How can I get to CMD line if XP will not boot, even in safe mode?

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Guest

Hello,

I have a laptop that will not boot up, even in safe mode. In safe mode it
will boot until the ATISGKAF.SYS driver, then stop. I assume that I have a
currupt file and must delete/replace it.

So, how do I get to a CMD promt to do that? Booting with any of the recovery
CDs will not let me, booting to an XPpro (although this is an XP Home) will
let me quit out but leaves me in a Ramdrive, unable to go to the real C:
drive.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

J
 
Johnathon said:
Hello,

I have a laptop that will not boot up, even in safe mode. In safe mode it
will boot until the ATISGKAF.SYS driver, then stop. I assume that I have a
currupt file and must delete/replace it.

So, how do I get to a CMD promt to do that? Booting with any of the recovery
CDs will not let me, booting to an XPpro (although this is an XP Home) will
let me quit out but leaves me in a Ramdrive, unable to go to the real C:
drive.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

J
Click to expand...

Of course, the OEM's answer to this problem is to run the
recovery disc and restore the OS to its original, factory
state. This might or might not help, particularly if one has
failed to do regular backups of information, data, picture,
etc. files.

OTOH, the situation might be salvageable if the problem is
just one file. Visit http://www.sysinternals.com/. There might
be an utility that allows one to boot up from a floppy drive,
access the XP NTFS partition and replace the possibly corrupt
file. It has been some time and the utilities might have to be
bought. But if this is one way of salvaging a bad situation,
the cost might be worthwihle. Take a look at sysinternals.com.
 
sysinternals does have a free utility to read and copy from an NTFS partition. To write to it, you have to buy the Professional version.
 
1) Try booting from the XP Pro CD. At the first option to Repair the system, press R. You'll be prompted for the Administrator password. This is for the built-in Administrator account. If you didn't set a password on this account, just hit enter.

2) http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310994

The above link will take you to the downloads to create a set of floppy boot disks. These will let you boot and get into Recovery Console. From there, you can try to find another copy of the driver file and copy it to C:\Windows\Drivers, or wherever it actually exists on your system.

3) Another alternative, if you have access to another XP computer is Bart's PE. This creates a bootable CD with a mini version of Windows.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
 
Johnathon said:
Hello,

I have a laptop that will not boot up, even in safe mode. In safe mode it
will boot until the ATISGKAF.SYS driver, then stop. I assume that I have a
currupt file and must delete/replace it.

So, how do I get to a CMD promt to do that? Booting with any of the recovery
CDs will not let me, booting to an XPpro (although this is an XP Home) will
let me quit out but leaves me in a Ramdrive, unable to go to the real C:
drive.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

J
Click to expand...

Have a look at NTFS4DOS
(http://www.datapol-technologies.com/dpe/freeware/index.html)
 
On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 16:04:01 -0700, Johnathon at FOX <Johnathon at
Hello,

I have a laptop that will not boot up, even in safe mode. In safe mode it
will boot until the ATISGKAF.SYS driver, then stop. I assume that I have a
currupt file and must delete/replace it.

So, how do I get to a CMD promt to do that? Booting with any of the recovery
CDs will not let me, booting to an XPpro (although this is an XP Home) will
let me quit out but leaves me in a Ramdrive, unable to go to the real C:
drive.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

J
Click to expand...

I have just repaired a half dozen laptops with the exact same problem. Rough handling?

Boot to the WinXP CD and when you get to the part that checks for any existing versions of
Windows, if it tells you that the existing partion is "unrecognized", your Hard Drive has
damaged sectors and/or your NTFS partition is corrupt. If not, just do a repair install.

If the existing partion is "unrecognized" and you want to salvage your data, you need to
download & burn a "Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD".
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/


Boot to the CD, then click GO, and select "Command Prompt"

From the Command Prompt, type the following:

chkdsk c: /f

Now go make some coffee. After it fixes the file structure, you can boot to the WindowsXP CD
and do a repair of Windows XP to replace the damaged files.

If the chkdsk report shows a lot of bad sectors, you might want to invest in "HDD Regenerator"
and repair the drive first. http://www.dposoft.net/

How Do I Do a "Repair Installation"?
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_install.htm
 
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