XP Boot Peculiarity

[Parvardigar]

On a Sony Vaio using a new Western Digital 300 GB Hard drive I did
this:

Formatted Fat32.
Installed Windows XP Pro SP 2
Installed Office Xp.
Installed Anti Virus
Installed Abode Applications.
This process took place over one week. Every day rebooting during
installs and so forth. Then during a recent boot process I ended up
with a black screen and the cursor flashing. I looked into Cmos and
discovered that this hard drive was detected as slave. That was
incorrect. There is only one hard drive in the Vaio.
I move the jumper from 'Master with Slave' to Cable Select. The
computer booted into Windows. I installed additional applications. And
after a mandatory reboot the black screen with cursor appeared. I
checked Cmos: WD set as Master. Boot order Cd; Harddrive; Floppy.

I booted pressing F8 and selected 'hard drive'. Again the black screen
with blinking cursor.
I changed the jumper from 'Cable Select' to 'Master with Slave'.
Checked Cmos ; and WD as Master, detected. I rebooted, and again the
black screen.

This time I removed the jumper completely from the hard drive; checked
Cmos ; WD as master was selected, and then I rebooted into Xp -without
incident.

After finishing up on a project I turned off the computer. The next
day upon reboot -once again the black screen with cursor. And this
time no matter what I did with switching the jumper I couldn’t boot
into Xp. Upon inspection of Cmos the WD was always detected as Master.

I am stuck with a black screen/cursor upon boot. I did run the WD diag
floppy disk utility. The drive passed all inspections. No issues.

I booted into the hard drive with the Win98 floppy. (That’s why I
formatted Fat32 in case I had an issue and needed access to the
drive.) I have Drive C: and it is healthy, complete. I did run
scandisk –the drive trouble free.

I know there is a simply solution to fix this boot issue – and need
only the correct answer.
Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks
John Marshall

 

[SC Tom]

On a Sony Vaio using a new Western Digital 300 GB Hard drive I did
this:

Formatted Fat32.
Installed Windows XP Pro SP 2
Installed Office Xp.
Installed Anti Virus
Installed Abode Applications.
This process took place over one week. Every day rebooting during
installs and so forth. Then during a recent boot process I ended up
with a black screen and the cursor flashing. I looked into Cmos and
discovered that this hard drive was detected as slave. That was
incorrect. There is only one hard drive in the Vaio.
I move the jumper from 'Master with Slave' to Cable Select. The
computer booted into Windows. I installed additional applications. And
after a mandatory reboot the black screen with cursor appeared. I
checked Cmos: WD set as Master. Boot order Cd; Harddrive; Floppy.

I booted pressing F8 and selected 'hard drive'. Again the black screen
with blinking cursor.
I changed the jumper from 'Cable Select' to 'Master with Slave'.
Checked Cmos ; and WD as Master, detected. I rebooted, and again the
black screen.

This time I removed the jumper completely from the hard drive; checked
Cmos ; WD as master was selected, and then I rebooted into Xp -without
incident.

After finishing up on a project I turned off the computer. The next
day upon reboot -once again the black screen with cursor. And this
time no matter what I did with switching the jumper I couldn’t boot
into Xp. Upon inspection of Cmos the WD was always detected as Master.

I am stuck with a black screen/cursor upon boot. I did run the WD diag
floppy disk utility. The drive passed all inspections. No issues.

I booted into the hard drive with the Win98 floppy. (That’s why I
formatted Fat32 in case I had an issue and needed access to the
drive.) I have Drive C: and it is healthy, complete. I did run
scandisk –the drive trouble free.

I know there is a simply solution to fix this boot issue – and need
only the correct answer.
Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks
John Marshall

==========================

There should be a jumper setting for Master only; if there is no other drive
(HDD or optical), that's what it should be on.
How old is this machine? Do you have any problems with the time changing in
BIOS? It's possible the MB battery may be dying.

