XP PRO2 won't restart goes to reboot

[Guest]

I've been using WIN98 for years & just installed XP PRO Service Pack 2.
After doing so, I decided to format my c drive. I thought all was well until
I had to restart my computer after installing some software requiring me to
restart the computer.

After restarting it goes to black screen (MS DOS) & states diskette error,
reboot a: I have to reinstall XP Pro and it will go through the entire
installation process & opens XP Pro. But everytime I restart my computer it
goes back to reboot a: & once again I have to install xp.

Dell has given no help except telling me to reinstall xp....obviously that
is not working. My Dell Dimension 4100 has all the requirements for xp pro
with 256 memory.

While I'm working on the computer I don't have any problems...it's just when
I have to restart my computer where it doesn't recognize that I have an
operating system.

Any suggestions??

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Delete Undeletable Files: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_undeletable_file.htm

 

[Guest]

PROBLEM SOLVED!!!

I found that if I had the xp CD in the drive & didn't respond to the
statement "press any key to boot from CD" it would go straight through to xp
and allow me to get onto my computer. If I removed the CD from the drive, it
would go to MS DOS as stated in my original message.

I never had a booting problem prior to installing XP. Figuring this was not
an xp problem but more of a booting problem...I went into windows setup &
reset the boot device order using the default settings. Saved that & started
up my computer several times without anything in my cd drive or a: drive. It
started up and went directly to xp & my desktop. Restarted the computer
several times with no problem.

For some reason when I installed xp my boot devices got
rearranged....setting & saving to default settings has resolved my problem.

Barbara