Boot.ini problem and lost files

[Luciano]

My computer keeps looping back to restart after trying to run boot.ini.

Quick History:

Old HD was having issues..so I decided to buy another one. Installed new HD and software that came with it allowed me to migrate all info over and make the new HD the boot drive. So now I have C: which is on the new drive and a partition G: with nothing currently in it. I also have F: which was my old HD. So after new HD install and migration my new C: and F: are identical. I know F: was redundant but left it in anyway. This was all woking fine since late December. Today I come up to my computer watching it trying to reboot, but having issues with boot.ini. See text below.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I tried changing boot drives in BIOS to see if I can boot from old drive, which it somehow does. It brings me back to the old state before new HD, minus any new software loaded in and any files or bookmarks created etc..since then.

I tried rebuilding boot.ini through recovery manager but all it did was add a similar line as the OS line above.

Upon rebooting it tries to do a chkdsk or scandisk on F: (the old original C:)which I believe to be totally screwed by now. I skip that sequence and it continues to boot to C: which is my new drive but I still get the state of the system prior to new HD swap over with no files modified past the date of switch over. What is really confusing is that I can not find any reference to any of the newer programs, files, bookmarks, emails  etc...done since I installed the new drive. Have I lost these or are they hidden somewhere or am I screwed? PLEASE HELP!!!

Btw: I Hope this makes sense.

Luciano

[Luciano]

Someone throw me a bone here!  

[GX1_Man]

If it were me, I would boot with just the old hard drive, backup whatever I needed and reformat and reinstall Windows, etc.

The problem is that you have two boot.ini files on two drives that both think they are the primary drive. What if you take out the old drive and just use the new one (which was a clone of the old one)? Does everything work correctly?

[Luciano]

Removing the second drive was going to be my next step, but wanted to make sure I wasn't going to screw things up to bad  :-/

It is now booting off the new drive but it is configured like back in December, before I made changes. My concern is losing all the info (programs, files, emails, bookmarks, etc..) I created after I put in the new HD. I am confident that everything that I did install or add after that time was on my new C: as I have seen it there.  I am just wondering if all this info is simply hidden or not available to be seen in the directories.

[GX1_Man]

Is it in a separate user account? What O/S? Do you have administrator access?

[Luciano]

Only one user....Win XP Pro SP2....And yes I have admin rights!

Just remembered there are photos in there I need bad...insurance claim!

It's just so wierd that I can't see any files or directories created since swap over. Grrrrrr

[GX1_Man]

What about removing the new drive and booting the old one just to get your data?

[Luciano]

Not sure because now the old drive seems wiped...as I can't access it in My Computer...it sees it...and even says that all 41gb are free...so I guessing it's wiped...I so *censored* sure that the new C had all the latest info...well gonna take out the old drive and see what happens...I was hoping somebody knew something about it....its not so much that I lost stuff...it's just crazy that I only lost stuff from a period in time, forward...

[Luciano]

The old drive is out and on reboot all I got was what I started with back in December....What a bummer....I can't believe how much stuff I lost....well I guess I'll have to be more diligent in backing up. Like I said I would be pissed off if the HD had just blew up and I lost everything...but to only lose stuff from a certain date ....shheeesssshhh!!!!  :-/

Well time to rebuild!

[rockerest]

If it were me, I would boot with just the old hard drive, backup whatever I needed and reformat and reinstall Windows, etc.

The problem is that you have two boot.ini files on two drives that both think they are the primary drive. What if you take out the old drive and just use the new one (which was a clone of the old one)? Does everything work correctly?

So could it be that the hardware jumpers aren't set correctly?  Shouldn't one drive be designated as the slave and not even be accessed during boot?

[Luciano]

Jumpers were set fine and this configuration was working all the time.....I don't know..I'm just frustrated with losing data from a certain date forward with absolutely no reference to any of the files anywhere!

But thanks for the help

[Backdated]

The data isn't necessarily lost as long as the drive hasn't had too much use. There are a few free data recovery apps out there but I'm not certain how good they actually are. If you value your data that much, try something like Ontrack Easy Recovery Pro.