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XP Boot disk failure

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I built a pc a year ago and ran 98SE. I wiped the drive to install XP but had install problems. Best guess was a HD problem.

I purchased a new HD and install worked smoothly.
However a short time later I began experiencing problems. A couple times it refused to boot up.

I have reinstalled several times.

Things seemed to be working and I’ve loaded various programs.

But now I get a boot disk failure message. I insert the CD Rom and it loads immediately.

How do I troubleshoot this. Can I repair the boot sector without funning FDISK?

I can’t believe I have two bad hard drives.

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Reply To: XP Boot disk failure

In reply to XP Boot disk failure

Just out of curiosity, Have you tried replacing the ribbon cable?

Reply To: XP Boot disk failure

In reply to XP Boot disk failure

Unless you have been very unlucky I can’t believe that you could have to bad HDD’s either.

However did the M’Board have a XP Compatible Logo on the Box? If you could post the Make & Model of the M’Board it would be of some help as well as the type of CPU , amount of RAM, make and size of HDD. While I would change the Data cable first maker sure if it is an IDE lead that it is inserted correctly at the M’Board and into the last connector on the IDE cable with the red strip closest to the power connector.

It is always possible that you have a Bad M’Board which has been degraded through a static incident that would account for unstable performance. But first check the connectors to everything and make sure that they are properly plugged in, if you have utilities to tell you how Hot the CPU is and what the voltages are run it as the power could be wrong pay particular attention to the 5 V rails as these cause quite a lot of problems particularly with HDD’s as they corrupt the MBR’s on the drive and make it look as if the drive is blank.

Col

Reply To: XP Boot disk failure

In reply to XP Boot disk failure

HAL9000 is absolutely correct. Definitely check your hardware.

In answer to your question, you can boot the computer from the CD and start the recovery console. In there you can do two things – FIXBOOT and FIXMBR. If these don’t work then you may need to run a full blown repair…. but make sure you check into your hardware for other issues.

Hope this has been helpful – JEPott

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