'Logging off' screen stops booting process then goes into a loop

This is a long story, so I will leave off most of it.

Details:
XP Pro w/sp3,
two bootable drives, both partitioned w/ the 1st partition active,
both active partitions have XP installed,

Something got corrupted between the two active partitions. No idea how as I took precautions to prevent this, but apparently not enough. I tried to restore the image of the 2nd drive, but when I did so, I got this 'logging off' dialog box during the boot process. The process stops there, but after 2 minutes it goes into a 'loop', flashing two other dialog boxes (can't read because they are too brief) every few seconds. I then tried the image from the 1st drive, but I got the same thing.

Any ideas what is happening and what to do about it other that start all over?

System and model?

What software was used to create these "images"? Are you using same software to try to restore these "images"?

Louis

Edited by hamluis, 23 August 2010 - 12:41 PM.

Only 1 partition can be the active partition which boots Windows.

Yes...and no .

When a partition has Windows installed on it, it is set up as an "active partition", since "active partition" denotes one which is bootable.

So...a user can have multiple hard drives, each with a Windows install...and each partition reflecting bootable Windows will be "active" in that each contains a bootable version of Windows. But only 1 partition is bootable at any one time.

Whichever a user boots into...will be recognized by Windows as "active."

Active Partition.

I've also found that setting a partition "active" and then removing the O/S has no impact on whether the partition is still seen as "active". To eliminate that, I have to delete the partition and create a new one.

Louis

Edited by hamluis, 23 August 2010 - 12:56 PM.

The MB is Abit NF7-S V2 w/ a nForce 2 chipset.
True Image V 11,
One partition is only active since only one HDD can boot at once. Please re-read my description, the active partitions are on each HDD.

What I really don't understand is why the 'good' partition boots ok, but the image of that partition does not when loaded on the other HDD.

Edited by videobruce, 23 August 2010 - 01:03 PM.