Boot problems > Partitioning goes wrong... again

[redyze]

After using Partition Magic to try and absorb the Sony Vaio laptop Recovery partition into the C: partition, XP Home won't boot at all. I've tried repairing the Windows installation in DOS and using bootcfg via the XP setup CD to no avail. The files of C: and D: partitions seem to be intact (although permission is only given to edit the Windows folder) and I just need to boot XP.
Actually, I wouldn't mind erasing C: and reinstalling Windows if it wasn't for some important files there which I can't move or copy. How can I boot XP from a DOS prompt? Can I manually set up an auto XP boot from DOS?
(>>F4 and F8 don't work. The recovery partition preceded the C: partition - have I erased the Boot sector?)

[Markman385]

I had a similar problem after spliting a partition into two. I was unable to boot into windows. i tried to reformat the one partition and reinstall and that didn't work. I then tried to undo the partitions and reformat the whole drive again and reistall windows with no luck. I would just get an error after the format before the windows install starts saying error loading operating system. What worked for me was getting the diagnostic tool for my hard drive (maxtor) and doing a low level format (zero fill). then i was able to reinstall. I did loose all my data luckily i had only been using the computer a few days and didn't have anything important. I don't know if there is another way you can do it without losing data but this is what worked for me. My guess is it's due to a corrupted boot sector. The zero fill then erases it and will alow the reinstall. And if you do end up doing the zero fill have something else to do durring it, it took 6 hours to do my 40Gb drive.