SC Tom

 

[Parvardigar]

On a Sony Vaio using a new Western Digital 300 GB Hard drive I did
this:

Formatted Fat32.
Installed WindowsXPPro SP 2
Installed OfficeXp.
Installed Anti Virus
Installed Abode Applications.
This process took place over one week. Every day rebooting during
installs and so forth. Then during a recentbootprocess I ended up
with a black screen and the cursor flashing. I looked into Cmos and
discovered that this hard drive was detected as slave. That was
incorrect. There is only one hard drive in the Vaio.
I move the jumper from 'Master with Slave' to Cable Select. The
computer booted into Windows. I installed additional applications. And
after a mandatory reboot the black screen with cursor appeared. I
checked Cmos: WD set as Master.Bootorder Cd; Harddrive; Floppy.

I booted pressing F8 and selected 'hard drive'. Again the black screen
with blinking cursor.
I changed the jumper from 'Cable Select' to 'Master with Slave'.
Checked Cmos ; and WD as Master, detected. I rebooted, and again the
black screen.

This time I removed the jumper completely from the hard drive; checked
Cmos ; WD as master was selected, and then I rebooted intoXp-without
incident.

After finishing up on a project I turned off the computer. The next
day upon reboot -once again the black screen with cursor. And this
time no matter what I did with switching the jumper I couldn’tboot
intoXp. Upon inspection of Cmos the WD was always detected as Master.

I am stuck with a black screen/cursor uponboot. I did run the WD diag
floppy disk utility. The drive passed all inspections. No issues.

I booted into the hard drive with the Win98 floppy. (That’s why I
formatted Fat32 in case I had an issue and needed access to the
drive.) I have Drive C: and it is healthy, complete. I did run
scandisk –the drive trouble free.

I know there is a simply solution to fix thisbootissue – and need
only the correct answer.
Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks
John Marshall

==========================

There should be a jumper setting for Master only; if there is no other drive
(HDD or optical), that's what it should be on.
How old is this machine? Do you have any problems with the time changing in
BIOS? It's possible the MB battery may be dying.

SC Tom

The computer is four years old ; and bios shows accurate time and
date. Is there a possibility that adjusting the MBR would help?
Thanks

 

[Parvardigar]

On a Sony Vaio using a new Western Digital 300 GB Hard drive I did
this:

Formatted Fat32.
Installed WindowsXPPro SP 2
Installed OfficeXp.
Installed Anti Virus
Installed Abode Applications.
This process took place over one week. Every day rebooting during
installs and so forth. Then during a recentbootprocess I ended up
with a black screen and the cursor flashing. I looked into Cmos and
discovered that this hard drive was detected as slave. That was
incorrect. There is only one hard drive in the Vaio.
I move the jumper from 'Master with Slave' to Cable Select. The
computer booted into Windows. I installed additional applications. And
after a mandatory reboot the black screen with cursor appeared. I
checked Cmos: WD set as Master.Bootorder Cd; Harddrive; Floppy.

I booted pressing F8 and selected 'hard drive'. Again the black screen
with blinking cursor.
I changed the jumper from 'Cable Select' to 'Master with Slave'.
Checked Cmos ; and WD as Master, detected. I rebooted, and again the
black screen.

This time I removed the jumper completely from the hard drive; checked
Cmos ; WD as master was selected, and then I rebooted intoXp-without
incident.

After finishing up on a project I turned off the computer. The next
day upon reboot -once again the black screen with cursor. And this
time no matter what I did with switching the jumper I couldn’tboot
intoXp. Upon inspection of Cmos the WD was always detected as Master.

I am stuck with a black screen/cursor uponboot. I did run the WD diag
floppy disk utility. The drive passed all inspections. No issues.

I booted into the hard drive with the Win98 floppy. (That’s why I
formatted Fat32 in case I had an issue and needed access to the
drive.) I have Drive C: and it is healthy, complete. I did run
scandisk –the drive trouble free.

