installed xp won't boot unless cd is in drive

[Evan]

yeah, i know, it's weird one. i have this one pc (dell optiplex 150) at
work. i formatted the drive with my wxp sp2 cd, the one i use on all my
systems. xp installs and loads just fine. then, when i take out the install
cd, i get a bios error (f1 to retry boot). but, if i boot with the install
cd in and let the 'press any key to boot from cd' pass, windows boots fine.

this happens with multiple hd's in this system. i've tried both cable select
and master. and yes, the bios is the latest. (hmmm...maybe this should be
under hardware...)

can anyone figure wtf might be going on?

btw, the exact same thing happens with ubuntu linux on this pc. and also
btw, this really is the same cd i always use to install xp without any
problem.

tia

 

[Guest]

reset boot order to HD first

 

[Evan]

thx, dennis. but it's not that simple. i guess i should have mentioned that
i already tried all the obvious stuff. hell, i even physically disconnected
the cd-rom drive.

but, please, keep 'em coming!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

yeah, i know, it's weird one. i have this one pc (dell optiplex 150) at
work. i formatted the drive with my wxp sp2 cd, the one i use on all my
systems. xp installs and loads just fine. then, when i take out the install
cd, i get a bios error (f1 to retry boot). but, if i boot with the install
cd in and let the 'press any key to boot from cd' pass, windows boots fine.

this happens with multiple hd's in this system. i've tried both cable select
and master. and yes, the bios is the latest. (hmmm...maybe this should be
under hardware...)

can anyone figure wtf might be going on?

btw, the exact same thing happens with ubuntu linux on this pc. and also
btw, this really is the same cd i always use to install xp without any
problem.

tia

There are four items you need for Windows to start its boot
sequence successfully:
1. Your system disk must be set to "active".
2. The disk must have the appropriate Master Boot Record (MBR).
3. The disk must have the appropriate boot sector.
4. The disk must have the three hidden boot files in the root folder of
the active partition (which is usually C: ntdetect.com, ntldr,
boot.ini.

To fix No. 1 above, boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk
(www.bootdisk.com), then run fdisk.exe and set the partition to
"active".
To fix the remainder, boot the machine with your WinXP CD,
select Repair, then select "Recovery Console". Now issue these
commands:
fixmbr
fixboot