Paragon Software's Total Defrag 2008 SE. Installed the above s/w from well known magazine cover disk and I should have backed (last time a couple of months ago -doh!) up all my data beforehand but of course being a trusting soul thought I had no need to do so. Anyway about half way through - I wasn't watching (paint & dry come to mind) but looked at notebook and no display just plain black display and blinking underscore cursor at top left hand of screen. I've tried seeing if I can install over the top, fixing the mbr - doesn't work as I get a message back telling me that directory was not enumerated or something I think anyway fairly terminal. Before I go for the full install which says it has to reformat the partition - if anyone has any other ideas I'll be pleased to hear them otherwise Saturday is going to be rebuild day (or maybe Sunday). TIA :doh:
i would stick the hard drive in another computer (as a slave drive) or use a LiveCD to check if the file system is still usable... [OT] if you going to use a liveCD i would suggest the live version of Ubuntu [/OT]
boot your XP CD & enter the recovery console by typing R when prompted & run Code: Fixboot C: to rewrite the MBR BTW: here's a list of recovery console commands Edit: obviously check the filesystem is healthy first[ot]as Impy suggested[/ot]or you may as well banging be your head against a wall