Console for XP.
Burn to CD with Nero or other 'disc image' capable tool and boot.
It looks just like the start of a normal XP CD, but will only offer the Recovery Console by pressing "R."

All normal Recovery Console procedures can be run from this utility.
Direct download: http://www.thecomputerparamedic.com/files/rc.iso

I tried it and it does not work as it does not have nv raid driver and I don't have a floppy driver to do F6 and load the driver.Thanks.

[tekjunkie]

I managed to solve the problem. Thanks to all who replied.