"disk boot failure" but disk is fine?! can only boot by inserting XP disk then ignoring it!

[Guest]

Hello, I have XP Home on my comp installed on a hard drive and it has
been running fine... until today. When I try to boot, it says

"disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter".

I then discovered, that if I put the XP installation disk in the CD-
ROM drive and _ignore_ the prompt to press any key to boot from CD,
then XP boots and runs from the hard drive just fine!!

I am setup to boot from diskette first, then CD-ROM, then HD. I know
what you're gonna say, maybe change the boot order to hard drive
first, then CD-ROM. Nope, that does not help. Also, I found
somewhere a suggestion to make the boot partition "active" - when I do
that, the failure prompt changes to "NTLDR is missing (and I can still
boot by inserting the XP disk and ignoring it).


I have one question to you: WTF is going on here?

Thank you. Mark Galeck

 

[neil]

If you can boot to the CD and use the repair console, then use the command
chkdsk /p . Try booting again to the hard drive. If that doesn't work try
the repair console and use the commands FIXBOOT & FIXMBR.
See if any of those help, as to what caused the problem I haven't a clue.

Neil

 

[smlunatick]

If you can boot to the CD and use the repair console, then use the command
chkdsk /p . Try booting again to the hard drive. If that doesn't work try
the repair console and use the commands FIXBOOT & FIXMBR.
See if any of those help, as to what caused the problem I haven't a clue.











- Show quoted text -

I've seen this before. The PC can/will only boot with the XP install
CD as the "boot" disk. In "my" case, it was a virus stuck in the
Master Boot Record (MBR.) Do a complete up to date virus scan.