XP Pro: Can't boot w/o CD

[Guest]

With no other way to put Windows XP back on my hard drive which I had gotten
from a computer shop, I went out and plunked down the money for a Microsoft
Windows XP Professional (W/SP2) full-version setup CD last night at Circuit
City. I installed Windows, shut down my computer and now I turned it on again
to check email. My comp's BIOS setup recognized my primary master hard drive
but I immediately got a message, "BOOT DISK FAILURE: INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND
PRESS <ENTER>: ."

The only way to make it go away was to put the Windows setup CD in my CD
drive and reboot. The computer booted from the CD and booted up fine.

Apparenly my computer will not boot without the Windows CD in the CD drive.
This is a fully licensed copy of Windows (what Microsoft has given the loving
new moniker, 'Genuine Windows Software') that has been activated online. Is
this a deliberate feature of the latest versions of Windows XP Professional,
to refuse to boot without the CD in the drive, or is it a bug of some sort?
If it's the latter, how do I fix it?

Thanks,

Alan G.

 

[Robbie]

I'm having kind of the same problem, Alan...If I discover anything, I'll let
you know...below is what I posted previously...

My computer would not boot up one morning...It just said Error Loading OS
and stopped. However, I put my XP Pro CD in the tray, rebooted and it went
fine, but it's now the ONLY way I can boot up. Here's what I tried so far...
Went to Recovery Console and tried fixboot, and fixmbr...didn't work
Tried Recovery Console to copy new NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and rebuild
boot.ini..no go
Went to Windows Setup, and when it found the previous installation, told
it to Repair...notta
How can I get this to boot from the C: drive...my BIOS settings are normal

 

[The Guru]

Are you sure the hard drive is in the list of boot devices (preferably
first) and that you don't have some other device there (like an
external drive)?

The PC Guru: www.the-pc-guru.com

 

[Robbie]

yes, my BIOS says 1st Boot Device --CDROM, 2nd Removable, 3rd Hard
Drive...that's the way it always was (system is a year old). But, I tried
changing it several ways with no difference. Once I boot with the cd,
everything seems fine...it's just annoying...

 

[Robbie]

Solved...I have 2 hard drives, and the HArd Drive Priority was set
backwards. In other words, it was trying to boot from the backup drive. Made
the change in the BIOS.