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windows XP Home

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by lisa2k65

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Why does my Hard drive delete itself after XP Home installs, computer reboots and DOS shows non-system disk, now the CD won't turn on at boot or reboot, so I can't install the Home CD to my hard drive. WHY ME?

5 replies

by dlandmesser

Hi there. Besides XP Home sucking, there could be another problem. lol Check the BIOS settings to see if the hard drive is recognized by it. By the error message it sounds like it can see it but not boot off of it. I would run setup again, delete all partitions from the drive, restart again, boot from CD again, re-partition drive and then do a fresh install. If that doesn't work, try pressing "r" at the install screen and open the recovery prompt. Run "FIXMBR" command followed by "FIXBOOT" command. This will repair the master boot record. The drive might have a problem with that. After that, if nothing works, try the hard drive in a different PC or try a different hard drive in the same PC. Hope this helps. Let me know if you get is resolved.

by oh smeg

On a public forum there are way too many undesirables around who may abuse the situation.

If you need to list Personal Details you should Contact a Member by Peer Mail. Just don't list anything that can be used against you for your own protection. You can go back and edit out the Personal Details to prevent any further Damage being done.

Col

by oh smeg

The HDD has failed but if it's a SATA drive the most likely option is that you need to install the SATA Driver before allowing the Windows Setup Procedure to run.

Personally I would be looking at a dead HDD particularly if the system is no longer booting. What can happen when these fail is that they draw more power than normal pulling either the 5 V DC or 12 V DC rail down to way below what it should be and the Power Supply fails to turn on or the M'Board fails to see the Power Supply is actually working.

If it's a dead drive you also need to check the Power Supply if it's a desktop as they can suffer damage from abusing the system with failed components.

However if you can see something but it will not allow the Windows Installer to run it just maybe the SATA driver needs applying by pressing the [b]F6 Key[/b] at the first blue screen when the Windows Installer Starts. When prompted for a SCSI Driver place the SATA Driver copied to the Root of a Floppy into the A Drive and press enter.

If you want to test the HDD and/or the HDD Controller on the M'Board you need to get your HDD's makers Testing Utility or use Seatools available from here

http://tinyurl.com/yvq99t

If the drive passes it's OK but if it fails the test you need to test it again on a different M'Board and if it passes you have a faulty M'Board or Data Lead on the original computer. If it fails again you have a dead HDD that needs replacing.

Col

Col

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