Windows fails to boot (BIOS loops ad-infinitem)

[Guest]

Can anyone help before Dell charges me £60?!!!

A few days ago my Windows XP OS began to fail to boot following the
execution of the Dell BIOS screen. The BIOS ends (when the progress bar
reaches the end) and, when/where Windows used to start, starts all over
again. This BIOS loop continues ad-infinitem.

I have two IDE HDDs running, I think, in 'Cable Select'. The primary is a
post-factory add-on 160GB SAMSUNG and the second is the Dell factory fitted
40GB, possibly an IBM or maybe a SEAGATE.

When I installed the 160GB drive I used Casper XP to clone the OS and all
data from the 40GB to the 160GB and all was well. Everything worked fine for
around a year.

This problem, however, has happened before. The last time it happened, I
copied all data and settings onto DVDs (by changing the BIOS and using the
old XP OS I hadn't yet deleted from the 40GB), formatted the 160GB,
re-installed the OS and put all the data and settings back on. It took about
a week.
Is there a way to fix the problem without doing all that again? And, of
course, not risking any of the data on the 160GB drive?

I have tried the fixboot.exe command, having booted from the XP CD, but, as
I don't really know what I'm doing, haven't tried anything else. The hardware
is all good and sound, although the full bit check did take around 12
hours!!!!

Any ideas?

Jack

P.S. Dell are proposing formatting and reinstalling the OS 'clean' onto the
40GB, making it the primary, making an untold number of partitions here there
and everywhere and then making the 160GB the data storage drive. Whilst I
realise that this is probably the "Rolls Royce" solution - it seems
complicated, will cost me £60 and is unlikely to be able to be fixed by me in
the future without the further outlay of another £60.

 

[Anna]

Can anyone help before Dell charges me £60?!!!

A few days ago my Windows XP OS began to fail to boot following the
execution of the Dell BIOS screen. The BIOS ends (when the progress bar
reaches the end) and, when/where Windows used to start, starts all over
again. This BIOS loop continues ad-infinitem.

I have two IDE HDDs running, I think, in 'Cable Select'. The primary is a
post-factory add-on 160GB SAMSUNG and the second is the Dell factory
fitted
40GB, possibly an IBM or maybe a SEAGATE.

When I installed the 160GB drive I used Casper XP to clone the OS and all
data from the 40GB to the 160GB and all was well. Everything worked fine
for
around a year.

This problem, however, has happened before. The last time it happened, I
copied all data and settings onto DVDs (by changing the BIOS and using the
old XP OS I hadn't yet deleted from the 40GB), formatted the 160GB,
re-installed the OS and put all the data and settings back on. It took
about
a week.
Is there a way to fix the problem without doing all that again? And, of
course, not risking any of the data on the 160GB drive?

I have tried the fixboot.exe command, having booted from the XP CD, but,
as
I don't really know what I'm doing, haven't tried anything else. The
hardware
is all good and sound, although the full bit check did take around 12
hours!!!!

Any ideas?

Jack

P.S. Dell are proposing formatting and reinstalling the OS 'clean' onto
the
40GB, making it the primary, making an untold number of partitions here
there
and everywhere and then making the 160GB the data storage drive. Whilst I
realise that this is probably the "Rolls Royce" solution - it seems
complicated, will cost me £60 and is unlikely to be able to be fixed by me
in
the future without the further outlay of another £60.

Jack:
Probably the first thing you should do is to check out the HDD to determine
if it's defective. I assume you haven't done that yet. So download the disk
diagnostic utility from Samsung...
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/hutil.htm
to check out the disk.

Assuming the HDD is non-defective, you could try a Repair install of the
operating system. I'm assuming here that your XP installation CD is a "full"
CD, not a Dell recovery disk, and as such you'll be able to run a Repair
install from the XP installation CD.

A Repair install of the OS the process is relatively straightforward. It
would be roughly akin to making a fresh install of the OS, but in nearly
every case your existing programs & user-created data would be retained.
While it would be a rather rare situation where data would be lost or
corrupted as a result of the Repair install, and as unlikely as it may be,
it *could* happen.

There are a number of websites that contain step-by-step instructions for
undertaking a Repair install. As I previously indicated the process is not
at all difficult and not terribly time-consuming. If you do a Google search
on "XP repair install", you'll be pointed to many of these sites. Here are a
few...
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm#RI
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=138

Assuming the Repair install is successful, you should use your A-V program
to immediately check out your PC for any virus infestation. Also, you will
need to download/install *all* the MS critical updates since SP2. (I'm
assuming that if the Repair install is necessary, you will be undertaking it
with a XP CD that contains SP2). That, of course, is one of the downsides re
undertaking a Repair install. It's usually an onerous task to download all
the Critical Updates from MS especially if you're using a dialup phone
connection rather than broadband.

