Disk boot error...

I have a wierd problem.

When I boot up, i get the error msg that says something like:
Boot disk error. Insert system disk and press any key to continue.

It always gives me that error.
the only way i can bypass it, is to insert a CD/DVD into my DVD-RW. It will read the disk and then continue to load windows. If i don't have a disk in there, it gives me the error. (Like i insert XP Home disk, it reads disk, comes up with Press any key to boot from CD. . . . . . , i don't press anything and it will boot. take out the disk and it doesn't boot.)

I have tried changing CMOS to boot automatically from the HDD first, then the CD Rom second = still same problem.
I have tried formatting and reinstalling windows = same problem.
I have tried to do a repair console and fixboot = same problem after writing a new boot index.


My boot.ini file looks like:
[boot loader]timeout=30default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


what should i do to get rid of the msg?

 

Which stage are up to now,are you trying to wipe the HD and install a fresh copy of xp or do you have data you wish to retrieve,if the former you should set first boot device to cdrom disable all other boot devices including boot other device if you have that option and restart your comp with your xp cd in the drive

 

i woulda edited, but can't.

I have just tried to do a Fixmbr in the recovery console. guess what - same problem...

arghhhh! this is annoying! :rant:

 

oh rikky, I have already formatted and reinstalled xp. see i have 2x 160Gb SATA hdds. 1 has stuff like XP installed with all my programs (that is on an 8gb partition). then i got some other stuff on other partitions. i have formatted the 8gb partition and installed the OS again.

 

So your mobo isnt recognising your 8gig partition with the os on,Try swithing the drives over to different sata ports,have you set up your harddrive boot order in bios the mobo maybe default checking the wrong harddrive for the OS,also if changing the sata ports over dont work enable boot other device,this will make your mobo search everything attached to the comp for a MBR

 

no, it does recognise it. see, it will boot from it after I have inserted any CD. It just won't boot straight from it. I am currently in the process of downloading the Firmware update for my DVD Burner. Will post back if it fixes the problem.

 

Have you tried disabling all boot devices apart from harddrive and also disable boot other device?

 

ya. i have.

my drives are SATA. a friend told me that some bioses only recognise SATA as SCSI harddrives. that may be true... not sure

 

First I'v heard ,do you have the option to enter boot menu f11 at the same time you enter bios on my board and check harddrive is selected,also try attaching your cdrom drive to ide 2

 

Stupid question.

Do you have a floppy disk in the drive?

Don't be offended, I've seen this exact problem with my former MS job, many times. 90% of the time, that was the offender.

 

If there a floppy in the drive I'll scream,not at you mpk at myself

 

there is a floppy in the drive.....

but its sitting out, ejected as it were. lol :rofl:

its just my RAID driver diskette, for use when installing XP you know...:blah:

 

Well, without stepping on Rikky's toes and butting in, it would be my opinion that you have a broken MBR. When you put in the XP CD, its using the MBR and boot files from the CD to load your install. If a format didn't fix that, I'd point fingers at the MBR. Repartitioning and formatting only touches some parts of the MBR. FixMBR only addes MS information, overwriting other information, but does not delete the MBR and rebuild it.

There is a way to fix it, though. You could low level format your drive, or nuke the MBR outright with an undocumented Recovery Console command.

Its up to you of course, and Rikky may have some other ideas.

 

how, i have just downloaded Dban. will maybe have a go with that. how would i do a low level format?

 

mkdiskraw is the command.

Use the map command to see what hard disks are on your system, so you can clear them accordingly.

mkdiskraw 1, for instance, clears drive 1.

I'd do it to every drive to be used in the array. You will lose all data on those drives, as the partition table will be zeroed out.

 

I'd do the above first, before low level formatting.

LLFs can take some time, and may be overkill.

 

Step away adrynalyne,you give far too much respect your the man

 

umm. well i have got two harddrives. 1 has stuff that i need. the other is the one with windows and basically like 10mbs of other stuff. (do you have msn messenger? my account item is in my profile)

i choose which harddrive right? and i don't want to have it in RAID. because it is currently not in RAID config. Just two, SATA harddrives working alone, at the moment

 

Choose the hard drive Windows will be on. To be SAFE, unhook the sata cable from the other drive so you don't accidently wipe the wrong one.

