XP Home boot failure

Icenine · 06-25-2008, 07:45 AM

Hi,

I hope someone has some good suggestions for this. I have a desktop running XP Home which had the power supply fail a few months ago. I generally work using my laptop or another desktop, so it wasn't a huge priority to get it fixed. The other day, I finally got around to replacing the power supply, but now when I turn it on, I get:

Boot from CD:
Boot from CD:
Disk Boot Failure: Insert System Disk adn Press Enter

I have the restore disk 'somewhere' in the depths & darkness of my home office, but it could take days to find it, if even then. I originally had the BIOS set to boot from CD first & HD 2nd, but tried switching those and still the get boot failure.

I would hate to reinstall because I have some graphics & multimedia I've done for work previously and would like to have the original files. I would also hate to have to either 1) find the restore disk, or 2) buy another one. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

More info: The HD Auto Detect in the CMOS Utilities is not detecting a master or slave HD. The DVD drives are recognized fine. Is the HD toast?

craigwatanabe · 06-26-2008, 02:48 AM

It could very well be that your hard drive deep sixed. But before you bury that *******, try running that hard drive as a master on your secondary IDE slot (remove the secondary IDE master DVD drive and install the hard drive there).

Make sure you unplug the computer's power cord as the PSU is still providing power to the motherboard even if it's turned off.

With the hard drive in the secondary IDE as the master and one dvd drive as a slave, reboot the computer.

If it reboots successfully more than likely the problem is the primary IDE ribbon cable or the controller.

If the problem follows the transplanting to the secondary IDE slot, your hard drive probably crashed in that case all data is for the most part gone.

There are data recovery services that will remove the hard drive's platter and retrieve it that way but it's expensive.

Bottom line...back up your data.

06-25-2008, 07:45 AM	#1 (permalink)
Icenine Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 1 OS: XP Home	XP Home boot failure Hi, I hope someone has some good suggestions for this. I have a desktop running XP Home which had the power supply fail a few months ago. I generally work using my laptop or another desktop, so it wasn't a huge priority to get it fixed. The other day, I finally got around to replacing the power supply, but now when I turn it on, I get: Boot from CD: Boot from CD: Disk Boot Failure: Insert System Disk adn Press Enter I have the restore disk 'somewhere' in the depths & darkness of my home office, but it could take days to find it, if even then. I originally had the BIOS set to boot from CD first & HD 2nd, but tried switching those and still the get boot failure. I would hate to reinstall because I have some graphics & multimedia I've done for work previously and would like to have the original files. I would also hate to have to either 1) find the restore disk, or 2) buy another one. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. More info: The HD Auto Detect in the CMOS Utilities is not detecting a master or slave HD. The DVD drives are recognized fine. Is the HD toast? Last edited by Icenine : 06-25-2008 at 08:08 AM. Reason: more information

06-26-2008, 02:48 AM	#2 (permalink)
craigwatanabe Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 262 OS: xp	Re: XP Home boot failure It could very well be that your hard drive deep sixed. But before you bury that *******, try running that hard drive as a master on your secondary IDE slot (remove the secondary IDE master DVD drive and install the hard drive there). Make sure you unplug the computer's power cord as the PSU is still providing power to the motherboard even if it's turned off. With the hard drive in the secondary IDE as the master and one dvd drive as a slave, reboot the computer. If it reboots successfully more than likely the problem is the primary IDE ribbon cable or the controller. If the problem follows the transplanting to the secondary IDE slot, your hard drive probably crashed in that case all data is for the most part gone. There are data recovery services that will remove the hard drive's platter and retrieve it that way but it's expensive. Bottom line...back up your data. __________________ A computer is only as powerful as it's user so build wisely.