Can Not Get Xp Home To Boot Up

[tman70]

This week, after being gone for a month, I returned home and was working on my Dell Millennia on which I had previously installed xp home. I was updating all my programs and xp home. Everything was working fine. I could turn it off and on with out any problems.

Yesterday after running all my virus and adware scans I used xxclone to make a backup on an extra 30 gig hd. I removed it from the computer and set the primary slave to none in the bios and set the ide hdd auto detection to detect the 40 gig hdd and then saved settings and finished booting. Everything checked out ok. I then shut down and removed cables from the 40 gig and put them on the 30 gig and set it to master. I then went into the bios and repeated the above steps to check that I had a cloned copy on the 30 gig. It booted up and said that I could use the 30 gig as the main hdd or continue to use it as a backup. Everything was just as the 40 gig hdd. I removed the 30 and replaced the 40 as master and booted back up and used the computer for several hours after that.

This morning when I turned on the computer I got " Disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter". I put the xp cd (which is a legal copy) in the cd rom and pressed enter and still got the same error message. I then tried the 30 gig and got the same message. Now I cannot get either the 40 or the 30 to be detected by the bios. I think I have a bad MBR but I don't know what to do as both hd's won't work.

My old 98se hd will work without any problems.

What are the steps I need to recover?

Tman70

Edited May 3, 2007 by tman70

[garmanma]

Did you remember to make the CDROM drive is the first boot device in the BIOS?

Mark

[shanenin]

I have had many computers that will detect my hardrives after switching them around, resetting the cmos can do wonders. You may be able to reset it just by pulling the bios battery. Their may also be a jumper by the battery that needs to be moved to clear the cmos.

Since the windows 98 drive seems to work, it does not really seem like a bios problem. If you are able to get your XP disc to boot, try running fixmbr from the recovery console.

Edited May 1, 2007 by shanenin

[tman70]

Did you remember to make the CDROM drive is the first boot device in the BIOS?

Mark

I have had many computers that will detect my hardrives after switching them around, resetting the cmos can do wonders. You may be able to reset it just by pulling the bios battery. Their may also be a jumper by the battery that needs to be moved to clear the cmos.

Since the windows 98 drive seems to work, it does not really seem like a bios problem. If you are able to get your XP disc to boot, try running fixmbr from the recovery console.

Yes, I had it set as cdrom drive first boot. I then changed it to run 98. Then after still trying to run xp I tried the 98 hd again and it would not detect it until I set cmos to default settings. I am using w98 hd to reply to this. The 40 and 30 hd for xp still will not be detected in bios so I can not get passed error "primary hd not detected".

[TheTerrorist_75]

Try installling the 40GB as Master and the 30GB as Slave. The MBR may be setup for both drives installed.

[tman70]

Try installling the 40GB as Master and the 30GB as Slave. The MBR may be setup for both drives installed.

I don't know what has happened, but I am now able to access the 40 gig hd. I was working with the w98 hd and then it froze and I had to do a hard shutdown. When it came back up I could not access any programs even though I could find them. Example I could find the program file folder, but it was blank, even though it showed the correct number of progams at the bottom.

I then hooked up the 40 gig and reset the cmos and put the cd in the cdrom. This time it booted up and let me open up all programs and files in xp.

I have removed cd and so far it is still booting up into wxp.

Does any of this make any sense?

Edited May 1, 2007 by tman70

[TheTerrorist_75]

Maybe an intermittent problem with the cable?

[tman70]

Maybe an intermittent problem with the cable?

I don't know which is worse!!

An intermittent computer problem or a leaky water line.

Especially if both happen at the same time. I think I have the water leak fixed.

As for the cable I will have to wait and see on that one. So far everything is working fine.

[martymas]

check your jumper leads and see what they are set at

if it is freezing that is hard ware

and very likely the jumpers are set wrong

marty

[tman70]

Well, it started again this morning. I can't get the bios to read the two hd's. It won't even let me set it back to run the w98se hd. It seemed to be working fine when I shut down last night. I can't even get it to boot up with the cd. I did see a blue screen that flashed on and I thought that it said something about the bios. I think it said the bios chip needed to be updated.

If that is the case, then I have the latest chip already. I guess the chip can not handle Wxp and that is my problem.

I am now back to using my old Gateway with an 8 gig hd with w98se on it.

[shanenin]

I guess the chip can not handle Wxp and that is my problem.

This purely seems like a hardware problem, I don't see how XP would factor in. I think it was just more of a coincidence. The motherboard just seems flakey.

edit added later//

could your cmos battery be going bad?

