Can't boot into windows, please help

Hi guys. I have a machine here that Ive been running XP on for months now with zero problems. I had some problems with the key, so I ended up having to re-install XP. My cd-rom doesnt work, so I couldnt run the install from the XP cd. I tried the XP boot discs, but half way through the installation, I get a message saying "the following value in the .SIF file used by setup is corrupted or missing, setup cannot continue". So I aborted the installation, and then I get a message saying 'NTLDR is missing, press CTRL ALT DEL'. When I press this, it just goes to the compaq splash screen, then back to this message. So I took the hard drive out and put it in another machine and was able to boot off the XP cd and do the install from there. It completed fine. So I took it out of that machine and put it back in the original machine. But for some reason, its not booting. It comes up to the compaq splash screen, then goes to a black screen with a blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner....no error msgs. I'm not sure what the problem is here. This machine has been perfectly fine. I dont know if its something to do with the errors I got earlier or if its a BIOS thing or what. The hard drive works fine on my other machine, so I know its not a Hard drive issue. PLEASE HELP....thanks guys

 

by putting the hard drive into another machine and formatting it, windows installed all the necessary drivers for THAT machine, so naturally it will not boot in your desired machine.


it sounds like one of your boot floppies is corrupt.

is there any way you can use a different CDROM that works in the computer you want to boot, to use for windows installation?

if not, try recreating the boot-floppies using floppies you know are not corrupt, and try again.

welcome to majorgeeks!

 

Ok. The first time I tried to boot off of the disks, it didn't seem to read them that well, so i formatted all 6 and made re-did them. It read them all fine, but when it gets to a point where it's installing, it gave me that error. The cd rom works if you put a disc in there, but it has never wanted to boot off of that drive. I've checked the boot order and all is correct there. I will try another cd-rom and see what happens. I will let you know. Thanks!

 

In bios make sure your CD is set to boot before the HDD