can't boot windows from hd, can boot linux from cd

Hi,

I have a five year old home build that won't boot windows. The motherboard beeps once, the cursor blinks 5-10 times and then I have a blank screen. I downloaded the ubcd and I was able to boot from the cd.

I'm not sure, but I think one of the kids turned it off without shutting down...leads me to believe the hard disk needs repair.

Here are the main components of the build:
ASUS M2A-VM HDMI AM2 AMD 690G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane 2.1GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
LG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black IDE Model GSA-H42LK
maxtor hd
running 64 bit xp sp3

tia,
jd

 

I would suggest going in to the bios and set the HDD to be the first boot device and turn off the boot from USB option. See if that helps.

I have found that some printers and other devices with card readers can cause a very long pause (5 minutes or more) at boot while the system goes through each device looking for bootable media.

 

thanks, that's been tried. also, I've been patient, have waited over an hour for the boot.

 

OK, it was just a thought.

When you boot the live CD, are you able to mount and view the HDD?

Do you have any USB devices plugged in other then a Mouse?

Do you have anything in any of the CD/DVD drives?

Do you have anything in any of the card reader slots?

 

And if you have your Windows install CD, use the hit "R" for repair option to get into recovery console. You can use the fixmbr command to write a new MBR which might help. If that doesn't work and you still don't even get the WinXP logo go back to recovery console and try running the chkdsk /r command.

 

The MBR didn't even occur to me.