PC Boot problem

[johncena718]

Hey guys, i need help. I have a Dell. I used a program to edit and create partitions on my PC. I created a partition, activated it, and then restarted my computer. Now my PC is telling me '2 Active Partitions" and my only choices are to retry booting up or going into the BIOS but that doesn't help. Anyone know how to solve this? I don't have a floppy drive or flash drive to boot up through. Thanks.

[Wonkizzle]

Moved topic to General PC Talk. Youll probably get more help here.

Now, Yikes, you dont have a floppy drive, have you tried spamming del. on startup? that takes you straight to the BIOS, no muss no fuss. If that works... You have to have a CD drive im sure. change the primary boot sequence from your computer in BIOS, and change it so the CD drive is the primary boot device. Put windows CD into CD drive, so it boots from there first, instead of the floppy. Then see what you can do.

m/ Rock On!!

[F34R]

Well, let's start out with the basics.

What OS are you using ? i.e. Win98, 2000, XP, etc.
Have you tried to press F8 before you are supposed to boot into windows. This brings up the advanced boot options.

[Kyle]

Yeah, some info would help. Also, what exactly did you do with the partitions and for what reason?

[GGnet]

what is a partition?

[m1ndless]

Well there is your problem right there, your using a dell!

[jmyler]

Well there is your problem right there, your using a dell!

well i've had a dell laptop for three years now and love it....
funny how when something gets popular people start hating it.
anyway, the best thing to use for troubleshooting a system that won't boot is getting knoppix live cd. it lets you boot from the cd and have a fully functional OS to go and snoop around to find the problem. more than likely your computer is just trying to boot from the partition that doesn't have the OS on it. why exactly were you trying to get a different partition? did you want to have a dual booting machine?

[Defender]

I am on a Dell too and I love it. This is my 4th Dell.


btw- if you messed up your MBR you are basically screwed...you can try some programs from download.com but you will most likely have to pay and I doubt they guarantee they can fix a bad windows partition.

yer screwed

[Kyle]

Well, there are ways to restore your MBR with the windows install CD. If you want to try fixing it, do this:

Set the CD-Rom as the 1st boot device in the BIOS.

Put your Windows XP cd in the CD-Rom drive, and restart the computer.

When the option comes up, press any key and boot from the cd.

While it loads, it'll say something about "Restore" at the bottom of the screen. When that comes up, press the required button and enter the restore program.

Choose the windows partition and when it asks for a password press enter.

Type fixmbr and keep answering yes when it asks you questions.

Restart the computer, and don't eff it up again. lol

[johncena718]

lol thanks for all the help guys, but the answer was right in front of my face. i stuck the dell utility disk inside my cd-rom, changed the bios to boot it up from there, then the cd let me go into DOS, and then i connected my PSP with the Windows XP Boot disk files on it, ran FDisk, and changed the active partition to just one. Well if anyone has any problems like this one, then can just read this topic.