Re-installation of Windows fails with *some* disks ...

[vodkasoda]

OK, this is strange, but hopefully makes sense to somebody !

I have been running Windows Vista on my PC for a few years now, with no *real* problems. I have had a BSOD occassionally since my last rebuild, always due to a Bugcode-USB type error message but could never track down the culprit, and due to a recent SQL Server uninstall problem, I decided another re-install would be appropriate.

I reinstalled from my Vista disk & did a few Windows Updates, but every reboot was giving me the choice of 2 versions of Vista, so I used Easy BCD to delete the "old version of Vista" line & rebooted. Unfortunately, I then got an error regarding Winload.exe being corrupt. I played around with BOOTCFG using Fixmbr, fixboot & rebuildmbr options and also BCDedit and eventually got Windows back. I did another WU, rebooted and had the Winload error again !!!

I decided to re-install from scratch, did so, got much further then before (no more WU downloads) and then when updating USB drivers, I got another Winload error, which this time I could not get past.

At this point, I must point out that I was having DVD problems in that the drawer would not stay shut until I had reloaded the disk anywhere between 3 & 20 times, so I guess that was on it's way out anyway !!!

OK, so now I reformatted the Windows drive and decided to reload from my old WinXP disc, but the boot will not recognise the disk, I keep getting the message "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key". If I insert my Vista disk it's fine, it automatically tries to install it, if I enter an old "WinXP Ultimate Boot disk" it runs that just fine, but the old WinXP disk (which I have used dozens of times in the past), my Ubuntu disk (which I have also used in the past) and other new WinXP disks I created on this laptop are all giving me this error message !!!

Is this something to do with the disks or the way they are created ? There is no OS on the PC at all now, just an empty NTFS disk, made Active via Diskpart & my data partitions, so why will it recognise some disks and not others (I can't install from USB as my BIOS does not offer that option) ?!?

I have replaced the DVD drive and that now is working fine (indeed, a lot faster for the disks that it recognises !!!), but I am still getting the same error message and as I have replaced the drive, surely it's not a hardware issue ?!? I have tried creating Windows boot disks on this laptop, using a number of different programs, using ISO files and the unpacked winRAR files but none of them are recognised by the PC with the problems, I am fast running out of ideas ... not to mention patience !!!

Any suggestions ?!?

 

[DrB0b]

If I was in your shoes I would test the hard drive and RAM first because you could play around with settings and configs until you are blue in the face but if it is a hardware issue, a simple test will tell all.

"You don't know what you got, till it's gone..
80's hair band Cinderella or ode to data backups???

 

[linney]

Is the XP a CD and the Vista a DVD? Is there any setting in the Bios that differentiates between a DVD and a CD as booting devices or is it just the whole Combo Drive that is the boot device selection?

What is the cabling and connections like between any Combo Drive and the Motherboard?

When you have Vista installed are you able to explore the XP CD?

 

[BadBigBen]

DrBob has given you a good starting point...

my bet would be that the HDD is damaged and probably needs replacing... but without testing one will only know when it totally goes out on you...

now as to the created DVD/CD's, e.g. burned media, as most will tell you, ALWAYS burn OS discs at the SLOWEST possible speed, this will ensure that the information is written properly (pits are burned deep enough so that the reading laser can pick these up better at higher speeds)...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[karlisi]

If computer cannot boot from original WinXP CD and can boot from Vista and modified WinXP discs, perhaps you have SATA in AHCI mode. Just guess.

===
Karlis
ECDL; MCSA