So, its probably going to be mkdiskraw 0

For drive 0. But unhook the other drive to be safe.

 

Also, I'd keep the data drive unhooked for the entire install of Windows, so as not to have any MBR confusion (XP uses the drive it detects first during an install as the boot device, provided its formatted with a useable filesystem).

 

well i have most of the stuff on dvd discs. just don't wanna sit having to copy em all again. so after the mkdiskraw, i will have to install windows again, right?

I have just downloaded a tool from Hitachi, which will test the drive fitness or something. will do that and if it says its fine, then i will do the mkdiskraw in the recovery console.

thanks for the help. will you be here later? cause i go off to school tomorrow and don't get back till friday. my parents sometimes (like once in a blue moon) use the computer so i want it to be working like a beauty.

 

Ok thanks will give it a go

 

Yup, you will need to repartition, format, and install Windows. The drive is returned to a RAW state after running mkdiskraw, due to the deletion of the partition table.

 

just quickly, what would you think would cause this to have happened? i haven't done anything to the computer hardware or anything like that. :?

 

I know what did it to me, and others I have worked with.

Playing with Linux and install Grub to the MBR.

Anything that touches the MBR could have done it. GoBack is a big one.

If you have done nothing like that....who knows. MBR viruses these days are rare.

And who knows? This may not fix it. But if you already formatted once, you have nothing to lose.

 

On and off.

Putting up xmas lights today.

 

k kool. it may have then been caused by Norton Ghost as i did a ghost recently... damn norton! oh well. im off to see if it works. thanks

 

Awsome adrynalyne!

 

guess what.
no luck. doesn't work. i did a test with the hitachi fitness test item, said both disks were fine. so i rebooted, went to recovery console, typed map just to make sure i was wiping the right drive. i wiped it clean. took like a split second or something, dono if its supposed to be that quick (used the mkdiskraw command). rebooted, installed windows and am back to the damn error msg. except with the cds in the drive...

 

Hmmm.

Well, at this point, we know almost for certain that its not an MBR issue (mkdiskraw does work that fast, yes).

Have you tried unhooking the data cables to the optical drives and floppy, and then trying to boot?

 

no. haven't done that. been trying not to go inside the case. don't wanna screw anything else up... if i must i will try wiping both the damn drives. just in case they screwy and want to load with the second drives mbr.

 

If the other drive was unhooked this entire time, then its not the cause of it.

If it was hooked up...well, refer to my earlier post that Windows uses the MBR of the drive detected first.

 

couldn't i just disable the second drive in the bios?

 

ok. well i decided to do a format or whatever of both my hdds. just in case. so i went into the recovery console, typed mkdiskraw 0. it did. then mkdiskraw 1. it did. so I had both hdds with no partition information or anything on them. i rebooted, installed XP Home again. loaded my drivers thinking this is it. took the cd out and restarted. but no. same damn msg again. now i am lost. i reckon it must be the dvd-rw drive... any thoughts?

::Edit::
It works with the CD in the drive. so i am assuming this is the cause of all this problem...

 

Easiest way to find out is to unhook the data cable

 

yip. will try it when i get back from school next week. for now. i will just leave the disk in the drive. don't have time to screw around anymore. its like 11.30pm and i got school tomorrow. thanks for the help anyway. will post back next weekend.

 

well i fixed it. i was looking around in the CMOS setup. there was an area where my slave hdd was chosen first. i changed it around and it now works. damn annoyed now!

thanks for the help anyway. cheers

 

Set the BIOS to default or flash BIOS

 

You did see his last post, where he said he fixed it?

No need to give more technical advice at this point in time.

 

In DOS 6.x and earlier (I don't know about later versions), the command FDISK /MBR would force a re-write of the master boot record. A common use of the command was to get rid of a boot-sector virus.

That feature was undocumented. Is it available with later versions of FDISK?

 

Negatory. fdisk /mbr only rewrites certain parts of the MBR, but not the complete MBR. In the case of say, Linux, it will/can modify parts that said MS application will not touch.

Perfect example is when I had a failed installation of Fedora Core 2. It would not boot Windows after formatting, fixmbr, fdisk /mbr, and even using partition magic (which reported the bad partition table). It took mkdiskraw to zero out the partition table in the MBR to fix it.

 

Thanks for cluing us all in, Adrynalyne.