Reinstalling your operating system often means that you need to reset your computer. Nevertheless, due to viruses and hardware failures, the process of restoring the Windows XP boot loader may be required at any time. You can reinstall the system bootloader without losing any files. Some of the main reasons for its failure are viruses, hardware failure or errors while running XP. Is a faulty bootloader your only problem? Below are instructions on how to restore the Windows XP bootloader without reinstalling the entire operating system.

This bootloader is called the master boot record, also called the MBR. It controls the startup of the hard drive and allows the computer to turn on its OS. The downloader offers many useful features and improvements. It also has a powerful system for managing the device. Unfortunately, some changes to your computer or a virus may damage, change, or delete it. This may affect the functioning of your PC. As a result, it will either be unable to boot at all, or will start with problems loading some parts of the OS. The Windows XP boot loader recovery process can be done using the operating system installation CD or a recovery disk.

You can restore the Windows XP bootloader by performing the following steps:

Turn on your computer and install to run from the installation disc.

Launch the recovery console.

First of all, you should insert the Windows XP installation disk or disk into the optical drive and restart the computer. Now to boot the installed version of Windows, the PC will start from the CD. You must press the required key when prompted, and then you must wait for the program to configure itself to load.

Launching the Recovery Console

A message should appear on the screen that the installer welcomes you. Press "R" KEY. This will launch you to try to reinstall Windows XP on your computer. If an administrator password is required in Windows XP settings, you must enter it. Then select Then wait for the command prompt to appear and enter the Fixmbr command. Press the "Y" key when prompted that the "FixMbr" utility intends to overwrite the corrupted bootloader with a new copy. After this, the Windows XP boot loader recovery procedure will be completed.

Tips for completing the process

Remove the boot disk from the drive and select Exit from the command line. This command may cause your PC to reboot. This will allow the computer to load the new boot loader file, and then you can continue to start Windows XP as normal. It is also recommended to install anti-virus software to remove viruses and protect bootloader files so that the Windows XP bootloader repair procedure will not be needed in the near future.

Communication with a personal computer does not always consist of only joys and pleasures. Sometimes there are troubles, problems and problems. It happens, it happens that Windows cannot boot, and instead of the usual welcome screen, we see a more than dull situation: the computer freezes tightly and does not respond to anything, or goes into a constant reboot without even having time to open a single window. It happens that the computer startup is interrupted, and several white lines of English text appear on the monitor on a black background, or a completely incomprehensible blue screen with a bunch of incomprehensible numbers and letters is displayed ( BSOD, IT specialists have nicknamed this screen " blue screen of death"). No matter how it looks outwardly, only one thing is clear - the operating system is out of order.

There can be a lot of reasons for this situation - power surges in the electrical network while working with a computer, the harmful effects of viruses, conflicts between devices or programs, or simply the user’s “crooked” hands or something else. For a fairly experienced person, this situation will not cause surprise, except that it may cause annoyance if, for example, there is a lot of work to do and it is completely inappropriate to bother with restoration.

All these problems can be easily solved by completely reinstalling the operating system - in capable hands it takes less than an hour and does not present any difficulties. But in addition to Windows itself, many third-party programs can be installed in the operating system, which will then have to be reinstalled and configured again. It also happens that some important data is saved directly on Desktop or on the system partition (which experienced users do not allow) and, naturally, will be destroyed during reinstallation. Or simply in any situation, time is money. What to do in this case, you ask?

You can try to restore Windows XP using several built-in functions prepared in advance by Microsoft.

Loading Last Known Good Configuration

When starting the system, press and hold the key as soon as the information about the BIOS and found devices disappears from the monitor. F8 on the keyboard (on some computers you will have to not just press and hold, but press this key several times at a fast pace) and wait for the safe mode menu to load.

In this menu, white lines on a black background list options for Windows emergency boot. The very first thing we need to try is the " Loading the last known known good configuration (with working parameters) ". If the failure is not global, selecting this item quite often helps to start the system in normal mode. Didn’t help? Read on.

