Error loading OS: XP only loads with XP CD in the drive.

[David]

Win XP SP 2 has been running fine for one year. Suddenly, I got the Error
Loading OS message and XP will not boot.

When I placed the XP disk in the CD drive (I ignore the message "Hit any key
to boot from CD") XP loads normally. It doesn't matter if the C: drive or
the CD drive (E: on my system) is selected as the primary boot drive.
Without the XP disk in the CD drive, I get the Error Loading OS message and
the boot fails..

To attempt a repair, I booted from the CD to the recovery console and tried
FIXMBR. It did not help.

Any suggestion how to repair this problem?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

If the hard drive is formatted FAT32 then you may need to use fixboot and
then fixmbr.

 

[David]

Thanks for the response.

No, the drive is formatted NTFS.
It is a SATA drive.

Will fixboot work on a NTFS drive?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

It is for FAT32.

Thanks for the response.

No, the drive is formatted NTFS.
It is a SATA drive.

Will fixboot work on a NTFS drive?

 

[smlunatick]

Win XP SP 2 has been running fine for one year.  Suddenly, I got the Error
Loading OS message and XP will not boot.  

When I placed the XP disk in the CD drive (I ignore the message "Hit any key
to boot from CD") XP loads normally.  It doesn't matter if the C: drive or
the CD drive (E: on my system) is selected as the primary boot drive.  
Without the XP disk in the CD drive, I get the Error Loading OS message and
the boot fails..

To attempt a repair, I booted from the CD to the recovery console and tried
FIXMBR.  It did not help.

Any suggestion how to repair this problem?

Seent this type of problem when XP firs came out. That time, an old
"virus" hit to boot sector (came from infected "data" file.) You will
need to take the drive out of the "infected" system and slave it in
another system, to clear out the virus. Then, a repair re-install
"may" be needed in order to fix the Xp files that may have to be
clobbered during the clean up.