Bootit NG mistery BOOT FAILURE...needs to boot from its floppy at startup?

[swimmydeepo]

I am just experimenting with Bootit NG and managed to install a few
partitions including 2 XPs on NTFS, 1 XP on FAT32, and Win98 on FAT32
plus 2 extra partitions for Backups and Images.
Things seemed to going very smooth as I was able to switch from one OS
to the other without any problem. Each booted OS showed on C: drive
with only the data partition visible (Backups and Images).
I shut down the system for a break and then a few minutes later, after
switching the system back on, I was presented with the message: DISK
BOOT FAILURE....INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER.
I decided to press enter while the Bootit NG floppy was still inside
the drive and I was able to enter the Bootit NG environment...from
there I wasn't able to view my partitions, then,after clicking that
Reboot icon in Bootit NG, things returned as they were before I'd
switched off the computer.

So things are returned fine after all. Except that I have to remember
to use that NG floppy anytime I turn ON the computer (simple Restarts
or reboots are just fine).

Now it looks to me that something is happening when I switch off the
PC; perhaps the MBR is wrongly deleted or corrupted or else the BIOS
skips the HD on switching ON as it tries to access the CD Drive and
then the Floppy for booting information.

To be fair, I've taken a couple of disgressive steps while messing
about with NG. For example I didn't realized that NG doesn't format
NTFS partitions (it only prepares them...that's why it was so fast!)
and that once decided to opt for more than 4 primaries I should have
done without other partitioning programs...instead I used Acronis Suite
to create the 2 data volumes inside an Extended partition.

Can anyone solve this mistery?

Alex

 

[Ron Sommer]

Bootit NG has a newsgroup.
http://www.bootitng.com/oehelp.html

Did you install Bing to the hard drive?

 

[swimmydeepo]

Bootit NG has a newsgroup.
http://www.bootitng.com/oehelp.html

Did you install Bing to the hard drive?

Of course I did...
Probably I didn't made it clear but after the initial boot (after
turning on the PC) via the NG floppy I can reboot at will without the
floppy using the existing NG partition (the one of 8Mb created with the
Setup option from the floppy).
In fact the whole switching from one OS to the other works great...that
floppy needed at the start of a computing session is the only niggling
problem.

Alex

 

[swimmydeepo]

Just to be more precise:
No I don't reinstall BING in the HD from the floppy at each starting
computer session....
In other words, I've only istalled the NG partition once and it works
except when I start the PC.

 

[Ron Sommer]

From Terabyte support:
It's because their is no active partition or the BIOS can't find the HD
(drive slow to come ready - may be failing or BIOS issue requiring warm
boot).

Insure the BIOS boot order is correct so that it attempts to boot the
correct HD, when booting the BING diskette if it has a "reactive" option
then choose it; if multiple HD's exist then you should again double check
the setting (see http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=069 for
the concepts).

 

[swimmydeepo]

From Terabyte support:
It's because their is no active partition or the BIOS can't find the HD
(drive slow to come ready - may be failing or BIOS issue requiring warm
boot).

Insure the BIOS boot order is correct so that it attempts to boot the
correct HD, when booting the BING diskette if it has a "reactive" option
then choose it; if multiple HD's exist then you should again double check
the setting (see http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=069 for
the concepts).

There is another issue which may be important: my HD is a Sata
type...can this be the cause?
In any case my installation was just an experiment...I am going to
start from scratch and see if things get better.
If the problem persist, I may start to think that there is something
wrong with my HD.

Thanks for your suggestions

Alex