I need help after Partition Magic disaster!

I used Partition Magic to create a new partition on my Inspiron E1505. That went fine but when I didn't need the new partition anymore I went to merge it back into the main one. That's where I ran into a problem. Everything seemed to go fine until it was almost done, then I got a cluster error. I don't remember the exact error, sorry. Anyway, since then after the Dell BIOS screen, I get a blank display with a blinking underscore. No errors, no beeps, no nothing. The first thing I did was boot into MediaDirect and it was able to find all my media files, so that tells me the data is still there, I just can't boot up. I popped in my Windows CD to run the Recovery Console and ran fixboot and fixmbr. Both said they completed but when I try to boot up now, I still get the same thing.

I have an Inspiron E1505. It originally had XP Media Center Edition but I wiped that out and put XP Pro SP2 on. After the headache I had doing that and getting MediaDirect to work properly, I'd like to avoid repartitioning and reformatting if possible. But if that's what it comes to, I'll manage.

I'll admit it, I really screwed up. I used Partition Magic without backing up first. I know it's my fault, so I'm not blaming anything but me for trying to do a rush job.

Can anyone help?

 

Try a repair install

 

I think your MBR may now be confused as to which partition to boot into. ( in other words, your Master Boot Record has become corrupt.) This is a relatively easy fix for the Windows XP repair console. Booting into the Dell OEM disk will give you a graphic user interface that will make this simple.

 

This is my next step, but I was trying to avoid it if possible.

I posted that I already tried the Recovery Console to fix the MBR. I booted of the XP CD, started the Recovery Console, then used the fixmbr command (along with fixboot). Is that different than what you're suggesting?

 

No. Sorry, my bad. I did in fact read that, but then forgot when I came back on to post a solution.

 

Repair install didn't work. It gets to the point where it copies the setup files from the CD then reboots, and doesn't go any further. If I don't boot off the CD it just stays at the blinking cursor. If I boot off the CD again, it tells me it already tried a repair install and asks if I want to try again, or install a fresh copy.

I checked the boot.ini and it looks OK for a "normal" computer, but it might be wrong since these laptops have hidden partitions for MediaDirect and they're supposed to have one for the restore software. I still have MediaDirect, but the restore partition is gone. Does anyone see anything wrong with this boot.ini for the configuration I just described?

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect /noexecute=optin
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

 

I've learned that you just save a whole lot of time by just biting the old bullet and reformat when drive tables get hosed. I also keep a ghost image on a spare drive to save a lot of pain..

Sorry, I can't help you with your boot loader..