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Storage disk Freezes Boot

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jaymax2U

Technical User
Oct 1, 2008
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Is there any reason why a non-system disk would cause a machine to NOT boot up? Freezes at the splash screen stage. Remove the disk and it boots fine.

Thanks!

"Storage disk Freezes Boot
 
If the bus is trying to interogate/commuicate with the 2nd drive and it's not functioning properly - YES it can screw things up.

I'd run the manufacturer's utility on the 2nd hard drive to see if it's viable or not. If it's okay, I'd run a CHKDSK on it.

If those don't help, could it be a cable issue?
 
is it a internal (ide/sata) or external (usb/esata/firewire)disk?

is it recognized in bios?
jumper settings/cabeling ok?

M. Knorr

MCSE, MCTS, MCSA, CCNA
 
If the drive is in the boot device list the system will interrogate it at boot time. If the disk has what looks like a bootstrap loader on the boot sector then the system will try to boot from it.

However if the loader is corrupt or the disk is only partially configured as bootable or infected with malware then the boot will very likely fail, causing the system to hang.

Jock
 
RE: Jock
That is correct, furthermore if the cmos is set up to boot from the drive in question it most likely will lock up if it does not find the boot information on the drive. Check and or adjust the c-moss first. That will most likely fix the problem.
Regards

Jurgen
 
I'll try to answer all the replies here

First of all the disk is a storage disk and works just fine with an alternate system disk on the same machine, with the same configuration.

Probably I can run chkdsk on it in the alternate configuration now, in the original config. the disk is seen as RAW, chkdsk does not run on RAW disks

It is visible in the BIOS, should have mentioned on a Promise 133 controller card, but the same on the alt. system disk w/ same O/S.

No cabling / jumper issues anticipated

Boot Sector issues ??? must be specific to single O/S installation and not the other. BTW, the disk partition was not formatted as a primary partition.

CMOS issues, ??? not expecting that either

BTW where does one find "Boot device Listing" in Win ?

Thanks guys!

 
Boot.ini is a read only, hidden, and system file that resides in the root of the applicable drive.


HOW TO: Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows XP (Q289022)



A Discussion About the Bootcfg Command and Its Uses (Q291980)


Error message when you start your computer with a non-system disk

The computer does not start after you change the active partition by using the Disk Management tool

"Operating System Not Found" or "Missing operating system" error message when you start your Windows XP-based computer

How to Use System Files to Create a Boot Disk to Guard Against Being Unable to Start Windows XP (Q314079)

Q305595 - HOW TO: Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP
 
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