xp - blinking cursor on boot

[VBScab 0]

I have been trying ALL the usual fixes (Recovery Console/FixBoot/FixMBR, changing CMOS drive parameters, EVERYTHING) to get round the problem, where XP boots to a black screen with blinking cursor. Please, no preaching about back-ups: I have another thread going elsewhere as to why Ghost (on the original machine) insists that it's unable to defragment the virtual partition file. And no, that problem isn't due to use of an overlay - the disk/BIOS combo doesn't need one

 

Finally, I managed to find a machine which had a similar-sized HD and used Ghost to image the non-booting HD to the new HD. Wonder upon wonder, the new HD boots! BUT.....but then XP thinks it's only about 1/3 way through Setup (the part even before entering Product Key...) and asks for the Setup CD (which I have). Questions:

- is this scenario caused by the fact that the disk is in a completely different "host"? Original is a Dell XPS T550 (was P2, has PowerLeap upgrade to P3 1.2GHz)), new is an HP D530 (P4 2.8GHz)

- is it safe to proceed, or am I going to lose all the user data I have on the current installation?

- can I proceed with the *new* Setup and simply copy the profile(s) over once complete?

- is there a file I can delete/edit that will fool Setup into believing that it's already done what it needs to do?

 

[theefool 0]

I ran into something very similar to your situation, yesterday. Though, I caused the problem. I attempted to Ghost from one drive to the other, but I made a mistake, and ghosted in the wrong direction. So, I pulled the power. Checked the drive, and noticed that I lost all the data.

 

No problem. I used a program called testdisk ( http://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.html ) which restored my lost partition. A few hours later, I put the original disk back on the drive, and I had the "blinking cursor". So, then I took that drive and connected it to another machine and upon reboot, XP did a chkdsk on that drive and started to recover my data. Once xp booted up, I checked the 2nd drive, and all my data was restored.

 

I know this situation probably doesn't help you, but it might help other people.

 

Note: You must run testdisk using the computer that originally had that drive in it. Otherwise, if u move that drive to another computer, you can't restore the lost partition.

 

Question, you said, you ghosted the bad drive to a good drive, and booted the good drive back up. Did you put the good drive on the original machine, or the other machine?

 

I'd take that drive and check to see if you do indeed have all of your data.