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MBR Problem? 1

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n25

Technical User
Nov 4, 2004
234
US
I have a dual-boot pc which is managed by XOSL. My problem seems to be started when I used Norton Partition Magic to resize one of my logical drives. My pc won't boot up normally, just freezing on the "Verifying DMI data pool..." message. I have to use fdisk /mbr or to somehow restore a backup copy of my mbr in order to temporarily boot again, but after some restarts the problem will reoccur. What seems to be causing this? I have since uninstalled Partition Magic but the problem still persists. By the way, I use Windows 98 and XP for my dual-boot config.
 
Try to use boot-magic for managing the system that boots from the two that you use. It has never let me down!!!

It's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice.
Thanks for your attitude!
 
Is boot-magic freeware? I really liked XOSL because it's free and the interface is clean. Besides, it was working like a charm before I used partition magic. I think my problem is on the MBR since the boot manager won't even load.
 
When you make a new partition the drive letters change and some times the sequence the drives are layed out. I would uninstall XOSL and reinstall it. It could be the boot program is having a hard time finding the bootable systems partition.
Boot Magic come with Partition Magic in the newer ver. Don't realy know what time they were combined.
 
lists six specific reasons for a DMI problem:

1. Corrupt boot files on the computer.
2. Settings for hard disk drive are not correct.
3. Boot devices not set properly.
4. BIOS corrupt or misc. setting not set properly.
5. Connections loose or disconnected.
6. Bad Hard disk drive or other bad hardware.

The above article also goes on to suggest fixes for DMI Pool problems.
 
I think I may have problem #1, since that's the exact thing that I was doing. I'm hoping that it's not #6 since my harddisk is about 4 months old only. Can mis-created/corrupted logical drives (ie fat corruption) affect the way the system boots?
 
I hope it's not the hard drive itself, but these things do happen. Your hard drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software that eventually runs from a bootable floppy (or CD) that will thoroughly check your dive for you.


Inside the Boot Process

You may have to click on the link called "To go to the article, click here." on the web page

also see this one.
 
I somehow fixed the problem after installing AntiVir. It detected a virus that resides in 2 of my partitions that Pccillin never found. After which I could now boot Win XP normally. However, I'm having problems with my Win 98SE partition as I always get these error messages during installation of the OS:

Standard Mode: Fault in MS-DOS Extender
[some hex code]

Standard Mode: Bad Fault in MS-DOS Extender
[some hex code]

The hex codes are rather long so I just jotted down the more recognizable error codes just to get some information through.
 
FYI: I have Partition Magic ver 7.0 (2001), and it has Boot Magic.
 
Thanks for the suggestion, Linney! I forgot I was off-topic by then. However, there's another thing that I've noticed. XP always downgrades the transfer mode everytime I try to set it higher or let the BIOS do the setting. I'm not sure when it first acted up this way but I just noticed it recently. Could a faulty connection contribute to my problems above? Another thing, I had replaced the IDE cable I recycled from my old PC way back on April with a new one, their difference is the new one has thinner wires. How do I verify if the new cable that I got is for UDMA 6?
 
OK, I just checked the IDE Controller properties right now and it's down to UDMA 3. I know I should be worried but I'm not sure where to look into. I have 2 harddrives, the master being the newer 7200rpm drive and the slave an old 20gig Fireball drive.
 
Can't help you much with the hardware side of things. One of my IDE Controllers is coming in at UDMA 5 and the Secondary one is UDMA 3. I'm just happy if they work.

By default, the operating system uses the best mode for the device detected.

In one unrelated article you get this advise from Microsoft. "Check and replace any 40-wire cable with an 80-wire UDMA cable.
In the BIOS settings for your computer, load the 'Fail-Safe' default settings, and then reactivate the most frequently used options such as USB Support."

"STOP 0x000000ED UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME" Error Message When You Restart Your Computer or Upgrade to Windows XP

 
Thanks everyone for the inputs! Because of you guys I now have an idea on where to focus when troubleshooting this problem of mine.
 
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