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Boot Problem
When I try to boot, before Win XP even starts to load, I get a message saying "press any key to reboot". Of course, when I do that the cycle starts all over again. It boots fine from a floppy that has only 3 files on it - ntdtect.com ; ntldr ; and boot.ini.
The hard drive is jumpered as master and it shows as the master on primary IDE during the post routine.
This all just started a day or 2 ago, before that it was fine.
Any idea what I've done to mess it up? Any help appreciated
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Posted December 19th, 2003 18:00
Sounds like a boot loader problem, doesn't it ? I'd run the System File Checker command.
sfc /scannow(note space)230
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Posted December 19th, 2003 19:00
Neither of the two ideas above helped.
I suspect that somehow it is involved with the system not seeing the hard drive as the primary drive for some reason.
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Posted December 19th, 2003 20:00
I've done that and run the option to correct problems with no improvement. Could you be a little more specific please.230
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Posted December 19th, 2003 20:00
It doesn't need to see the hard drive to boot to the Win cd. You can correct the boot configuration then. Enter your system's bios and check the boot order. Make sure the cd drive is before the hard drive.230
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Posted December 19th, 2003 22:00
I always have the "do not show hidden files" box UNchecked. So those 3 files are all that's on the floppy.
Actually I have 2 hard drives and there seems to be interaction. For example:
1. HD #1 as primary master HD#2 disconnected. Starts to boot, but hangs just before the welcome screen comes on.
2. HD #2 as master, HD #1 disconnected. Won't boot - get the "press any key to reboot" message.
3. HD #1 as master, HD #2 as slave. Boots to HD #1 OK. Boots to HD #2 OK, but the HD light stays on constantly.
4. HD #2 as master, HD #1 as slave. Same result as 2. above.
I'm beginning to think I should just wipe one of them clean and start all over. My mind is turning to mush trying to figure this out.
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Posted December 19th, 2003 22:00
what i would try is, boot from the floppy with the three files on it ("ntldr", "ntdetect.com", and "boot.ini"). then i would switch folder view to "show hidden system files", and then i would copy those three files from the floppy to "c:".. see if that fixes things..(go back and uncheck the "show hidden system files" option in folder view) http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320397
Message Edited by redwolfe_98 on 12-19-2003 07:46 PM
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Posted December 19th, 2003 23:00
the only reason i said to show "hidden system files" was so that you could view the files on the floppy so as to copy them to "c:". you could try that (copying the three files to "c:"), but a clean reinstall of win xp is another option.230
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Posted December 20th, 2003 17:00
2 things to try before you re-install (the second option can cause loss of data):
1. System Restore
2. From Recovery prompt, run FIXMBR
jmwills
2 Intern
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11984 Posts
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Posted December 19th, 2003 17:00