Can Vista Recovery console be used to fix an XP NTFS boot volume problem?

[Udo]

I have an XP Pro laptop with an unmountable NTFS boot volume. I don't think its a physical problem, probably a corrupted boot file.

It only came with a restore/reinstall version of Win XP Pro (as does my main PC), i.e. it wipes everything and reinstalls windows. The cd is not bootable and there's no Restore Console, etc.

I know people with Vista machines and was wondering if I could pull the disk and hook it up to a Vista machine, using a USB adapter I have, and use the Vista Recovery Console etc. (or whatever it's called in Vista) to fix the problem.

Is the process similar to that under XP Pro (when you have a normal bootable XP Pro cd), i.e. boot the Vista PC from Vista cd/dvd and run Recovery Console (or equivalent) and running Chkdsk and/or bootfix, using the drive letter of the problem drive attached to a USB port?

Thanks, Udo

[Richard Berg]

I'm not sure. In the best case, running fixboot with your USB drive's letter might fix your problems and render his machine unbootable :) (marking your drive as the boot drive in his MBR)

I would try to borrow a "real" XP CD. Barring that, you can make your own recovery CD using BartPE and similar tools.

[Udo]

In the best case, running fixboot with your USB drive's letter might fix your problems and render his machine unbootable :) (marking your drive as the boot drive in his MBR).

Thanks for your response Richard.

The idea was to repeat the process after the (then hopefully fixed) problem disk had been disonnected and so put the MBR back on the original drive.

Anyway, I managed to borrow a "real" XP CD and the problem is fixed (although there were several, what turned out to be spurious, chkdsk error messages).

BTW, I think it's ridiculous that major system builders only include an XP Restore CD rather then the normal XP installation CD these days. If it's done to simplify support for inexperienced users, they still should include a normal installation CD too.

[Haydn]

Vista uses a different boot manager, BCD. This is more like the boot loaders for Linux. So you will need to get a Windows XP CD.

Jim