Okay so this happened about 5 months ago but had no way to test or anything. Right, so I re-build my computer (after a move) and it doesn't boot, no problem, CMOS clear fixes that, but windows won't boot. Left it on for about an hour and it comes up with an error saying that HAL.DLL is damaged and needs replacing. Looked on the net and it's either HAL.DLL or the Boot.ini file to blame. All good just wait until I get my internet, which brings us up to now. Downloaded Ubuntu and used the LiveCD. But whenever I try to access the drive Ubuntu freezes. Using GFs laptop now. I don't have access to any other desktop and have no money for new parts (damn new flat) Any ideas?
Boot off an XP cd and repair the mbr and/or boot sector (fixmbr and fixboot whilst in recovery mode). It could be the data cable, though. Doubtful it's the IDE controller chip as you were able to boot a LiveCD fine.
Don't have the XP disk, left it behind as my brother will be using it as I am planning on getting Vista. Both DVD and HDD are SATA, tried different cables and ports with no luck.
Try using a small distro like Puppy Linux instead of Ubuntu. I find that by the time the Ubuntu live CD has finished loading, I can boot into puppy and sort the problem anf reboot into XP