I know there is a simply solution to fix thisbootissue – and need
only the correct answer.
Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks
John Marshall

==========================

There should be a jumper setting for Master only; if there is no other drive
(HDD or optical), that's what it should be on.
How old is this machine? Do you have any problems with the time changing in
BIOS? It's possible the MB battery may be dying.

SC Tom

And to follow up I put back the former drive into the Vaio 40cg ; and
the computer booted. If all apsects as stated in my original meesage -
hard drive inspected, tested, passed -could it be the MBR that is the
culprint? Thanks

 

[Anna]

On a Sony Vaio using a new Western Digital 300 GB Hard drive I did
this:

Formatted Fat32.
Installed Windows XP Pro SP 2
Installed Office Xp.
Installed Anti Virus
Installed Abode Applications.
This process took place over one week. Every day rebooting during
installs and so forth. Then during a recent boot process I ended up
with a black screen and the cursor flashing. I looked into Cmos and
discovered that this hard drive was detected as slave. That was
incorrect. There is only one hard drive in the Vaio.
I move the jumper from 'Master with Slave' to Cable Select. The
computer booted into Windows. I installed additional applications. And
after a mandatory reboot the black screen with cursor appeared. I
checked Cmos: WD set as Master. Boot order Cd; Harddrive; Floppy.

I booted pressing F8 and selected 'hard drive'. Again the black screen
with blinking cursor.
I changed the jumper from 'Cable Select' to 'Master with Slave'.
Checked Cmos ; and WD as Master, detected. I rebooted, and again the
black screen.

This time I removed the jumper completely from the hard drive; checked
Cmos ; WD as master was selected, and then I rebooted into Xp -without
incident.

After finishing up on a project I turned off the computer. The next
day upon reboot -once again the black screen with cursor. And this
time no matter what I did with switching the jumper I couldn’t boot
into Xp. Upon inspection of Cmos the WD was always detected as Master.

I am stuck with a black screen/cursor upon boot. I did run the WD diag
floppy disk utility. The drive passed all inspections. No issues.

I booted into the hard drive with the Win98 floppy. (That’s why I
formatted Fat32 in case I had an issue and needed access to the
drive.) I have Drive C: and it is healthy, complete. I did run
scandisk –the drive trouble free.

I know there is a simply solution to fix this boot issue – and need
only the correct answer.
Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks
John Marshall

(John adds...)
And to follow up I put back the former drive into the Vaio 40cg ; and
the computer booted. If all apsects as stated in my original meesage -
hard drive inspected, tested, passed -could it be the MBR that is the
culprint? Thanks


John:
It's hard to imagine this is a HDD jumpering issue, but I suppose it's
possible.

Presumably your WD 300 GB HDD is a PATA, not a SATA HDD, right?

In any event if the WD PATA HDD is the only HDD connected in the system it
should be jumpered for either "Single" or "Cable Select". (I assume you know
how to connect a device via CS). Jumper orientation should be on the disk's
label.

Is there any chance that after you re:intall the WD drive and check its
connections you simply try another re:install of the XP OS? And in doing so
might you not consider creating an NTFS rather than a FAT32 file system?

And you say you've checked out the disk with the WD HDD diagnostic utility,
right? Both the short & long tests?

If you connect the WD as a secondary HDD in the system (jumpering it
accordingly) while using your old HDD as the boot disk, any problems
accessing/manipulating programs/data on the WD drive?
Anna

 

[Parvardigar]

On a Sony Vaio using a new Western Digital 300 GB Hard drive I did
this:

Formatted Fat32.
Installed Windows XP Pro SP 2
Installed Office Xp.
Installed Anti Virus
Installed Abode Applications.
This process took place over one week. Every day rebooting during
installs and so forth. Then during a recent boot process I ended up
with ablackscreenand thecursorflashing. I lookedintoCmos and
discovered that this hard drive was detected as slave. That was
incorrect. There is only one hard drive in the Vaio.
I move the jumper from 'Master with Slave' to Cable Select. The
computer bootedintoWindows. I installed additional applications. And
after a mandatory reboot theblackscreenwithcursorappeared. I
checked Cmos: WD set as Master. Boot order Cd; Harddrive; Floppy.

