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A really weird one...

After a hard crash (blue screen saying computer has been shut down to avoid damage), I rebooted and it said Windows can't boot because the file vgaoem.fon is missing or damaged. This is a system font file.

So I inserted the XP boot CD, tried pressing R for the recovery console, but it didn't show me any Windows installation. Then I remembered I have my C: drive on a partition on a two harddrive raid 0 setup, so I had to load the raid drivers before pressing R.

(I have a total of 3 disks, 2 in raid 0 with partitions C: and F: (files), and a third disk for backups)

So I loaded first the raid drivers and I got to the recovery console, only now it's telling me it found a Windows installation on D:!

And the disk I use for backups is now suddenly listed as C:. If I plug in this disk, I can't boot up. Says NTLDR can not be found. Obviously it's looking in the wrong drive.

So how can I set back the drives either through bios or something, so that the disk is not seen as C when I plug it in? Is it easier to edit the boot.ini file? But I'm thinking it could screw up a lot of things if I leave Windows booting on the D: partition.

%*$0$% computers.....

Well, I'm not sure if it's the same for XP (pro or Home), but with XP64 you can change the drive letters by using the Computer Management tool

[Start] [ Control Panel] [Administrative Tools] [Computer Management]

If you go into the Disk Management subtree and right click on the drive, your can change the letters. You may have to do some shuffling first in order to 'free up' a drive letter.

Yes, but I can't connect the third drive, because I can't boot into Windows then If this drive is removed, the drive letters are correct (C and F) and Windows boots.

What I think happened was, the first time I tried to run recovery, I forgot to load the RAID drivers and so it only found this third drive and assumed it was C:

And now, it's gotten stuck this way, and whenever I try and plugin it, it gets assigned as C. Is this something to do with the boot.ini, or the master boot record?

When it goes through post if you press the del key to get in to the BIOS ... doesn't it have a tab for boot priority ? You should be able to set the order that it looks into the drives for booting (starts from CD rom etc,etc)

I think I only have CDROM, HARD DISK etc.....not specific hard disks listed....I'll look again.

Hmmm.... Maybe you could try running restore once again, but with the third drive disconnected. Then, after the restore, shut down and reconnect the third drive.

What was the drive letter for the third HD originally?

There should be a "boot" menu that lists the boot device priorities (they should be enumerated 1,2 and 3) ... now for each of these slots you should be able to select a drive (there should be a drop down list or a selection list of some kind)

Also, I think there is a RAID bios as well (I think you have to press a different key during post to get into that screen)

Ok, I'll try these...the original drive letter for the third drive was E.

Hi Mihai,

That sucks...

I had a very similiar problem last year. It turned out to be one of the stupidist things I've seen: if you have installed USB drives, they are included when you begin the Windows recovery. They will be assigned drive letters. If you have them, take them out (in fact, I recommend disconnecting all drives that are not needed to boot). You only need the prime drive to get back up.

Got it working by messing with the bios start up sequence

Nice.

you can alsways boot in DOS and fix the whole thing

c:/> format c:

Just something to keep in mind;

I just had a similar "weird" problem.
Just yesterday I added memory to a client's machine. As soon as I tried to reboot with the new memory, XP complained about a corrupt file and refused to boot. I tried removing the new memory and XP booted with no problems. I added a different SIMM and things are working just fine.

So, sometimes bad memory can simulate corrupt file and other drive problems.

Dan

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. Because it was strange the first error I got was about a missing or corrupted system font. But then when I removed a drive, it booted properly....

herve, i think i found your problem>>>

http://www.lightworks.com/astroweather/mercury.htm