[johay]

Recently a friend wants me to fix his PC, (well he wanted me to merge his parittions together he had 2). So I obviously backed up his data (plugged his IDE HDD into my PC). I deleted his parittions and formatted his parittion from within computer mangerment.

I thought maybe if I just do a fresh install it would work, whist installing Windows XP, it will format the drive, and install the files (in the first stage) but when it reboots, it will NOT boot up-to the GUi based setup screen.

if I put CD boot firts it will auto-boot the CD into the non-based GUI (where you just format the drive the first stage)/ if I take the Cd off and harddrive to boost first I get a disc error/failure.

I read on http://www.techsupportforum.com/f10/windows-xp-wont-boot-black-screen-315907.html about an "active" parittion? Maybe I don't have an active parittion. I mean I created one and installed the windopws XP files on, if i plugg his HDD into my PC and go into my computer I can see his "Windows" folder.

I've really never had anything like this. I hope you guys are my saveur , I really have tried alot of things, like fixboot from recovery console.

f it makes nay difference, I plugged and set up his CD drive to IDE primary slave and his HDD to primary master, because his IDE secondary doesn't seem to be working (Told him to get a PCI IDE card).

his pc is SONY VAIO PCV-RX404, if that makes any difference.

Thanks,
Johay.

UPDATE: I checked int on this PC (not the VAIO just got the HDD plugged in with my OS booted) in disk mangerment his HDD shows up as healthy (ACTIVE).

 

[johay]

I'd just like to add, when I try to do a fresh install, if I slave it up to my PC, I can see the Windows folder. but when I try to do a fresh install, I don't get the screen where it should tell me I have Windows XP install, if i want to install over it, repair it..etc..

Edit: typo

 

[johay]

I'd just also like to add, in the XP recovery console, I tried doing fdisk but it wans't a command 0_o.

I tried FIXMBR i guess it's the same as fdisk /mbr. Still it's a bit weird fdisk isn't a command.

 

[adie273]

OK i got slightly lost reading your post so correct me if i'm wrong...

I'm guessing from what you say that you want to install a fresh copy of windows. Best way is to stick in the windows CD, restart. When it asks you to hit any key to enter setup or that, press any key.

It should enter a text interface with a blue background. From here follow the instructions. When it lists partitions, to be safe delete every, if any, partition listed. Then create a new partition. Then hit enter to select this partition to install onto. It will ask to format at some point. Just continue and let it format. It should then copy all windows files to the hard disk then automatically reboot. When it reboots, DO NOT press anything. It should continue into the GUI section of the installation. From there on in is simple.

If thats what your looking to do, follow those steps and all should be fine. You don't need to put his hard disk in your pc.

As long as you delete EVERY partition in the first part then create a new one from scratch it should work. If not and its giving a hard disk error it may be a boot sector problem. Which would explain it returning an error when trying to access the hard disk on your friends pc, but still being able to read everything on your pc since your pc has no need to access the boot sector.

 

[johay]

Thanks for the response

1) I did the 'installtion' a few times escatly how you explained. Deleted all parittions. Fresh install.
2) I do not get the message "Press any KEY", the CD will just boot I get a message "ATAPI CD-ROM"
"NO EMULATION"
if I set Hard disk as first so the CD-rom doesn't boot I get a Disk failure
3) If it's a boot sector problem, What would be the next methods.

 

[ash369]

""Recently a friend wants me to fix his PC, (well he wanted me to merge his parittions together he had 2). So I obviously backed up his data (plugged his IDE HDD into my PC). I deleted his parittions and formatted his parittion from within computer mangerment.""

Why is it your actually re-installing Windows XP, is it just to create some more disk space. Or was there a problem with the previous installation?

 

[johay]

First of all the friend wanted me to merge the parittions together (He wanted everything on one "space" I guess.

With mergeing them together I used acronis and it's fair to say I didn't do a great job. I didn't backup the MBR so 'good' I believe so it wans't booting (Same error as I get now, disk boot failure). So obviously I tried to do a fresh XP installtion to fix the issue.

 

[ash369]

Hey johay,

You only have your friends HDD in your computer, and the HDD is set to Master?

 

[johay]

Well I've triend it in my PC set as Master and obivously his PC set as master. so the answer is yes. ( have no other IDE drives in this Pc to conflict with it, I obviously un-power my HDD(s), and just leave my DVD - sata drive running.)

 

[firebox]

Hi

I am having EXACTLY the same problem. I have a brand new HDD on which there is a healthy and active NTFS partition. I boot from XP cd, follow the prompts and when it reboots, instead of installing Windows as normal it goes back to 'setup is inspecting hardware configuration'

If I set it to boot from HDD only once I have completed the first part of the install it says 'Disk boot failure, please insert system disk and press enter'.

I have tried using recovery console along with fixmbr and chkdsk and fixboot to no avail!

What the heck is going on here???? Anyone enlighten me Pleeaasee. :4-dontkno

Shirley

 

[kylezo]

try formatting the HDD from another machine, and then replace it in the original machine and boot up and reinstall from CD. Maybe something got screwed up when it got formatted the first time. Try another CD as well.

 

[firebox]

Hi Kylezo

Have tried all those options. Still wont play ball. Just keeps on restarting and going back to the beginning again. :4-dontkno

Shirley

 

[kylezo]

Try installing windows on the HDD in a different machine? I'm running out of ideas =/

Only other option really is to try a different HDD.

First things first: After you complete the first part of the install process, before it restarts again and you are about to get the error, make sure either:
a. You do not have it set to boot from CD first anymore in the BIOS, or
b. You do not have the install CD in the drive when it restarts.

This might seem counter intuitive, but try it out, let me know what happens.

This link might help:

http://en.kioskea.net/faq/sujet-1191-disk-boot-failure-insert-system-disk-and-press-enter

Other suggestions:

Try booting with a CD with fdisk on it, and completely wipe the HDD. Maybe the boot sector can't be written, because either it's corrupted, or the drive is physically damaged. I suspect a new HDD would work fine.

Try resetting the options in the BIOS to default after the install. Maybe the BIOS is effed up.

Is it a SATA or IDE HDD?

Good luck!

 

[Riskyone101]

Did you test the harddrive first before doing an install of xp?

Go here for a utility: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

ALWAYS test the harddrive first before installing windows.

 

[kylezo]

+1 to that

 

[firebox]

Yes, I tested the drive before I tried to install. Everything fine.

If I set Bios to boot only from HDD it says Disk boot failure. I'm going round and round in circles. I know the installation disk is ok as I recently reformatted my own system without a problem and reinstalled using the disk.

 

[Riskyone101]

Boot from harddrive: Disk boot error, yes this is correct if no operating system present

Boot from cd rom: "ATAPI CD-ROM" "NO EMULATION" - this problem is the cd-rom.

Put a different cd-rom in his pc for the time being to run the installation disc.

 

[firebox]

I have tried a different CD Rom and a different XP disk. No change. Still wont start GUI boot of XP

 

[kylezo]

What did you test the drive with?

Have you tried installing XP on the same HDD on a different computer?

Sounds like the drive is bad, IMO. IDK what else to tell ya