I booted pressing F8 and selected 'hard drive'. Again theblackscreen
with blinkingcursor.
I changed the jumper from 'Cable Select' to 'Master with Slave'.
Checked Cmos ; and WD as Master, detected. I rebooted, and again theblackscreen.

This time I removed the jumper completely from the hard drive; checked
Cmos ; WD as master was selected, and then I rebootedintoXp -without
incident.

After finishing up on a project I turned off the computer. The next
day upon reboot -once again theblackscreenwithcursor. And this
time no matter what I did with switching the jumper I couldn’t bootintoXp. Upon inspection of Cmos the WD was always detected as Master.

I am stuck with ablackscreen/cursorupon boot. I did run the WD diag
floppy disk utility. The drive passed all inspections. No issues.

I bootedintothe hard drive with the Win98 floppy. (That’s why I
formatted Fat32 in case I had an issue and needed access to the
drive.) I have Drive C: and it is healthy, complete. I did run
scandisk –the drive trouble free.

I know there is a simply solution to fix this boot issue – and need
only the correct answer.
Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks
John Marshall

(John adds...)
And to follow up I put back the former driveintothe Vaio 40cg ; and
the computer booted. If all apsects as stated in my original meesage -
hard drive inspected, tested, passed -could it be the MBR that is the
culprint? Thanks

John:
It's hard to imagine this is a HDD jumpering issue, but I suppose it's
possible.

Presumably your WD 300 GB HDD is a PATA, not a SATA HDD, right?

In any event if the WD PATA HDD is the only HDD connected in the system it
should be jumpered for either "Single" or "Cable Select". (I assume you know
how to connect a device via CS). Jumper orientation should be on the disk's
label.

Is there any chance that after you re:intall the WD drive and check its
connections you simply try another re:install of the XP OS? And in doing so
might you not consider creating an NTFS rather than a FAT32 file system?

And you say you've checked out the disk with the WD HDD diagnostic utility,
right? Both the short & long tests?

If you connect the WD as a secondary HDD in the system (jumpering it
accordingly) while using your old HDD as the boot disk, any problems
accessing/manipulating programs/data on the WD drive?
Anna

I've read many post on this topic and the 'cures' are reckless. Yes
this is Pata. It's best to proceed cautiously. I'm certain it's an
obvious solution. The hardware change that I am now reflecting upon
(and it just entered my mind) is I swapped out the original video card
a few months ago; and put into the computer a dual video card so I
could use two monitors for graphics work.

When I get back to the shop I'll fiddle with the video card ; reset
it ; swap it out ; and so forth to see if that may be the culpirt.
I'll post back the results of this experiments. Thanks

 

[Parvardigar]

I've read many post on this topic and the 'cures' are reckless. Yes
this is Pata. It's best to proceed cautiously. I'm certain it's an
obvious solution. The hardware change that I am now reflecting upon
(and it just entered my mind) is I swapped out the original video card
a few months ago; and put into the computer a dual video card so I
could use two monitors for graphics work.

When I get back to the shop I'll fiddle with the video card ; reset
it ; swap it out ; and so forth to see if that may be the culpirt.
I'll post back the results of this experiments. Thanks- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Swapped out video cards. No change. Cmos shows WD as Primary. Boot
order CD; HD; Floppy. Press F8 > Select Hard Drive: Black screen with
cursor. I can access the drive (fat32) using the windows 98 boot
floppy. I can swap out hard drives ; and if I use the old hard drive;
and computer easily boots into Xp. When I put back in the new hard
drive (fresh Xp fresh SP fresh application) boots into blkscreen/
cursor.

