I just installed XP Pro (from an upgrade disk) onto a new
HD (my old system failed). It installed fine, activated
ok, everything seems normal, but it won't boot off the
disk, I can only get the system to boot if the XP CD is
installed in the CD drive so it can find the boot
record. I have reactivated the disk and rewritten the
boot sector using the recovery console to no avail. I am
very hesitant to rewrite the MBR since XP tells you doing
so may make the system unusabe, meaning I would have to
reinstall XP again, and go through the activation process
again, and risk Microsoft refusing to activate due to too
many times. Help!!!

Richard

Check and make sure the primary partiton on the first hard drive is set to
Active.

"Richard" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:f17701c40c63$87a32c50$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I just installed XP Pro (from an upgrade disk) onto a new
> HD (my old system failed). It installed fine, activated
> ok, everything seems normal, but it won't boot off the
> disk, I can only get the system to boot if the XP CD is
> installed in the CD drive so it can find the boot
> record. I have reactivated the disk and rewritten the
> boot sector using the recovery console to no avail. I am
> very hesitant to rewrite the MBR since XP tells you doing
> so may make the system unusabe, meaning I would have to
> reinstall XP again, and go through the activation process
> again, and risk Microsoft refusing to activate due to too
> many times. Help!!!
>
> Richard

Yes, I used the recovery console to activate the main
partition (there is only one disk and one partition),
then I also used recovery console to rewrite the boot
sector (but NOT the MBR).

Richard

>-----Original Message-----
>Check and make sure the primary partiton on the first
hard drive is set to
>Active.
>
>"Richard" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message
>news:f17701c40c63$87a32c50$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> I just installed XP Pro (from an upgrade disk) onto a
new
>> HD (my old system failed). It installed fine,
activated
>> ok, everything seems normal, but it won't boot off the
>> disk, I can only get the system to boot if the XP CD is
>> installed in the CD drive so it can find the boot
>> record. I have reactivated the disk and rewritten the
>> boot sector using the recovery console to no avail. I
am
>> very hesitant to rewrite the MBR since XP tells you
doing
>> so may make the system unusabe, meaning I would have to
>> reinstall XP again, and go through the activation
process
>> again, and risk Microsoft refusing to activate due to
too
>> many times. Help!!!
>>
>> Richard
>
>
>.
>

Doing all this did not help - the system still requires
the XP CD to be installed in order to boot -
interestingly, it looks for a boot sector first, finds
one on the CD (but not the HD if the CD is removed) then
offers to boot from the CD, and when you decline, will
proceed to boot off the hard disk!

Richard

>-----Original Message-----
>Check and make sure the primary partiton on the first
hard drive is set to
>Active.
>
>"Richard" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message
>news:f17701c40c63$87a32c50$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> I just installed XP Pro (from an upgrade disk) onto a
new
>> HD (my old system failed). It installed fine,
activated
>> ok, everything seems normal, but it won't boot off the
>> disk, I can only get the system to boot if the XP CD is
>> installed in the CD drive so it can find the boot
>> record. I have reactivated the disk and rewritten the
>> boot sector using the recovery console to no avail. I
am
>> very hesitant to rewrite the MBR since XP tells you
doing
>> so may make the system unusabe, meaning I would have to
>> reinstall XP again, and go through the activation
process
>> again, and risk Microsoft refusing to activate due to
too
>> many times. Help!!!
>>
>> Richard
>
>
>.
>