Disk Boot Failure, but Hard Drive is fine.

I have a computer that I believe was struck by lightning. I had to
replace the power supply and the motherboard. I backed up the old hard
drive and started fresh.
Formatted as NTFS, XP Home installation went fine, but when I went to
restart it, I got a Disk Boot Failure message. I replaced the hard
drive with a brand new WD 40GB Drive. Reinstalled XP Home and got the
same error after restarting. I booted into Partition Magic from a
Floppy Disk and formatted the drive from there, set it up for NTFS, set
it as the active partition and installed Windows XP again, this time
from a different XP CD, just in case the original disk was causing
problems. Still getting the same error.
I swapped out the RAM, no change. I have ran the system through a few
of my diagnostic tools and everything comes up as good. I booted into
the Recovery Console......chkdsk /r came up clean, then I ran fixboot
and fixmbr. Still no boot.

If I have a bootable CD in the drive (Windows CD, Diagnostics CD, etc),
it will boot into Windows, as it should, when I don't press any key to
boot to CD. I found that quite strange, as I have never seen anything
like that in 5 years of being a computer tech.

Any ideas?

I know of one possible cause. HD is not listed in BIOS boot sequence but CD
is.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a computer that I believe was struck by lightning. I had to
replace the power supply and the motherboard. I backed up the old hard
drive and started fresh.
Formatted as NTFS, XP Home installation went fine, but when I went to
restart it, I got a Disk Boot Failure message. I replaced the hard
drive with a brand new WD 40GB Drive. Reinstalled XP Home and got the
same error after restarting. I booted into Partition Magic from a
Floppy Disk and formatted the drive from there, set it up for NTFS, set
it as the active partition and installed Windows XP again, this time
from a different XP CD, just in case the original disk was causing
problems. Still getting the same error.
I swapped out the RAM, no change. I have ran the system through a few
of my diagnostic tools and everything comes up as good. I booted into
the Recovery Console......chkdsk /r came up clean, then I ran fixboot
and fixmbr. Still no boot.

If I have a bootable CD in the drive (Windows CD, Diagnostics CD, etc),
it will boot into Windows, as it should, when I don't press any key to
boot to CD. I found that quite strange, as I have never seen anything
like that in 5 years of being a computer tech.

Any ideas?

Boot Sequence is:

-Floppy
-CD-Rom
-Hard Drive
-Other Device

Hi abright52,

Did you replace the CPU, being stuck by lightning and did you replace
the Hard Drive Cable? All these replacements, and the problem could be in
the Hard Drive Data Cable.

Also the problem could be with the way you set up the Hard Drive.

Question: After you backed up the Hard Drive and before you installed
Windows XP Home, did you first partition the Hard Drive into two or more
partitions to allow for easy backups and later restoring the operating
system? Or if partitioned with just one partition, did you format with /s
(System) and test boot the Hard Drive? Make sure the Hard Drive boots before
loading an operating system. You will just boot to C:\. Once it boots up,
you can then reformat and reinstall Windows XP Home Edition on a NTFS File
System.

You need a Windows 98 SE Startup Floppy Disk to transfer the system. You
can't use Windows ME Startup Floppy Disk, because you will get the error you
are receiving.


--
thecreator


wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a computer that I believe was struck by lightning. I had to
replace the power supply and the motherboard. I backed up the old hard
drive and started fresh.
Formatted as NTFS, XP Home installation went fine, but when I went to
restart it, I got a Disk Boot Failure message. I replaced the hard
drive with a brand new WD 40GB Drive. Reinstalled XP Home and got the
same error after restarting. I booted into Partition Magic from a
Floppy Disk and formatted the drive from there, set it up for NTFS, set
it as the active partition and installed Windows XP again, this time
from a different XP CD, just in case the original disk was causing
problems. Still getting the same error.
I swapped out the RAM, no change. I have ran the system through a few
of my diagnostic tools and everything comes up as good. I booted into
the Recovery Console......chkdsk /r came up clean, then I ran fixboot
and fixmbr. Still no boot.

If I have a bootable CD in the drive (Windows CD, Diagnostics CD, etc),
it will boot into Windows, as it should, when I don't press any key to
boot to CD. I found that quite strange, as I have never seen anything
like that in 5 years of being a computer tech.

Any ideas?

The CPU was not replaced.
The IDE Cable was replaced. I have tried the HD on both channels, no
difference.

I let Windows XP Setup Format and Partition the HD the first time.
I used Partition Magic to do it the second time.

Only one partition.

I have done this with the original HD and a Brand New Western Digital
drive and have the same problem.

The system boots fine if I have a bootable CD of any type in the drive
and XP works flawlessly when I get into Windows.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a computer that I believe was struck by lightning. I had to
replace the power supply and the motherboard. I backed up the old hard
drive and started fresh.
Formatted as NTFS, XP Home installation went fine, but when I went to
restart it, I got a Disk Boot Failure message. I replaced the hard
drive with a brand new WD 40GB Drive. Reinstalled XP Home and got the
same error after restarting. I booted into Partition Magic from a
Floppy Disk and formatted the drive from there, set it up for NTFS, set
it as the active partition and installed Windows XP again, this time
from a different XP CD, just in case the original disk was causing
problems. Still getting the same error.
I swapped out the RAM, no change. I have ran the system through a few
of my diagnostic tools and everything comes up as good. I booted into
the Recovery Console......chkdsk /r came up clean, then I ran fixboot
and fixmbr. Still no boot.