I don't know. I may have to do a fix MBR. There's not too many options
that I have to work with. All I know is everything worked fine for a
couple weeks ; and suddenly a black screen. Thanks, John M

 

[Anna]

Swapped out video cards. No change. Cmos shows WD as Primary. Boot
order CD; HD; Floppy. Press F8 > Select Hard Drive: Black screen with
cursor. I can access the drive (fat32) using the windows 98 boot
floppy. I can swap out hard drives ; and if I use the old hard drive;
and computer easily boots into Xp. When I put back in the new hard
drive (fresh Xp fresh SP fresh application) boots into blkscreen/
cursor.

I don't know. I may have to do a fix MBR. There's not too many options
that I have to work with. All I know is everything worked fine for a
couple weeks ; and suddenly a black screen. Thanks, John M


John:
In view of this ongoing problem with the WD HDD that you've been unable to
resolve, and assuming the following is practical, why don't you simply clone
the contents of your (apparently) bootable, functional, former HDD to the WD
and see how it goes?

If there's any data on the WD HDD that you need/want, copy such over to some
removable media or the "old" HDD itself prior to the disk-cloning operation.
Obviously should the disk-cloning prove successful you would need to
re:install whatever programs you added to the WD drive.

I assume you work with or have access to a disk-cloning program, but if you
don't you can download a trial version of the Acronis True Image program. A
trial version (slightly crippled) of my preferred disk-cloning program,
Casper 5, is also available. See http://www.fssdev.com

And, as you probably know, WD also has a disk-copying (cloning) utility
freely available.
Anna

 

[Parvardigar]

Swapped out video cards. No change. Cmos shows WD as Primary. Boot
order CD; HD; Floppy. Press F8 > Select Hard Drive: Black screen with
cursor. I can access the drive (fat32) using the windows 98 boot
floppy. I can swap out hard drives ; and if I use the old hard drive;
and computer easily boots into Xp. When I put back in the new hard
drive (fresh Xp fresh SP  fresh application) boots into blkscreen/
cursor.

I don't know. I may have to do a fix MBR. There's not too many options
that I have to work with. All I know is everything worked fine for a
couple weeks ; and suddenly a black screen. Thanks, John M

John:
In view of this ongoing problem with the WD HDD that you've been unable to
resolve, and assuming the following is practical, why don't you simply clone
the contents of your (apparently) bootable, functional, former HDD to theWD
and see how it goes?

If there's any data on the WD HDD that you need/want, copy such over to some
removable media or the "old" HDD itself prior to the disk-cloning operation.
Obviously should the disk-cloning prove successful you would need to
re:install whatever programs you added to the WD drive.

I assume you work with or have access to a disk-cloning program, but if you
don't you can download a trial version of the Acronis True Image program.A
trial version (slightly crippled) of my preferred disk-cloning program,
Casper 5, is also available. Seehttp://www.fssdev.com

And, as you probably know, WD also has a disk-copying (cloning) utility
freely available.
Anna

Anna
Thanks for your technical insights. Yes. I will copy off the data ;
and I will clone the drive. I need to do these tests to eventually
discover what the actual problem is.

I remember before this black screen incident that after I had
installed the Abode applications I exported the registry. Thus I have
a copy of the most recent registry.
I may want to run an Xp reinstall - and if I am able to boot normally
with this hard drive ; I would import the registry - and test out the
computer.

That would be another scenario in working to recover this hard drive.
Thanks for the comments.
John Marshall

 

[Anna]

Swapped out video cards. No change. Cmos shows WD as Primary. Boot
order CD; HD; Floppy. Press F8 > Select Hard Drive: Black screen with
cursor. I can access the drive (fat32) using the windows 98 boot
floppy. I can swap out hard drives ; and if I use the old hard drive;
and computer easily boots into Xp. When I put back in the new hard
drive (fresh Xp fresh SP fresh application) boots into blkscreen/
cursor.

I don't know. I may have to do a fix MBR. There's not too many options
that I have to work with. All I know is everything worked fine for a
couple weeks ; and suddenly a black screen. Thanks, John M


In view of this ongoing problem with the WD HDD that you've been unable to
resolve, and assuming the following is practical, why don't you simply
clone
the contents of your (apparently) bootable, functional, former HDD to the
WD
and see how it goes?