Safe mode

We go to the safe mode menu in the same way as described above, and select the top line - " Safe mode". This type of Windows boot is perhaps the most important when any problems arise in the system. Unlike the usual one, when loading it does not start all system services and does not load all drivers - it works at the “very minimum”. It starts and only the essentials necessary for the system to work are loaded. If you manage to access it. Desktop, don’t be alarmed by the fact that everything looks unusual - it’s just that video drivers are not loaded in this mode. You can try to find out the cause of the problem on your own and fix it (if you have enough knowledge and experience to do this). Or, as a last resort, “evacuate” important data (save toys, for example, or important program settings) from the system partition to a safe place so that you can safely reinstall the operating system without fear of losing it.

If you know for sure that some program caused the crash, you can try to remove it in safe mode (however, it is not always possible to launch the Windows installer in this mode), and then try to reboot.

You can try to run System Restore (unless, of course, you disable it, as many would-be optimizers advise) and roll back Windows to another checkpoint - very often this solves all problems. To launch it, let's go Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools and choose System Restore. Unfortunately, sometimes this service cannot be started in safe mode.

In general, if you are not a computer “super pro,” I do not recommend disabling this service - quite often it saves the system from reinstallation (although not always), and its operation is almost unnoticeable with the power of modern computers. It is only important to correct the default settings to more reasonable ones. This is done like this: Start -> right click on My Computer -> Properties and select a tab System Restore. Here, in a small window, select each section one by one and, by clicking Options, set separate settings for it. Personally, I set it like this: For the partition where the operating system is installed, I use the slider to set the size limit to about 1 GB, and on all other disks I completely disable recovery so as not to waste space on the hard drive. You will set it the way you think is optimal.

Restoring Windows from a boot disk

If the cause of the failure could not be eliminated, or at least Safe mode and it worked, but reinstalling Windows is extremely undesirable for fear of losing important programs, or it’s just a shame to waste time; you’ll have to use the Windows XP boot disk from which you installed the operating system.

Note: Some homemade Windows build discs sometimes lack the necessary tools.

Insert the disc into the drive and boot from it, setting the BIOS to boot from the drive first.

How to enable first boot from the floppy drive in the BIOS. At the very beginning of booting the computer, as soon as the BIOS information is displayed, press and hold (or frequently press) the key Delete(Del) until the BIOS setup menu appears. We look for a section in it where the order of boot devices is indicated (we move using the arrow keys, and select with the Enter, back - Esc). In Award BIOS this is the section Advanced, in AMI BIOS - section BOOT. In other options, you will have to find these options yourself - look for everything related to boot(loading). After the partition is found, you need to change the settings so that your drive becomes the very first boot device (or the top one in the list of boot devices). Changed? Save changes by clicking F10, and answer the next question by clicking " Y" ("yes"). The computer will reboot and the next time you start it will boot from the disk in the drive. Don't forget to return the settings back when you fix everything, because this boot order is not entirely convenient for everyday use of the computer.

By the way, some laptop models allow you to for one time change the boot order without going into the BIOS settings. To do this, upon startup, press several times F12 and in the small menu that appears, select your drive. There is no need to return anything later - the next time you boot, everything will be as usual.

Entering the settings of some BIOS versions is not carried out using a key Delete, and, for example, by F2 or other. You can accurately determine this from the BIOS information at the beginning of boot - look carefully at the very bottom of the screen, in the left corner there will be an indication of the desired key.

So, we reboot from the disk in the drive. As soon as the inscription appears Press any key...(or similar), you will only have 5 seconds to start booting from the disk by pressing ANY key on your keyboard. If you don’t have time, the computer will start booting from the hard drive, and you’ll have to reboot again.

Did you press everything on time? Wait for the first dialog box to appear:

Click Enter. The installation will begin (Windows is installed on the same partition, the file system is left unchanged). After you have read the license agreement and agree to it by clicking F8, the installer will check your hard drive for installed versions of Windows XP. Having found one, he will offer to restore it. Agree to this by pressing the key R .

