Boot problems and their possible causes & resolutions
Symptoms:
Black screen
"Invalid Partition Table"
"Error loading operating system"
"Missing operating system"
Cause:
Corrupt Master Boot Record (MBR)
Resolution:
Boot into Recovery Console and run "fixmbr" to repair the MBR
--
Symptoms:
"A disk read error occurred"
"NTLDR is missing"
"NTLDR is compressed"
Cause:
Corrupt boot sector
Resolution:
Boot into Recovery Console and run "fixboot" to repair the boot sector
--
Symptoms:
"BOOT.INI is missing or corrupt"
"Boot device inaccessible"
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll"
Cause:
BOOT.INI missing, corrupt or out of date as a partition has been inserted
Resolution:
Boot into Recovery Console and run "bootcfg /rebuild" to repair the BOOT.INI
--
Symptoms:
"Windows could not start not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM"
Cause:
Corrupt/missing system hive
Resolution:
1. Boot into Recovery Console and run "chkdsk C: /f" to check the system disk for errors and fix them, then reboot.
2. If the error continues and System Restore is enabled, copy the system hive from the last restore point into \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG
3. If the error continues, copy the system hive from \WINDOWS\REPAIR into \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG
4. If the error continues, perform a repair installation by booting from the Windows installation media
--
Symptoms:
"Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.
Could not read from the selected boot disk, Check boot path and disk hardware."
Cause:
Boot volume (with Windows folder) is not accessible as defined in BOOT.INI
Resolution:
Check the boot volume is accessible
--
Symptoms:
Dual-boot 32-bit Windows and 64-bit Windows system reports "NTOSKRNL.EXE is corrupt" trying to boot into 64-bit Windows
Cause:
System volume contains an older boot loader than the boot volume requires - e.g. XP SP2 installed after XP x64
Resolution:
Copy NTDETECT.COM and NTLDR from XP x64 installation media to the root of the system volume
×