Question : Problem: Laptop, XP, only boots to DOS and will not read CD, bad FAT, which program from Crazy One's list to save?

Dell Inspiron 8K with 36MB IBM drive, XP Pro, recently moved and not sure where XP disk is :-((

One late last week it just refused to boot, and will only boot to floppy. CD/DVD will not list dir but will recognize the drive. Can list primary DOS recognized dir on HD. When I try to boot windows from DOS it says I have a FAT error. The cause of the error is still unknown

Scanned the drive today with Ontrack Easy Recovery Professional analysis floppy. Did compete scan. All tests normal including SMART and surface scan except File Structure Test. Errors read in both partitions (primary and the tiny secondary that windows sets up on install) and are listed as the same:

169 Critical Structure errors
729 Non-critical structure errors

Error Summary:
DIR structures 169
Invalid File Size 1
Invalid File Chain 60
Cross Linked Chan 1
Bad Chain Terminator 156
Orphaned data blocks 501
FAT mismatch 1

I can do no more it appears with Ontrack Easy Recovery unless I remove the drive, buy a 2.5 adapter and try to use Ontrack to fix it on my desktop. Could also do a virus scan in this mode. Not sure how powerful Ontrack is in this mode, but I do have the program now.

After reading crazy one's list and doing some browsing, I've narrowed it to these options:

1. Try to boot to Windows CD *if* I can find it. Only trouble is, I don't have a floppy with the appropriate CD drivers, they are on the restore CD that came with the laptop.

2. I'm thinking whatever program I use, it would be best to work on the drive as a slave on the desktop as nothing will probably fix the drive from floppy / DOS mode, right? It would be dangerous to try to write to the drive anyway until full recovery except to try to directly repair the FAT, right?

3. I already have Ontrack Easy Recovery Professional, but will be more than willing to spend the average $60+ for a superior program that will most likely save my drive. I would consider it cheap, compared with the alternative! Here's the 4 from Crazy One's list that I thought looked most promising after reading about them on their websites:

GetDataBack
Restorer 2000
Hard Drive Mechanic

Get Data Back, HD Mechanic both promise the moon on their website. I am hoping someone here knows exactly which one I need and need to do. Any advice is appreciated. Other alternatives? It would be a huge help if I could get it going by tomorrow!

Thanks!

Answer : Problem: Laptop, XP, only boots to DOS and will not read CD, bad FAT, which program from Crazy One's list to save?

If your laptop BIOS allows you to boot from a CD, you might try that with your WinXP CD (if you find it) and do a repair install: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_install.htm

If the disk errors are serious, you will need to use one of those utilities.  I have used GetDataBack with success, and I have heard others have also.