- Load the Microsoft Recovery Console from a Windows XP CD
- Now at the prompt, type in fixmbr. Your damaged MBR will now be replaced with a new master boot record and your computer should now be able to boot properly. Note that you may also want to run the fixboot command to repair the boot sector with a new one.
A windows XP installation can become unbootable even if the partition is active.
This is usually caused by the boot loader files being located on another partiton and have not been moved when the windows install was imaged to another drive or that the partition arrangement has changed.
copy the following files to the windows XP system drive. The following files make up the windows XP bootloader. Make sure this new windows system partition is set active.
- ntldr
- NTDETECT.COM
- boot.ini - properly configured