If I have a bootable CD in the drive (Windows CD, Diagnostics CD, etc),
it will boot into Windows, as it should, when I don't press any key to
boot to CD. I found that quite strange, as I have never seen anything
like that in 5 years of being a computer tech.

Any ideas?

(and later adds...)
The CPU was not replaced.
The IDE Cable was replaced. I have tried the HD on both channels, no
difference.

I let Windows XP Setup Format and Partition the HD the first time.
I used Partition Magic to do it the second time.

Only one partition.

I have done this with the original HD and a Brand New Western Digital
drive and have the same problem.

The system boots fine if I have a bootable CD of any type in the drive
and XP works flawlessly when I get into Windows.


abright52:
It's hard to tell exactly what happened here to cause the problem you're
experiencing. When you mention that you believe the computer was struck by
lightening, that raises all kinds of concerns, not the least of which is a
suspicion that other components that have not been replaced such as RAM,
video card, etc., may have become defective in one way or another and may be
impacting on your boot problem.

But you say (if I understand you correctly) that you are (apparently) able
to install the OS onto your new 40 GB HD without incident. Do I have that
right? The install process apparently is successfully completed? No error
messages of any kind during the installation process? Nothing untoward at
all except you can't boot with that drive, right?

If that *is* the case, why don't you start anew, using the XP installation
CD to delete your current partition; create a new partition and then format
the drive? Forget about using PM or any other third-party program to
partition/format your HD. Just use the XP installation CD for the entire
process, i.e., partitioning, formatting, and installing the OS. Then see
what happens.

Incidentally, actually there's nothing strange about booting from the XP
installation CD without pressing a key. If XP detects that there is no valid
OS on the connected HD, e.g., the HD is "virgin", it assumes the user wants
to install the OS onto that disk so the boot to the CD is straightaway. That
would seem to shed some light on your problem, would it not?
Anna

I will assume that the CPU is fine.

However, you never answered the question. Did you try to boot up the
computer after you formatted the Hard Drive after using Partition Magic the
second time, before you installed Windows XP?

Forget about the XP operating system. You never made a bootable Hard
Drive. You never transferred a system onto the Hard Drive.

What method did you use to format the Hard Drive? What commands did you
type in?

thecreator

wrote in message
oups.com...
The CPU was not replaced.
The IDE Cable was replaced. I have tried the HD on both channels, no
difference.

I let Windows XP Setup Format and Partition the HD the first time.
I used Partition Magic to do it the second time.

Only one partition.

I have done this with the original HD and a Brand New Western Digital
drive and have the same problem.

The system boots fine if I have a bootable CD of any type in the drive
and XP works flawlessly when I get into Windows.

The first time I installed Windows, I did it directly from the Windows
CD as I have done on hundreds of other machines that I have built. The
installation goes flawlessly, the system works great until you try to
restart.

When the XP CD is in the drive, it does not boot to XP Setup when I
don't press any keys, it boots into WINDOWS. It does that with any
bootable CD.

Video is on-board. I have swapped out the RAM will a known good stick.

If you try to boot to the HD before an OS is installed, it will tell
you that no OS is installed. I am not sure what point you are trying
to make. The HD is bootable, Windows takes care of that during setup.
In the recovery console, you can see the boot config.

Hi abright52,

If you try to boot to the HD before an OS is installed, it will tell
you that no OS is installed. I am not sure what point you are trying
to make. The HD is bootable, Windows takes care of that during setup.
In the recovery console, you can see the boot config.

This is the point.

Forget about the Windows XP CD for the moment. Take it out of the CD
Drive. Do you have a Windows 98 SE Startup Floppy Disk? Boot up the computer
using the Windows 98 SE Floppy disk. Once booted, you should be on the A:\
prompt.

Type in Fdisk. Wipe the Hard Drive clean using Fdisk and repartition the
Hard Drive into partitions equal to or less than 32 GBytes. Create Logical
Drives and extended drives or partitions. Set Drive C: Active. Exit Fdisk
and reboot still using the Win 98 SE Startup Floppy. Type Format C: /s

Once the format is done, remove the floppy disk and reboot the computer.
It should boot to the Hard Drive and you should see "C:\" on the screen. The
Hard Drive is now bootable.

Reinsert the Windows XP CD in and boot up the computer using the CD and
reformat and reinstall Windows XP. Once it is finished and you are at the
Desktop, remove the CD and restart the computer and let it boot into Windows
XP.


--
thecreator

wrote in message
oups.com...
The first time I installed Windows, I did it directly from the Windows
CD as I have done on hundreds of other machines that I have built. The
installation goes flawlessly, the system works great until you try to
restart.

When the XP CD is in the drive, it does not boot to XP Setup when I
don't press any keys, it boots into WINDOWS. It does that with any
bootable CD.

Video is on-board. I have swapped out the RAM will a known good stick.

If you try to boot to the HD before an OS is installed, it will tell
you that no OS is installed. I am not sure what point you are trying
to make. The HD is bootable, Windows takes care of that during setup.
In the recovery console, you can see the boot config.