The further procedure is reminiscent of a regular system installation - the license key is also entered, the region and time zone are selected, etc. At the end of the process, which lasts approximately the same as a normal Windows XP installation, all files necessary for operation will be restored and no data or programs will be affected - everything will remain in its place. You may just have to update the drivers, but this will not always be necessary. And all programs with all data and settings will remain intact.

NOTE. If you have Windows Vista installed on the same hard drive along with XP, most likely this method will not work for you - Vista, as a rule, overwrites all boot records and files and replaces them with its own, registering one single operating system on the hard drive - yourself, and only then includes in your files entries for loading other operating systems. As a result, the Windows XP installer, naturally, simply does not find any system to restore. In such a situation, you can try to first rewrite the boot sector using the Recovery Console commands fixboot or fixmbr(read below), and then, having completely restored Windows XP, restore the Vista bootloader from under it. This process is described in sufficient detail.

Recovery Console

Sometimes such a global Windows restore is not required and you can try using the built-in utility called Recovery Console .

In situations where the boot record or boot files are corrupted, the Recovery Console is the easiest and fastest way to solve the problem.

To enter it, you need, as in the previous example, to insert the boot disk and wait for the first dialog box to appear (see second screenshot). Only now we shouldn't press Enter- we are interested precisely Recovery Console, so let's press R and wait until a list of operating systems installed on the computer appears on the screen.

If you only have one Windows (like most people), just click first 1 , and then Enter. If several operating systems are installed, select the one you need.

Next, you will be asked to enter the administrator's name and password. If you have not changed them, then leave these two fields as they are and click twice Enter. Now you will see the following text on the screen: " C:\Windows" – you have reached your destination.

In this article we will describe only a few commands that we will need. If you want to further use all the capabilities that the Recovery Console can provide, you will have to independently search the Internet for a list of all commands and tips on their use. You can also get some information from the built-in documentation by typing in the Console command line HELP or /? . To get a description of each of the commands, you can add the key /? (For example, chkdsk /? or HELP chkdsk ).

fixboot command

This command repairs the boot sector of the hard drive, i.e., provides the computer with the necessary information to boot the operating system. With its help, you can eliminate a fairly common malfunction, when instead of the expected “windows” we see the inscription on a black background “ NTLDR is missing".

The appearance of such a window clearly indicates damage to the boot record. Among the most likely causes of this error are power supply problems, improper shutdown of the computer, or “experiments” with installing different operating systems other than Windows on the same hard drive.

With the help of this command, the problem can be solved in an elementary way. We type in the command line that appears fixboot, agree that we really want to overwrite the boot sector by pressing Y .

fixmbr command

Performs the same actions as the previous one, with the only difference that in this case the entire boot sector is overwritten.

chkdsk command

Scans the hard drive for errors. If you run this command with the key r (chkdsk /r), all errors found will be automatically corrected. Quite often, this command helps restore Windows and save all data on the system partition.

All the options we have considered do not guarantee 100% recovery of the Windows operating system, since everything directly depends on the cause of the malfunction. However, in most cases, these methods help to restore normal performance quickly and without loss.

Final advice. Take care not to store any important data on the system partition of the hard drive. Otherwise, in the event of an unexpected Windows crash and unplanned reinstallation, this data may be irretrievably lost. Think carefully about a file storage system that is convenient for you, creating various folders on other partitions of the hard drive. And in the future, save the data in these folders. It should also be remembered that Desktop- this is also a special folder on the system partition, just like My Documents, into which all pictures, music, etc. are saved by default. By the way, you can change the location My documents, moving them to another section. This is done like this: Start -> right mouse button on My Documents -> Properties. In the window that opens, select the tab Destination folder and by pressing Move..., indicate the location.

That's all for today. Good luck!

