Disk Manager (from Windows NT and 2000) is now called Disk
Management. It is part of Computer Management. A quick way to load
Computer Management: enter in Start>Run the command compmgmt.msc .
This provides a check list of what actually exists. Confirm what you
thought with what the computer says exists. That partition (the only
partition and should be NTFS) should be the active partition, healthy,
etc
Other information that, in your case should not report anything
useful (but worth checking) is System Log of Event Viewer.
Your boot.ini file is would also tell boot loader program to load
those other files from first partition - reads correctly. But
apparently (from what I understand), you are not even getting the boot
loader to read boot.ini file; meaning again that the boot loader is
not finding and loading any files from the root directory. If boot.ini
file was read, then the text (WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home) would
be seen on screen.
If necessary files NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, Boot.ini exist and the boot
loader is confirmed OK (overwritten) by the Recover Console and that
partition is marked active, then only reason left for boot loader not
able to find those root directory files is a CMOS setting that is not
quite right for that drive. For example, words such as LBA or Normal
if mis-selected in CMOS would cause only part of the drive to be
readable during boot. A changed selection can mean that some files in
the root directory cannot be found by boot loader. When booted from
CD-Rom, the configuration setting may be ignored which is why booting
from CD-Rom can see same hard drive files just fine.
Although those voltages would cause me to perform further testing
(because 12 volts is so low while 5 volts is high), still, those
voltages are sufficient and would not cause a boot failure. Sometime
later, when system is accessing multiple peripherals simultaneously
(multitasking programs accessing hard drive, CD-Rom, floppy, network
and doing graphics), I would check those voltages again just to be
sure. Meanwhile, no reason to do any hardware changes. CPU will
either work - execute the WD diagnostic - or completely fail. Swapping
hardware may only complicate problems.
(BTW the Seagate with error code 78? means the XP on the Seagate is
for hardware different from what your motherboard contains. A HAL
layer in NT make NT unique for each computer chipset.)
We know files exist on root directory. We know boot.ini has correct
information. We know the boot loader does not read those root
directory files. That is the point where failure is happening. We
know disk hardware is OK. Question is why boot loader will not see
those files. (I believe the wording for the 'not booting' message is
directly from the Boot Loader meaning the boot loader did execute.)
Either CMOS setting for drive is not correct, or boot loader is not
properly written with parameters unique to that drive (maybe written
before CMOS setting somehow changed?), or disk is not active so that
boot loader does not know what partition to look for a root directory.
Hardware is working just fine. Something in your setup or parameters
written uniquely for the boot loader are causing boot loader to not
find root directory files. Try booting with different CMOS selections
for that drive. Confirm for active partition. Rewrite boot loader
program to disk boot sector using Recovery Console.
-Disk Manager: Are you talking about the Disk Management tools within
Windows?
-Boot.ini Contents:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /fastdetect
-PS Voltages:
12V: 11.85V
5V: 5.13V
3.3V: 3.39V
Anything else?