Edited May 2, 2007 by shanenin

[tman70]

I guess the chip can not handle Wxp and that is my problem.

This purely seems like a hardware problem, I don't see how XP would factor in. I think it was just more of a coincidence. The motherboard just seems flakey.

edit added later//

could your cmos battery be going bad?

I just tried another bios chip that I had updated for a spare. Same results. The cmos battery is a year old. I have a new one that I could try. I also have a spare Dell Millennia that I could change out the motherboard and see if that is the problem.

What on the motherboard would possibly cause this type of problem?

Edited May 2, 2007 by tman70

[TheTerrorist_75]

What on the motherboard would possibly cause this type of problem?

Bad IDE controller.

[tman70]

This is where I am at now.

The 30 gig cloned copy is booting up and working.

The main 40 gig won't boot up. I get a dos screen that gives me several options but no matter which one I choose it always brings me back to the dos screen. It is a continuous loop.

I have manage to get the blue screen that says I have an "unmountable_boot_volume".

Another screen says it is missing the "windows root>\system32\hal.dll".

What is the procedure to install that dll? I can't get the cd to work except in safe mode.

[garmanma]

Can you hook the 40g up as master, boot to the CDROM drive with XP and do a repair install?

Mark

[TheTerrorist_75]

You will need to install the 40GB HDD as Master to run the fix.

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm

[tman70]

I have given up on the 40 gig and the 15 gig that had 98se on it. I have tried everything suggested here and what I can find on google and MS.

I have set the 40 as master &/or slave and copied the hal.dll from the 30 to the 40 and still get the bsod about unmountable_boot_volume.

I have tried each of these separately and together on the 40 gig:

1--copy hal.dll from cd and/or 30 gig

2--copy ntldr from cd and/or 30 gig

3--copy ntdetect.com from cd and/or 30 gig

4--booted to repair and ran it

a--ran chkdsk /r

b--ran chkdsk /p

c--ran fixmbr

d--ran fixboot

I have fdisked and formated the 40 several times and have run Partion magic deleted and erased the HD. I have also ran Boot and Nuke and reformated and still get the bsod. Yet everything says there is nothing wrong with the 40 hd.

I have done the same thing with the 15 gig as I had lost everthing on it. I go thru the process and get the XP splash screen with the bar and then it goes black. The only thing I haven't done with it is use the Boot and Nuke.

So this is what I have now:

Another computer, same make and model.

New cmos battery and updated bios chip.

New ide cable.

30 gig cloned copy seems to be working fine.

40 gig can't get pass bsod.

15 gig can't get pass black screen.

[Chappy]

Can you enter the HDD Geometry manually in the BIOS and get it recognized that way?

Some BIOS don't allow you to manually enter disk geometry but most do and this could get it recognized once more.

[tman70]

Can you enter the HDD Geometry manually in the BIOS and get it recognized that way?

Some BIOS don't allow you to manually enter disk geometry but most do and this could get it recognized once more.

How do you do that?

I can move around in the bios, but am not familiar with that.

[Chappy]

Sorry, got busy with some new site stuff. Thats the problem when you're a top Admin and still answering posts...sometimes site stuff keeps you away for some time.

Anyway, if your BIOS allows it, the HDD Geometry is where all the parameters of the disk are entered, such as the numbers of Heads, Cylinders and Sectors, and the Sector size. This is done automatically in the BIOS nowadays, but some BIOS still allow you to manually enter it. I would Google your BIOS version and find the home site for it, they should have instructions on how to do this if your version will allow it.

That's the best way I think, rather than having me look it up for you, cause I may not be back in for awhile.

Your BIOS name and version should be on the first page of the BIOS as you enter it.

[tman70]

Sorry, got busy with some new site stuff. Thats the problem when you're a top Admin and still answering posts...sometimes site stuff keeps you away for some time.

Anyway, if your BIOS allows it, the HDD Geometry is where all the parameters of the disk are entered, such as the numbers of Heads, Cylinders and Sectors, and the Sector size. This is done automatically in the BIOS nowadays, but some BIOS still allow you to manually enter it. I would Google your BIOS version and find the home site for it, they should have instructions on how to do this if your version will allow it.

That's the best way I think, rather than having me look it up for you, cause I may not be back in for awhile.

Your BIOS name and version should be on the first page of the BIOS as you enter it.

Thanks Chappy,

I thought that was what you were talking about. I have tried that, but can only change it in large or normal mode, which gives me a "no operating os".