Tell me how to make it correctly bootloader recovery Windows XP, I had two operating systems and the Acronis OS Selector boot manager installed. I uninstalled one system and Acronis, now I have problems, first in the initial boot phase the message Bootmgr is missing appeared, I applied the Fixmbr and FixBOOT commands in the recovery console, now another NTLDR is missing error appears. I spent two days studying this console, but Win XP still won’t load, what did I do wrong? DRIVE.

Restoring the Windows XP bootloader

You, dear DRIVE, were two steps away from victory, you didn’t have enough patience, but it doesn’t matter, next time everything will work out. It is very important to know that the Bootmgr is missing error indicates damage to the master boot record or partition table of the hard drive, which is located in the first sector of the hard drive, by the way, you started successfully Windows XP Boot Loader Recovery and solved half of the problems, namely, they overwrote the master boot record with the Fixmbr command and wrote a new boot sector with the FixBOOT command, so another error began to appear and the only thing left to do was to copy three to the root directory of the partition with the operating system (mainly drive C) file boot.ini, NTDETECT.COM, ntldr. Let's start from the very beginning and achieve it.

1. We consider possible causes of damage to the Windows XP boot loader, check the BIOS settings in the Boot Device Priority item.
2. Using the Fixmbr and FixBOOT commands in the recovery console.
3. Copying the boot.ini, NTDETECT.COM, ntldr files from the Windows XP installation disk into the recovery console and loading successfully.
4. If after reading the article you still cannot restore the boot of Windows XP, then read our other article " "

After turning on the computer, friends, it self-tests, then control is transferred to the master boot record of the hard drive, it contains a partition table of the hard drive and a small bootloader program that reads in this table information from which hard drive (if there are several of them) and which partition of the hard drive to produce loading the OS. Subsequently, the operating system kernel is loaded into RAM and Windows XP actually starts. You also need to know that loading the operating system also involves a group of files located in the root directory of drive C, namely boot.ini, NTDETECT.COM, ntldr. The presence of all of the above eliminates the presence of the Bootmgr is missing error when loading XP and ensures successful startup of the system.

By the way, it is not always necessary to carry out such problems Win bootloader recovery dows XP, let's look at some of the reasons for this error that I personally encountered. The first is the simplest, if there are several hard drives in the system, the Bios settings have been violated, namely, for example, in AMI Bios, in the BOOT tab, Boot Device Priority, then Hard Disk Drives, the hard drive from which you want to boot is set to the wrong one, which is needed. Troubleshooting this problem and the reasons for its occurrence are well described in our article.

The use of third-party programs in the master boot record, so-called boot managers, for example Acronis OS Selector, is used mainly when there are several operating systems on the computer; the manager displays a convenient OS selection menu at the beginning of boot. You need to use such programs very carefully; if you incorrectly remove the Acronis OS Seletor program from your computer, there is a very high chance of restoring the Windows XP bootloader. The same applies to the GRUB bootloader, which allows you to use Linux and Windows XP on one computer; when you remove GRUB, you will leave your computer alone with an incomprehensible boot record and without hesitation it will show you Bootmgr is missing. In this case, we will correct the situation in the Windows XP recovery console, first we will enter the FIXMBR command and rewrite the master boot record, and with the second FIXBOOT command we will write a new boot sector.
But that’s not all, after correcting the boot record, as well as recording a new boot sector in the console, the situation with the error output may remain unchanged and there may be other errors, for example: NTLDR is missing. In this case, you need to once again make sure that there are boot sector files directly involved in loading Windows XP: , NTDETECT.COM , ntldr , in the root directory of the disk (C:), in principle, three of these files are enough to boot Windows XP.
The easiest way is to use a Live CD, boot from it, then go to the root directory of drive C and make sure that these files are present; if they are not there, then you need to copy them from any working XP and upload them to yourself, checking them first and if necessary by editing the boot.ini file, a simple text file that contains the path to the Windows XP system files, you must do this, otherwise you will get another error, you can read.
But I like another way: restoring the Windows XP bootloader using the recovery console. If you have an XP distribution, let's use it and copy our three files boot.ini, NTDETECT.COM, NTLDR to the root directory of drive C. I assure you it’s very simple, and you don’t need to edit the boot.ini file, the console will do everything itself.
We boot from the Windows XP installation disk, select restore R. If we have one operating system, set the number 1.

