Boot disk failure - weird one

[Xyphious]

Yesterday i had a freze on my XP pro machine and when i rebooted i got an error saying 'disk boot failure, please insert system disk and press enter'

This message wouldn't go away so i tried running a repair, however the windows install disk wouldn't detect my installation for repair.

The thing that makes this weird is that if i leave the XP disk in the system boots fine after showing me the 'Press any key to boot from cd...' prompt

Thought i'd get some advise from you lot before flying in with the fixmbr's etc and potentially causing further damage

System spec:

Asus P5N32-E SLI Mobo
2x GeForce 8800 GTS
2Gb Corsair memory (already MEM-tested, all ok)
Intel Quad core 2.2 processor
2x 400Gb Western Digital HDD's (non raided)



Thanks in advance

 

[BadBigBen]

It sounds like the HDD is not being recognized, a loose or damaged PATA or SATA cable, Power cable loose or not getting power, flaky SATA / PATA controller, or a dying drive can be the cause of this... just remembered also a wrong BIOS setting (e.g. turning off an IDE Channel or SATA) could cause this...

first thing I would do:

Reseat all cables to the drive (physically remove and reinsert them, that way corrosion may get flaked off, thus getting a better contact)...

Check BIOS settings, alternatively reload SETUP DEFAULTS (F5 usually)...

next would be to remove the drive and have it tested in another PC (e.g. from a friend or the spare)...




Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[Xyphious]

Hi Ben, thanks for the response.

I reseated all the cables and check them all over, they look perfect as the system is only about 8 months old.

Have checked all the bios settings, tried defaults & my current profile, also removed cmos battery just to be sure.


I'll see if i can get the HDD into my other PC for testing tonight, if i'm lucky and get a boot straight away i can put it down to bios probs.

I just find it weird that it boots ok with the XP CD in, does anyone know exactly what difference that makes? I'm guessing it loads an alternative boot.ini or something, if i can figure out what its changing hopefully i can manually set it in windows and save my profile!


Cheers

 

[r0gerc]

'Press any key to boot from cd...' means that it is booting from the CD, probably because it has not found the HDD, as BigBadBen said.

Best of luck,
Roger

 

[Xyphious]

Hi Roger, i've forced it to attempt to boot from CD first as thats the only way windows will load, if i set the HDD as first boot thats when i get the error.

The HDD is showing up in the bios, i've ran a bartPE setup that i have and have verified the SMART status of the HDD is ok, also ran chkdsk /r but this didn't fund any probs


:-/

--If something's worth doing, its worth doing right - HST RIP--

 

[BadBigBen]

Stop, you need not test the boot up in another PC at all... if the drive gets recognized (did not mention it in the first post) then all the cables are fine as well as the drive (BartPE can get access to it is a sign that everything hardware wise is ok)... as it sounds now, the drive may have gotten moved, or the Boot.ini points to the wrong partition...

use the Recovery Console to fix the boot...

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP

these two you will need to continue further:
Fixboot writes a new startup sector on the system partition.
Fixmbr repairs the startup partition's master boot code. The variable device is an optional name that specifies the device that requires a new Master Boot Record. Omit this variable when the target is the startup device.

once logged on to the installed XP type FIXMBR (this will rewrite the start sector of the HDD), and then type FIXBOOT, this will reset the BOOT.INI to the correct value...


Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[linney]

Weird Boot Error On new XP Installation
thread779-1335491

WinXP Pro will ONLY boot from CD
thread779-890537

 

[Xyphious]

Cheers Ben, i figured a fixboot or fixmbr would sort things but didn't wanna rush in a risk fragging my profile.

I'll try that tonight and i'll hopefully post a success note from my PC!


Thanks for all suggestions/replies so far



______________________________________________

--If something's worth doing, its worth doing right - HST RIP--

 

[Xyphious]

I know this is a dead issue now but figured i'd list my fix.

Turns out after cleaning my machine i'd accidently plugged the SATA cables in the wrong way around *smacks self in head*

Swapping them back fixed things straigth away



______________________________________________

--If something's worth doing, its worth doing right - HST RIP--

 

[BadBigBen]

Glad you got it sorted, and thanks for posting what was the cause of this mishap...

after having typed:

I reseated all the cables and check them all over, they look perfect as the system is only about 8 months old.

I am glad you took a second look...


Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."