Cannot load safe mode on XP

[youn2433]

when I hit f8, it starts to text down the screen and stops at this line
"Multi(0)disk0rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows\System32\giveio.sys"??

Anyone know what is happening?  I ran a virus check but found nothing?

[GX1_Man]

It sounds like your boot.ini file is corrupted for some reason. What happened prior to this? Do you have multiple operating systems involved? Why were you trying to get to Safe Mode? I hope you have a real XP CD to fix this, rather than a restore disc of some sort.

In any case try rebuilding the boot.ini file

http://www.thpc.info/dual/bootcfg.html

If you only have a restore disc you may be looking at a reload of Windows.

[youn2433]

 :-?Thanks for your reply....I only have one os loaded (xp) and the computer only came with restore files on partion d:...what a crock huh?  I may have done something wrong when i repartioned c: to make d: have more free space as it was just large enough to hold the restore files.  I used Partion magic but I really don't think that would be a problem.   Thanks for your help..I'll keep trying :-/

[panboy]

1: Why did you try to make D: Bigger, it was only big enough to hold the Recovery Stuff because thats all it was intended to do.

2: Doesn't Partition Magic give you a waring when you try to resize a partition that has a boot record?

I think you may have broken your XP boot Record, but as far as i know those PCs come with customised boot record to Handel Automated System Restores.

Get your hands on a Real XP disk , boot the disk and attempt a Repair install.

Also If you know how use the Recovery Console to run "fixboot.exe" and see if that fixes it fixmbr.exe might be needed as well

[GX1_Man]

:-?Thanks for your reply....I only have one os loaded (xp) and the computer only came with restore files on partion d:...what a crock huh?  I may have done something wrong when i repartioned c: to make d: have more free space as it was just large enough to hold the restore files.  I used Partion magic but I really don't think that would be a problem.   :-/

Well that is a really important "rest of the story". I think you need to get an XP CD to try and fix it as specified above.   Do you have a friend with one?

The lesson here is that Partition Magic is great, when it works. It is NOT foolproof, as you have found, and any kind of disk management tool has the possibility of losing your data,