I currently build a custom-built computer. I hand picked all the hardware and managed to start it first go.
After having some problems with the SATA bios settings (as I haven’t used any SATA devices before) I managed to get to the XP Home SP2 installation page, and installed the drivers so it would recognize my SATA HDD.
After the setup completed the first phase, it restarted the computer. Having had many previous experiance with clean formatting and starting from scratch with 98 and XP Pro OS’s, I knew then I had to then set the first boot device to the HDD.
So the BIOS updated, and continued to load the devices. Then when it gets to the ‘Verifying DMI devices’ or something similar, a dreaded error flashed for half a second –
Invalid BOOT.ini file
Starting from C:\Windows
I soon found out the reason it only flashed for a second like that, and to add to my slight relief, was that the timeout config in the boot.ini was set to 1 for some reason. Usually 30 was the default? Not sure.
Anyway, luckily I have another system and was able to copy the boot.ini from C:\ from that system, which was also had XP Home, and copied that onto a floppy. I tried replacing the bad boot.ini file (although they were identical in nature, except for the timeout number) and thought perhaps that might be the remidy. Hehe, no such luck.
I have literally tried everything. Reinstalling, rebuilding the boot.ini from bootcfg /rebuild; replacing it, deleting it, making it blank completely or changing other settings such as the /fastdetect and the /noexecute=optin options. No avail to them all. I have tried chkdsk /r, formatting slowly, quickly and everything imbetween. The thing that concerns me (beside the blasted boot.ini obviously) is that even when I replace, modify or change the nature of the boot.ini file in C:\, the timeout time remains the same. As in, everytime time I boot from the HDD, I barely have time to read the error which flashes at the top of the screen for a quarter of a second before the computer restarts. I should also note that I have tried to start from safe mode; I can get to the screen ok, but as soon as I select any option it triggers an immediate restart.
I will also say importantly that I am still yet to complete the windows installation, so this is no virus or the like. Indeed, I have yet to get to the second phase of installation on this brand new system and its starting to give me the shits.
ANY help will be appreciated as this seems beyond the normal boot.ini file problem. All the solutions I have read online haven’t worked at all for me. Not one.
I have also tried the ‘fix XP in 8 steps’ but of course that didn’t help. And can someone be clear on what BIOS configs to use for ONE hdd and ONE dvd-rom drive. I am using the AHCI array, with the southbridge settings set to IDE. Thanks
My (relevant) hardware is:
Gigabyte GA-p35-ds3p motherboard (rev 1.0)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU
WD 160gb HDD (used at ich9 bridge as master)
ANY HELP AT ALL IS APPRECIATED.