"Error loading operating system" message when starting my Dell laptop

RichyX

Any ideas as to how to sort this one out?

The problem first occured after I received a blue screen error while running a large (1.5GB) .mov with quicktime.

It won't allow me to boot using safe mode (it doesn't even give me the option)
I've tried a few diagnostic programs and they all seem to say the drive has an "unknown file system type".

A friend suggested I may have a corrupted registry so i tried the instructions @ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545
The problem with this is the recovery console tells me "Access denied" when I enter any of the commands.

Physically the drive seems to be fine, no errors, bad sectors etc.

I wouldn't mind getting this up at running as I've exams in a few weeks & a lot of my notes are on this drive.

Thanks in advance

woolymammoth

there's a chance the master boot record or the boot sector have been corrupted. These are important for the PC to load the OS. Pop in your Windows CD and load the setup program, where you want to use the recovery console. Once you get access to the hard disk, enter the command "fixboot" to rewrite the boot sector information, and run "fixmbr" to rewrite the master boot record. I've used these numerous times for similar problems (when i've screwed up the system playing with Linux and Grub) and it's worked well for me.

give it a shot and let us know how you get on!

RichyX

Nice one, fixboot sorted it right out
Thanks for that!

woolymammoth

excellent! i love it when a plan comes together!