Needless to say, there's no guarantee that the Repair install will be
successful since there may be problems present other than a
mildly-corrupted OS that a Repair install will generally correct.
Anna

 

[AJR]

As Anna suggests try repair. Boot from the XP CD - do not select the first
repair option (Recovery Console) - continue and you should get a dialogue
indicating that setup has found a Windows installation and ask if you want
to repair - select yes. Setup will continue, actually the :repair is an
upgrade Windows installation.

 

[Guest]

I'm not an expert at this, but I suggest looking at the BIOS (I think by
holding down Delete as the computer start up)
When you access the BIOS, I think you should check and make sure that the
BIOS boots from the primary hard disk.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I'm not an expert at this, but I suggest looking at the BIOS (I think by
holding down Delete as the computer start up)

How to get into your BIOS depends, not on Windows, but on what
motherboard/BIOS you have. As a matter of fact, you have to access the
BIOS before Windows even starts to boot. One common way is to press
the Del key when you first power on, but that's not necessarily right
for your computer. Watch the screen carefully when you first boot;
there's often a message there telling you what to do. If not, check
your system documentation or check with your vendor.

Also look here: http://michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm Or
just try the Del key. There's a good chance that's correct for you.

 

[Guest]

Are we even still sure that this is actually windows based? If we tried
checking the
BIOS first, that could save some time.

 

[Guest]

Dear All,

thank you for your replies;

Anna, AJR:
- The repair didn't work. It was one of the avenues I hadn't tried (or even
knew about) but it didn't work. The BIOS now completes and a new screen
appears, but it only has a blinking cursor in the top left hand corner,
which remains, yep you've guessed it, - ad-infinitem. Luckily, when booting
from the other drive I can still see the corrupt drive data so I can still
rescue it, even if it will take me a week or so!!
Luckily I have 10mb broadband, courtsey of a Pharma giant, so a system full
of Drivers and Upgrades takes only a few minutes.

Thanks again,

Jack

 

[Guest]

Fella,

Thanks for your posts but I'm way ahead of you on the BIOS front. It's
definitely not the BIOS as I have been altering the Boot order in the BIOS
all day, back and forth between the 160GB, 40GB and CD/DVD in order to try
different things. It's definitely the 160GB HDD's Boot sector that's the
problem and the repair suggested by the other guys hasn't worked either.
So.........my way or Dell's way.........I'm flipping
now..........heads.............damn......!!!!!

 

[Anna]

Dear All,

thank you for your replies;

Anna, AJR:
- The repair didn't work. It was one of the avenues I hadn't tried (or
even
knew about) but it didn't work. The BIOS now completes and a new screen
appears, but it only has a blinking cursor in the top left hand corner,
which remains, yep you've guessed it, - ad-infinitem. Luckily, when
booting
from the other drive I can still see the corrupt drive data so I can still
rescue it, even if it will take me a week or so!!
Luckily I have 10mb broadband, courtsey of a Pharma giant, so a system
full
of Drivers and Upgrades takes only a few minutes.

Thanks again,

Jack

Jack::
Did you check out the drive with the Samsung HDD diagnostic utility as
previously suggested? If you haven't, you really should just to assure
yourself that the disk is non-defective.
Anna

 

[Guest]

Anna,

The problem is that the Samsung utility warns that it may delete all the
data!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately I can't take that chance, so I will run the
utility but only after I've copied all the data onto DVDs - wish me luck.

 

[Anna]

Anna,

The problem is that the Samsung utility warns that it may delete all the
data!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately I can't take that chance, so I will run
the
utility but only after I've copied all the data onto DVDs - wish me luck.

Jack:
It's *always* wise to backup your data in cases where you're dealing with a
dysfunctional HDD, so you're obviously doing the right thing by doing so.

I just wanted to kind of reassure you that's there's virtually no chance of
losing or corrupting data through the use of a HDD manufacturer's diagnostic
utility. At least based upon our experience over more than 10 years using
these utilities from a variety of HDD manufacturers. I've probably used, or
have been involved with, this type of diagnostic utility a few thousand
times and I can't recall a single instance of a data corruption/loss problem
through their use. (Although I have to admit we haven't had extensive
experience with the Samsung HDD diagnostic utility). Still, as we've learned
over the years - *anything* is possible in a PC environment. I long ago
purged (or tried to purge) the words "always" & "never" from my vocabulary
when discussing issues & problems affecting PCs.

I think in Samsung's case the caveat is a disclaimer to "take them off the
hook" as it were just in case anything does go awry with the diagnostic
process. Then, too, these diagnostic utilities frequently contain an option
to "zero out" the HDD (what many users mistakenly call a "low-level
format"). Unfortunately more than one user has mistakenly selected that
option and we know the disastrous consequences of that.

In any event, you're certainly doing the right thing in backing up whatever
data you want or need, and the above comments are in no way designed to
dissuade you from that process. But do run the diagnostic utility after your
backup has been completed unless you've previously resolved the problem.
Anna