Can't boot from XP CD with new HDD

  • Thread starter Thread starter yonnermark
  • Start date Start date
Y

yonnermark

ASUS CUBX Motherboard. Maxtor 40GB HDD. Intel Celeron sub-1ghz
processor (but don't let that stop you helping me :)

Hi,
I'll try and be concise...

My old HDD broke down so I've just bought another one (maxtor 40gb).
The HDD which broke was the system disk, no partitions, so I'm starting
again from scratch.

==== SKIP THIS PART IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE PC IS FOR =====
I'm trying to rebuild this system so I can give the PC to a friend of
mine who needs it because she has just been released from Prison after
serving 12 years for a murder she didn't commit. She now needs a
computer to continue her campaign to clear her name. I said she could
have my old computer but I'm struggling to get it to boot
===== PC PROBLEM CONTINUES BELOW =========

I'm trying to get the computer to boot from the CD, but it won't.
Here's what I'm doing:

I've put the WinXP installation disk in the CD drive
I've connected the new HDD up so that it is primary master with the CD
drive being primary slave.
I've set CD drive to be the 1st boot drive, the HDD 2nd and the floppy
3rd.

Here's what I see during boot:

RAM is recognised and counted
HDD and CD drives are listed as primary master and slave
"BIOS is disabled"
15 second pause before the floppy disk is checked
then it says "initialising MBA" press CTRL ALT B to configure (or
similar)
Then it puts me in the Managed PC Boot Agent (MBA) v4.00 which just
lists various copyright messages and has no options to choose
Then the computer goes into Preboot Execution Envirnoment (PXE)
After 20 seconds pause it says
"PXE-E61 - media test failure - check cable
Network boot aborted
Press H to boot from Hard Drive"
If I press "H" I get this message:
"Disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter"

thanks for any help
mark
 
yonnermark said:
ASUS CUBX Motherboard. Maxtor 40GB HDD. Intel Celeron sub-1ghz
processor (but don't let that stop you helping me :)

Hi,
I'll try and be concise...

My old HDD broke down so I've just bought another one (maxtor 40gb).
The HDD which broke was the system disk, no partitions, so I'm starting
again from scratch.

==== SKIP THIS PART IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE PC IS FOR =====
I'm trying to rebuild this system so I can give the PC to a friend of
mine who needs it because she has just been released from Prison after
serving 12 years for a murder she didn't commit. She now needs a
computer to continue her campaign to clear her name. I said she could
have my old computer but I'm struggling to get it to boot
===== PC PROBLEM CONTINUES BELOW =========

I'm trying to get the computer to boot from the CD, but it won't.
Here's what I'm doing:

I've put the WinXP installation disk in the CD drive
I've connected the new HDD up so that it is primary master with the CD
drive being primary slave.
I've set CD drive to be the 1st boot drive, the HDD 2nd and the floppy
3rd.

Here's what I see during boot:

RAM is recognised and counted
HDD and CD drives are listed as primary master and slave
"BIOS is disabled"
15 second pause before the floppy disk is checked
then it says "initialising MBA" press CTRL ALT B to configure (or
similar)
Then it puts me in the Managed PC Boot Agent (MBA) v4.00 which just
lists various copyright messages and has no options to choose
Then the computer goes into Preboot Execution Envirnoment (PXE)
After 20 seconds pause it says
"PXE-E61 - media test failure - check cable
Network boot aborted
Click to expand...

it looks as though you have 'network' boot enabled

Reset your bios to defaults. make sure all the connectors to the hardware
are tight.
Is this a laptop?

Remember 'no good turn goes unpunished'
 
also if this is not a 'Real' XP disk and is a 'burned' copy it may not be
done correctly.
 
JAD said:
also if this is not a 'Real' XP disk and is a 'burned' copy it may not be
done correctly.
Click to expand...
Why are you only using 1 cable when you have 4 IDE ports? Make both
drivws master on seperate ports. Check manual that you are on correct ports
(2 seperate IDE controllers). Make floppy first boot device, CDROM , then
HD.
Use Win98 boot floppy with CDROM support to see if CDROM drive working OK.
Alt method is to use Boot floppy to partition and format hard drive. then
copy i386 directory from CD to HD. Change to i386 on HD and run WINNT.EXE.
Mike.
 
Hi Yon, I would have thought you should have the Bios Enabled, so check
thro` your settings again, also make sure that the drive is wired properly,
striped wire on ide cable to pin 1 on board and closest to the power
connector on drive. make sure the power plug is in the drive. Make sure
drive is set to Master. Now the drive should be Ok. Check it in the Bios,
and if poss. switch to Auto. If your first boot device is CD then when you
boot with WinXP it should start to fire up. Dont forget there`s nothing on
the Maxtor yet so you can`t boot from HD.
Hope this is some help. come back. ..J
 
Here's an update.
I've made progress thanks to your suggestions

I've made a Win98 boot disk and also an FDisk
I've put the HDD as primary master
the CD drive as secondary master. jumper settings changed accordingly.

I start the compy with the win98 boot disk and I get asked the options
*start with cd support
I choose this option and it gets as far as telling me that I need to
format the HDD
So I put FDISK in and type "fdisk" at the A: prompt
But I get this message:
CDR101: Not ready reading drive D
Abort, Retry, Fail?

So I guess that means my CD drive isn't installed properly or something
right?
The CD is a burnt copy of a cracked version of XP but I've used it
several times to reformat my other computer and I've used it to install
XP on a friend's machine only last week with no problems at all.

Any ideas on how I can persuade my D: drive to play ball?
thanks for the help so far guys
regards,
mark
 
Then it puts me in the Managed PC Boot Agent (MBA) v4.00 which just
lists various copyright messages and has no options to choose
Click to expand...


This makes me suspect there is some kind of special BIOS involved?
Here's what I'd do.

Pull power cord out and find and use clear CMOS jumper.
Re-boot and clear the partitions using aefdisk.Make a boot floppy with
it on from,
http://www.bootdisk.com

With Cdrom support.

and use the
aefdisk \delall command

This will clear the hard drive.
Use the boot disk to remake the partitions(Enable Large Disk Support
FAT32) for now and re-format the drive using format.com

and then try and load XP using the CD but accessing it the old way via
the boot floppy with Cdrom support.

HTH :)






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Here's an update.
I've made progress thanks to your suggestions

I've made a Win98 boot disk and also an FDisk
I've put the HDD as primary master
the CD drive as secondary master. jumper settings changed accordingly.

I start the compy with the win98 boot disk and I get asked the options
*start with cd support
I choose this option and it gets as far as telling me that I need to
format the HDD
So I put FDISK in and type "fdisk" at the A: prompt
But I get this message:
CDR101: Not ready reading drive D
Abort, Retry, Fail?
Click to expand...
You sure about this? Why would typing fdisk at the A prompt cause your
computer to want to read the D drive. Fdisk is a program that should be
found on the floppy disk.

Anyway, putting that to one side...
So I guess that means my CD drive isn't installed properly or something
right?
The CD is a burnt copy of a cracked version of XP but I've used it
several times to reformat my other computer and I've used it to install
XP on a friend's machine only last week with no problems at all.
Click to expand...

Have you tried putting a genuine original cd in the CD rom drive,
changing to that drive letter (D it seems) and seeing if you can browse
the cd at all. Try a few if necessary. If none can be read then
there's a problem with the Drive itself.
 
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