I have Windows XP Home on the #1 drive and Ubuntu 8 on the #2 drive and this has worked perfectly since late April. But recently the system has been unable to BOOT into Windows. It will boot into Unbuntu properly.

If I select Windows I will get as far as the black Windows logo start-up screen but then it just stalls out. It doesn't matter if I select "Normal Start" or "Last Good Config" or "Safe Mode". It always stalls at the same place during the boot.

When I am in Linux and try to look at the Windows drive, I get a MESSAGE that says that the drive wasn't properly un-mounted. When I use my Partition Magic rescue diskettes, I see a note for Error # 1516.

Yesterday the problem seemed to go away after using the PQ Magic diskettes. I was able to access the #1 drive from Linux and save some files. But when I tried to boot into Windows the same stalling thing happened. And then when I went back into Linux, I could no longer access the #1 drive.

I know that everything is still there on the #1 drive, I just have a booting-up problem.

I have been doing some reading on the 1516 error and it seems that all the fixes for it need me to be in Windows to use them. But I can't get into Windows. Somewhere I read where someone commented that he formatted his drive but the problem remained. I tried to fix the drive using CHKDSK from the Windows recovery console. It told me that there are errors but it refused to let me use the /f switch.

I have been holding back on using the FIXBOOT command until I learn if there is something else I can try.

I consider myself a moderately-skilled COMPUTER user and I am out of ideas for this.

Is there something I can do to re-enable Windows on my system?

Will Shank
Toronto

you could put your hdd into another computer as a secondary drive and copy what you need offa itI dont understand. do you have two hard drives? Or do you have one that has each O.S. on different partitions?I have two hard drives. Windows is on the #1 and Ubuntu on #2.Try unplugging the Ubuntu drive and setting the Windows drive as master and only drive on that channel. If this doesnt work, then get out your windows CD and be prepaired to do a repair installation.necessary windows files can corrupt EASILY.... the only option may be repair installation. do you know how to do this?