Computer booting error

[Assault]

The other night my computer suddenly "popped" and froze. When I reset it, after the memory count, it gives me an error. It's telling me to insert startup disk and then press enter.

Enter doesn't help, the message just comes back on.

I checked my Bios and it's set to boot from the hard drive.

The only way I can start my Windows XP is to boot the F8 menu and manually select to boot from the hard drive... then everything works fine.


Anyone knows how to fix this?

[NutWrench]

Did you try a System Restore Point?
(It sounds like your boot.ini file might have got corrupted, but a System Restore is the safest thing to try, first)

[Assault]

Did you try a System Restore Point?
(It sounds like your boot.ini file might have got corrupted, but a System Restore is the safest thing to try, first)

How do I do that?

[NutWrench]

Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools --> System Restore.

This is one of the most massively useful features of Windows XP. Choose the 'Restore' function and pick a date that predates when this boot problem started. The Backup feature lets you create a snapshot of your system files before you make any dramatic changes to your computer.

You can create and name your own Restore Points, like "Before installing new network card" So if your system gets totally screwed up, you don't have to spend hours cleaning out drivers or re-installing Windows. You can just use System Restore to set your computer back to that earlier save point.

[Mr.Fibbles]

unless you turned restore points off at some point. Then you have to find a new way to fix it.

[Assault]

I think my Hard Drive Boot Sector got fried.

[NutWrench]

Try booting with your Windows CD into the recovery console. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058) At the prompt, type 'fixmbr', which will (re)write a standard NTFS boot sector onto your hard drive. It doesn't change anything else.

If you still have problems booting, you may have a boot sector virus, which is re-writing itself to your boot sector after each time you try to fix it.

[Assault]

It's not a virus. I checked.

I'll try that 'fixmbr' command, hope that works.
Thanks.

[Assault]

Ok, I tried that and it wrote that my boot sector is invalid or something like that. If I run fixmbr then it might damage my partition and my Hard Drive will be inaccessible. So I didn't go on with it.

Does it always say that? Or maybe my boot sector really is fried.

[Ecmaster76]

It always gives the warning about becoming inacessible. If it were me I would just do it, but yeah you could make the problem worse.

How old is that hard drive?

[NutWrench]

Ok, I tried that and it wrote that my boot sector is invalid

I assume you just have one partition on your C: drive that takes up the whole disk, so writing a standard MBR won't hurt anything. :)

Re-writing a boot sector is only a problem if your C: drive contains multiple partitions. It's possible to have multiple operating systems on the same hard drive and the Master Boot Record (MBR) contains a record of how many partitions you have on your hard drive and where they start.

For example, if your hard drive had DOS, Windows 98 and Windows XP all on the same drive, your MBR would contain pointers to all three partitions. If you replaced THAT boot sector with a standard one, then you would lose access to the second two operating systems because the pointers in the MBR would be wiped out. Only the first partition would be bootable.

[Assault]

It always gives the warning about becoming inacessible. If it were me I would just do it, but yeah you could make the problem worse.

How old is that hard drive?

About two months :o

I assume you just have one partition on your C: drive that takes up the whole disk, so writing a standard MBR won't hurt anything. :)


Yeah, only one partition. I'll try it then.

[Assault]

Fixmbr didn't help. It told me it's fixed, but it LIED!

If I put startup disk in my drive and it ask me to press a key to boot from CD-ROM and I don't press anything, it boots fine.

I think something is really screwed with my boot sector.

[NutWrench]

What does your boot.ini file look like? Right click on My Computer --> Properties --> Advanced.

Then click the 'Startup and Recovery' button.
Then click the 'Edit' button. This is your boot.ini file.

Copy (don't Cut) all the text you see in the editor and paste it here, but do NOT change anything in the text editor! Don't make any changes to your boot.ini file. Just close the window.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

its a bios setting, tell it to boot from hd.

[Duoae]

its a bios setting, tell it to boot from hd.


I checked my Bios and it's set to boot from the hard drive.


It's like dejá vu or something...


;)

[Assault]

Here's the Boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

[NutWrench]

Your boot.ini looks fine. I'm going to go with what Inanimate Carbon Rod said. Check the boot order in your BIOS. Make sure the hard drive is set to boot first.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

It's like dejá vu or something...


;)

Well just because he checked it doesnt make it right. The give away was the cd in the drive comment he made.

[Duoae]

But if the CD or DVD drive is selected as first boot drive and there's nothing in there then it should move onto the HDD... not if there's a bootable CD in there...

[Mr.Fibbles]

When I bought my DVD Burner it was set to master for some reason, as opposed to cable select. I booted up without even checking, it doesn't make sense to set an optical disk reader to master by default. It was trying to boot from the dvd drive, which was empty, and never tried to boot from the HD.
I ended up making it the secondary master and making my DVD/CD-RW combo drive primary slave under the HD

[Assault]

Your boot.ini looks fine. I'm going to go with what Inanimate Carbon Rod said. Check the boot order in your BIOS. Make sure the hard drive is set to boot first.

There should be no reason to do that, but I tried it anyway and it didn't fix anything.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

Reset the bios jumper on the motherboard.

[Assault]

I took the computer to the store, they gave me a new hardrive and copied everything from the old one to it. My HD was screwed and it wasn't only the boot sector.

Thanks for the help everyone.