If there was a password, enter it; if not, press Enter.

Enter the FIXMBR command, this command is to restore a damaged hard disk partition table, it will overwrite the master boot record.

We confirm the recording of the new MBR, set Y

Enter the FIXBOOT command and agree to write a new boot sector.

Copy the files ntldr, NTDETECT.COM, boot.ini from the distribution to the root of the system drive C.
Enter the MAP command and look at the letter of our drive, in my case (D:)

Enter the drive letter D: and press Enter.

We go to the i386 folder, which is located on the Windows XP installation disk, from it we copy our NTLDR file to the root of the C drive.
Enter the command cd i386 and Enter

We copy the NTLDR file to the root of our system disk with the operating system with the command

Description of how to restore normal booting Windows XP. The manual shows in detail what to do if during boot the operating system produces errors like "", "", "" and many others.

Windows XP boot problems and their causes

Many users Windows XP encountered problems loading Windows XP. Typical situation: the user turns on a computer or laptop, and there is an error on the black screen like, Windows can't start due to hardware disk configuration errors or something else. Error Windows cannot start due to a corrupted or missing file: hal.dll often appears during installation Windows XP from the flash drive after reboot. There can be a great many mistakes. They look something like this:

The cause of all these errors is problems with the bootloader. Windows XP, which directly starts the system. Essentially, these are several executive files: file boot.ini with boot configuration, files ntldr, ntdetect.com and bootloader in MBR.

It is quite logical that in order to restore normal operation Windows XP You need to restore this same bootloader. This is what this guide will cover.

Launching the Windows XP Recovery Console

To restore the bootloader, we first need to run the so-called . To do this, we need to boot from the installation disk or flash drive with Windows XP and start the installation. How to do all this is well described in the manuals:, and.

Boot up and start the installation. When this screen appears:

you need to press a button R. We wait a little, the system scans the hard drive for installed systems. As a result, a window similar to this should appear:

Enter the copy number in the list (usually 1 ), enter the Administrator password (if it was not specified, then simply press Enter). This is it:

Now you can proceed directly to recovery.

Windows XP Boot Recovery

To restore the MBR and bootloader, the recovery console has commands and . Let's enter the first one first:

Confirm the recovery with the key Y:

Enter the command:

We confirm the changes:

Now you can reboot. To do this, enter the command exit

If these operations do not solve the situation, then it is worth checking whether there are bootloader files. This is first and foremost C:\ntldr And C:\ntdetect.com, and boot.ini. This can be done quite simply. Enter the command dir c:\. It will display the contents of files and folders on the disk C:\. If such files are not on the hard drive, then they should be copied from the disk. To do this, you need to determine its letter by brute force and the command dir. In my case, the Windows disk is d:\. Here is its content:

Now let's copy the files we need from it. To do this, enter the commands copy d:\i386\ntldr c:\ And copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\:

You can also check your hard drive with the command chkdsk /R:

It definitely won't be redundant.

Solving the problem with hal.dll

Let's now move on to the error with:

On Russian versions Windows The error text looks something like this: Windows cannot start due to a corrupted or missing file: hal.dll

This loading problem often occurs due to incorrect settings in the file boot.ini. To somehow correct the situation, run and enter the command bootcfg /rebuild:

A scan of available systems should start. Then you select the available one and add it to the download list:

Now you need to enter how the system will be displayed in the boot list:

Then you should specify the parameter /fastdetect:

That's all:

If it doesn’t help, then log back into the Recovery Console and enter the command expand d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32 (d:\ in this case it is a CD/DVD drive or flash drive).

In the future, the download list can be adjusted in Windows itself:

You can also via Start -> Execute -> msconfig -> boot.ini.

That's all.

Please ask all questions about restoring Windows in this forum thread.