If there's any data on the WD HDD that you need/want, copy such over to
some
removable media or the "old" HDD itself prior to the disk-cloning
operation.
Obviously should the disk-cloning prove successful you would need to
re:install whatever programs you added to the WD drive.

I assume you work with or have access to a disk-cloning program, but if
you
don't you can download a trial version of the Acronis True Image program.
A
trial version (slightly crippled) of my preferred disk-cloning program,
Casper 5, is also available. Seehttp://www.fssdev.com

And, as you probably know, WD also has a disk-copying (cloning) utility
freely available.
Anna

Anna
Thanks for your technical insights. Yes. I will copy off the data ;
and I will clone the drive. I need to do these tests to eventually
discover what the actual problem is.

I remember before this black screen incident that after I had
installed the Abode applications I exported the registry. Thus I have
a copy of the most recent registry.
I may want to run an Xp reinstall - and if I am able to boot normally
with this hard drive ; I would import the registry - and test out the
computer.

That would be another scenario in working to recover this hard drive.
Thanks for the comments.
John Marshall


John:
Obviously whatever "testing" process you want to undertake is, of course, up
to you. But I'm puzzled about what you really hope to accomplish through
this process of "test(ing) out the computer".

Assuming that following the disk-cloning operation the WD (problem) HDD is
bootable & functional in all respects, what would be the point of importing
the former registry? Assuming that it *was* a corrupted registry that was
causing the problem in the first place what would be the purpose of
importing that registry into a bootable, functional OS? Or if somehow those
Adobe applications that you now mention were the root cause of the
problem(s) you experienced, does this hold some significance to you if the
present system is now perfectly functional without any problems?

You have stated that your "old" bootable HDD is without problems so
presumably if you clone the contents of that disk to your WD HDD the latter
drive will similarly be without problems, i.e., it will boot without
incident and function without any problems. Is that not so? So under what
circumstances would this "testing" be "another scenario in working to
recover this hard drive."?

Or is it that you're just anticipating the possibility of the disk-cloning
operation *not* resulting in the WD drive becoming a bootable, functional
device?
Anna

 

[Parvardigar]

Anna
Thanks for your technical insights. Yes. I will copy off the data ;
and I will clone the drive. I need to do these tests to eventually
discover what the actual problem is.

I remember before this black screen incident that after I had
installed the Abode applications I exported the registry. Thus I have
a copy of the most recent registry.
I may want to run an Xp reinstall - and if I am able to boot normally
with this hard drive ; I would import the registry - and test out the
computer.

That would be another scenario in working to recover this hard drive.
Thanks for the comments.
John Marshall

John:
Obviously whatever "testing" process you want to undertake is, of course,up
to you. But I'm puzzled about what you really hope to accomplish through
this process of "test(ing) out the computer".

Assuming that following the disk-cloning operation the WD (problem) HDD is
bootable & functional in all respects, what would be the point of importing
the former registry? Assuming that it *was* a corrupted registry that was
causing the problem in the first place what would be the purpose of
importing that registry into a bootable, functional OS? Or if somehow those
Adobe applications that you now mention were the root cause of the
problem(s) you experienced, does this hold some significance to you if the
present system is now perfectly functional without any problems?

You have stated that your "old" bootable HDD is without problems so
presumably if you clone the contents of that disk to your WD HDD the latter
drive will similarly be without problems, i.e., it will boot without
incident and function without any problems. Is that not so? So under what
circumstances would this "testing" be "another scenario in working to
recover this hard drive."?

Or is it that you're just anticipating the possibility of the disk-cloning
operation *not* resulting in the WD drive becoming a bootable, functional
device?
Anna- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes. You're absolutely correct. Following my 'testing operations'
would only create additional complexities. I'll take your advise - and
do the best. Thanks