This happened to the partner of a work colleague on his main computer.
Absolute bummer!
"Oh crap", I thought, "this might need a repair install..... *groan*"
But all is not lost!
Reboot the PC with the original XP cdrom.
Move through the screens till you get to the point of installing Windows XP, or using the "Recovery Console"
DO NOT choose the 'R' option to use the Recovery Console.
Just press Enter to install XP. (Don't worry - this is what this post is all about....)
Eventually, after accepting the license agreement and such, you'll be presented with a screen that shows you the current XP installation.
Here's where it all went wrong for my work colleague's partner.
There were no options to select the current XP installation. Bad news I thought. His disk is crapped out - looks like a new disk at worst, a re-installation at best.
But NO!
Somewhere in that series of screens will be something that shows what the current Setup thinks is the current disk configuration, and the current XP installation.
In the case of my work colleague's machine, his *external* USB drive was showing up as Drive C:
His recently bootable internal hard drive was showing up as Drive D:, and there was no identifiable XP installation.
"This is not right", I thought.
SO! What to do?
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Yes. Unplug the external USB hard drive and reboot.
Lo and behold and thanks to whatever diety you worship!
His Windows XP PC booted just fine and dandy.
Plugged the USB hard drive back in, and everything was back to normal.
Good stuff.
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