I have reinstalled xp home on the 15 gig, but still get a black screen after the xp splash screen with the moving bar. I think it is a display setting, but It won't open to let me change it. Trying one last time I used xxclone to clone the cloned copy of xp home I had on the 30 gig to the 15 gig. Well---It worked and it boots up fine.

Now the 40 gig after I used "Boot & Nuke" to try to start over and reinstall w98se is not reconize in the bios. I tried to fdisk and it says no hd detected. Also the 15 gig and my fully installed w98se HDD were not detected by the bios. After shutting down and disconnecting everything and waiting several minutes to reboot, the 15 gig is now detected and running.

The 40 gig is not detected and I can not even get the 98 boot floppy to do any thing. So I guess the 40 is hosed and I think I will quit on it while I am ahead.

It has been an interesting experience, however.

[lefty1953]

Might want to look here for help.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297185

[Chappy]

Lordy...it almost sounds like you've suffered thru a Hosed File System, a Hosed MBR, & a Hosed HDD all nearly at once...maybe more too.

Yah, it's definitely an experience when things go really haywire and normal t-shooting is nearly impossible.

I once had multiple different services and processeses begin stopping randomly, always different ones. Repair installs failed during file copies at different points, then worked and service errors started again right away.

I had a feeling it was bad RAM, but MemTest 86 said it was all good and I did 20 passes 3 times overall, that took days. Suffered thru all this for a week until I just decided to buy a stick of RAM cause I STILL had that feeling.

Put in the new stick, ran a perfect repair install and all errors stopped. Put the old one in again, ran 5 passes with MemTest and it said it was good, booted up and had 12 service errors in 10 minutes again.

Needless to say I don't really trust software RAM testers anymore... but it sure can be a bugger when your t-shooting doesn't tell you anything, right tman?

Good Luck with it

[tman70]

Lordy...it almost sounds like you've suffered thru a Hosed File System, a Hosed MBR, & a Hosed HDD all nearly at once...maybe more too.

Yah, it's definitely an experience when things go really haywire and normal t-shooting is nearly impossible.

I once had multiple different services and processeses begin stopping randomly, always different ones. Repair installs failed during file copies at different points, then worked and service errors started again right away.

I had a feeling it was bad RAM, but MemTest 86 said it was all good and I did 20 passes 3 times overall, that took days. Suffered thru all this for a week until I just decided to buy a stick of RAM cause I STILL had that feeling.

Put in the new stick, ran a perfect repair install and all errors stopped. Put the old one in again, ran 5 passes with MemTest and it said it was good, booted up and had 12 service errors in 10 minutes again.

Needless to say I don't really trust software RAM testers anymore... but it sure can be a bugger when your t-shooting doesn't tell you anything, right tman?

Good Luck with it

Yeah----you are right chappy.

Every test I have run says the ram is good, the 40, 30, 15 gig hd are good.

Last night the same thing happened again. I started getting bsod. I would shut down and when I would reboot the hd's would not be detected. I removed the power cable and all the other cables and then the cmos battery and the bios chip. I even held the power button to discharge the power. After a few minutes I hooked everything back up and still no hd detected. So I unhooked everything again including the cmos battery, then I took it outside and started to throw it on the driveway. Instead I came back inside and left it on the chair and went to bed.

This morning I hooked everything back up and xp home booted right up. I cloned the 15 to the 30 and set it to the side. I thought I would try the 40 one more time, so I hooked the 40 up as master and reset the bios so I could "nuke" it and install w98 and then xp home like I first did. I ran "nuke" and installed w98 and it booted up fine. I then made it a slave so I could clone my good w98 hd with all the drivers to it. When I reset it as master it would not detect as master, only as a slave even though the jumper was set to master. I set the bios again to auto and then it showed nothing, not even any numbers in the IDE HDD Auto Detection. Nothing I did would make it read, so I set the computer aside and hooked up my old gateway with w98 and used it.

After several hours I hooked the Dell back up and xp home booted right up.

My conclusion after all of this is, when the 40 got that power surge last month and got corrupted, it messed up the cache and memory some how. After it is shut down and everything is disconnected for several hours it will reboot. It also could be that even though the bios did and will detect the 40 gig, maybe it is too big for this Dell Millennia. I am finished trying to save the 40 and will not use it any more.

I am just going to run it with the 15 gig xp home for now. Thanks for all the replies.

[diaperbaby]

Would you be willing to part with that drive for dirt cheap?

It would make a nice addition to my collection of hosed hdds