repair file to boot from original XP installation CD

[TheOldMan]

Let me know how this works out.

[Woodwood]

An UPDATE only  (this post does not report a solution to the issue, merely it offers the slight chance of stimulating a solution from someone more knowledgeable than myself)

I have booted the computer from a CD with (I think) Windows XP PE

I have looked at the files present on the "defective" HD  and on two backup clones, one seemingly made in May.2016 and the other some years ago.

All three partions contain in C:\I386\SYSTEM32 two files only: SMSS.EXE and NTDLL.DLL  (and no folders, specically not one called 'drivers')

However, the recovery partitions of the the three disks, and the CD with XP PE have a lot of files present in their C:\I386\SYSTEM32\drivers  folders, including pci.sys and in C:\I386\SYSTEM32 both SMSS.EXE and NTDLL.DLL are present along with sub folders (incl. 'drivers') and many other files

maybe NTDLL.DLL  contains links to pci.sys  and this has been corrupted on the original disk ?   I don't know if that's possible.

I cannot boot from the clones.  One is on a USB and the PC does not support booting from USB, even with the PLoP boot manager (gets stuck 'loading ECH1 drivers') and the May.2016 clone shows the same result as the original HD (I changed the HD boot order in BIOS editor to put slave above primary).  This last observation is peculiarly baffling as I certain the PC has booted into XP numerous times between May.2016 and 1.January.2017  Possibly the PC is not booting from slave but always from the primary ?  I'll try disconnecting the primary HD (the 'original') to be certain

Woodwood

20.February.2017

PS

I have just disconnected the original HD (the 'primary' HD on my system), and changed the device order to HD first, CD second, and booted.  This failed: a black screen.  So I turned the computer off, and looked at boot order in BIOS editor -> HD.  It now had the USB deivice first (a disk with 4 partitions in it, sector 0 belonging to a partition containing clone of original system - I thought it should it should boot from this ?), Add in cards  (what are they ?) second and slave third.  Changed it to slave (May.2016 clone) 1st, USB  2nd and add in caerds 3rd and last.  I witchedon, and there was some message about Easeus Partion Manager, a program which I had installed last year and then ~(I can't remember, but it required a reboot); at the second reboot, the computer successfully booted into Windows from the clone.  This helps, but does not answer the question why is the system not booting from original HD  (still gives missing pci,.sys) ???

Woodwood

21.February.2017

[TheOldMan]

Now that you have a working copy of WinXP, any corrupted files can be copied from the working copy onto the one reporting corrupted files.  You might also wish to make the WinXP install disk from the link I supplied eariler.  Maybe once that is done you can then do the repair install to fix the non-working OS, since it will be the correct version and should also have the SP2 and SP3 included. 

[mdklassen]

> it says something like  system32/DRIVERS/pci.sys  is corrupted or absent

Now that you have a working copy of WinXP, the original error-message could have been caused by a "corrupt" file-system on the original 'C:' partition.

So, connect the original disk-drive as a "slave" disk-drive.

From a command-line prompt, enter:    CHKDSK   letter: /F

where letter is the drive-letter that Windows has assigned to the partition on the "slave" drive.

Then, disconnect the "current" disk-drive, and try to boot from the original disk-drive.

[Woodwood]

->mdklassen:

Thank you for your input.

Can you confirm please that you mean "enter:    CHKDSK   letter: /F [return]" before disconnectimg the the "current" disk-drive, and trying to boot from the original disk-drive ?  Also, you do not specify any 'switches' for the chkdsk command, so any errors found bt chkdsk will not be corrected.  Should I do the disconnection while compuyer is on, or should I shut down ?

The message I get is pci.sys is missing, not corrupted.  The system also tells me that I may try to repair by inserting the original installion disk and pressing 'r'.  In fact any key does the same thing.  I have read that the file is supposed to be in the directory C:\I386\SYSTEM32\drivers but this sub directory is absent on all bootable partitions of Win XP SP3, the defective original, and both my back-ups. Yet the the computer boots into XP as usual from my backup of May.2016.  I'd like an explanation for this apparent anomaly.

Further, on all the recovery partitions, amd my XP-PE CD, everything in \I386 directory (folder) looks as I have read it should be.  On the recovery partitions the software dates from before 1.January.2004 and so is either with no SP or SP1

What I plan is first to make a clone of the (defective) original disk before doing anything.

Next, to make a bootable Windows CD as the Old Man suggested and has kindly given a reference on how to do this.  This should be much easier now that I have a "current" version of windows XP with SP3

Woodwood

21.February.2017

[Woodwood]

->TheOldMan

Just one question for you at this time:  if I want replace any corrupted files from my working backup to the defective original, how would I know which files to replace (ie which files were corrupt ?) ?

Woodwood

21.February.2017

[TheOldMan]

Since the PC will boot now with the cloned version, it would seem that you can reconnect the failing drive in a different configuration while still booting to the clone.  Then copy the files WinXP is complaining about from this working clone to the folder that is reported as being corrupt.  Should be fairly easy to do that.  Then try booting from the corrupted drive.  Repeat until it finally works.  It might take several attempts until WinXP gives you all the details of thos failure.

Or you could try what @mdklassen suggested by having the working copy run a scan of the damaged folder but I would use sfc /scannow first, as damaged files were always found...and often repaired. then do as he suggested.

[Woodwood]

->TheOldMan

" Then copy the files WinXP is complaining about from this working clone to the folder that is reported as being corrupt. "

I can't find the files XP is complaining about on the working clone - the file is pci.sys, and it's not in the folder \I386\SYSTEM32\drivers; in fact the folder I386\SYSTEM32\drivers doesn't exist on any bootable hard disk that I have

Another thing that is puzzling me is why the PC will only boot from the original HD in master position, even when I change the HD boot order in the BIOS to 1. slave (working clone)  2. master (defective original)

Woodwwod

21.February.2017

[TheOldMan]

So, this original drive that failed to boot is still in the system but you think it is booting from the clone?  I would remove the clone now and see if it can boot.  If no, then put the cone back in and remove the original that was failing and see what happens.  If it will only boot with both of them in the system, it would seem that the system adjusted itself and rewrote one of the boot records.  That might have been what the "some message about Easeus Partion Manager" was all about.

[mdklassen]

> Can you confirm please that you mean "enter:    CHKDSK   letter:   /F  "

Yes, that is what I wrote.  Note that the /F is the only "switch" that needs to be specified.

Yes,  letter: is the drive-letter assigned to the "problematic" partition.

> The message I get is pci.sys is missing, not corrupted.

Errors in the file-system can cause "file XXX.XXX is missing" messages to be falsely issued.

The file-system itself could be corrupted -- compare to a book of recipes, where the table-of-contents is wrong, such that you cannot find a recipe on the page where the T.O.C. says it is, but you can find the recipe by a linear-search of all the recipes in the book.  All of the pages are fine, but the T.O.C. is corrupted.

Specific files also could be corrupted.  As others have said 'SFC' ("System File Checker") can scan for corrupted files.

>  Also, you do not specify any 'switches' for the chkdsk command, so any errors found by chkdsk will not be corrected. 

Huh? I did specify the  /F   switch -- "F IS FOR FIX".

> Should I do the disconnection while computer is on, or should I shut down ?

As I wrote, run the CHKDSK command.  When it completes, then, as I wrote, shut down.

Always shutdown & disconnect the AC power first.

It is always a BAD IDEA to disconnect anything, other than a USB device, while a computer is running.