XP Pro 64 boot problem

[michaelcoulter]

The last couple of days when i switch on my PC it goes through the normal POST and when it reaches the windows startup it claims that there is no system disk and just sits there waiting for a system disk to be inserted.

mobo is an asus M2N4-SLi
1GB DDRII 5300 Ram
Athlon 3500 64bit CPU
400GB SATA II primary drive and 400GB SATA II secondary drive
256MB PCIe Graphics card
Windows XP Pro 64bit edition.


The strange bit is... If i boot the PC with a copy of ERD commander 2002 in the DVD drive and let it time out waiting for a choice to be made the PC boots into windows without a problem.

Prior to this happening all was working smoothly. all parts are less than 6 months old so still under warrenty.

Any suggestions??

 

[ArizonaGeek]

Just a couple of obvious suggestions right off, have you tried to reset BIOS to factory spec via jumper or selected some other "preset" bios configuration (they usually offer some sort of a Performance or Reliability preset?) Have you made sure your hard drive is the first boot device in your bios?

Are you doing any RAID?

Cheers
Rob

The answer is always "PEBKAC!

 

[michaelcoulter]

Already reset bios to factory settings.

removed 2nd SATA drive to leave only the drive with the boot partition on it connected.

Raid not set up on the mobo - not too fussed about using raid!!!

 

[michaelcoulter]

Finally managed to resolve the problem!!!

Ended up removing the power, removing bios battery and resetting BIOS with the jumper.

Left battery out for a full day before powering machine back on and setting the data / time within the bios.

Now all OK

Cheers

 

[michaelcoulter]

Bigger problems have arisen since i last posted to the thread.

1st Samsung SATA drive failed (constand head chatter) and PC reported no boot disk (obvious as that was the drive that failed).

returned drive to manufacturers for replacement - no problem with Samsung.

fitted replacement drive and re-installed o/s - 2nd SATA drive looks like the mft is corrupt so trying to get the data back (dos based ghost of drive normally works).

once again the drive has failed with the same problem - continuous head chatter then boot disk error.

Anyone else had any problem with the SATA connectors on the M2N4-SLi motherboard frying drives?? - will need to test the SATA drives on the spare PC to make sure they are not totally dead.