xp will not boot

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Guest

I cannot access the cd drive e: Of course, from a: it just tells me that the
e: does not exist. I put in the cd and the drive light blinks but does not
start. I think my best bet is a new hard drive. Why spend 150 dollars on a
repair attempt that may fail! Another question, with a new hard drive do I
just use my CD ROM device drivers disk to get the CD drive working?
 
Please try to keep a single "thread", not many different posts.
Also, may help to read this:

http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Tried to add your three posts together, like this:
I asked this before but got no response I can find. My XP home starts to
Click to expand...
boot up to the welcome screen but the welcome screen stays grey and does not
boot in.
I have lost the cd drive and cannot put in my XP restore disc. Upon
investigation I get the message 'invalid media type reading drive C:'
I cannot access the cd drive e: Of course, from a: it just tells me that the
e: does not exist. I put in the cd and the drive light blinks but does not
start. I think my best bet is a new hard drive. Why spend 150 dollars on a
repair attempt that may fail! Another question, with a new hard drive do I
just use my CD ROM device drivers disk to get the CD drive working?
--
and
'command.com missing.
I can boot to a: but cannot boot from there into c: or d: or e: I just get
the message invalid command. Do I need a new hard drive or what???????????
sorry but I did not explain well, the command com missing was while I was
doing some investigations from the a: prompt trying to get into the c: drive.
Hope this clears it up.
 
Gary07 said:
I cannot access the cd drive e: Of course, from a: it just tells me that
the
e: does not exist. I put in the cd and the drive light blinks but does
not
start. I think my best bet is a new hard drive. Why spend 150 dollars on
a
repair attempt that may fail! Another question, with a new hard drive do
I
just use my CD ROM device drivers disk to get the CD drive working?
Click to expand...

Your post is a little confusing. Here are some questions:
- What happens when you try to boot into WinXP?
- If it does not boot, do you wish to try and fix the problem?
- What makes you think your hard disk is defective?
- When it "tells" you that drive E: does not exist, how did
you boot your machine?
- Have you tried booting your machine from your
WinXP CD? You need to tell the BIOS to use the
CD drive as its primary boot device.
 
Did I not answer this before in another group???
If your CD drive does NOT work how is it going to read the CD with the
drivers???????
peter
 
Gary07 said:
I cannot access the cd drive e: Of course, from a: it just tells me that
the
e: does not exist. I put in the cd and the drive light blinks but does
not
start. I think my best bet is a new hard drive. Why spend 150 dollars on
a
repair attempt that may fail! Another question, with a new hard drive do
I
just use my CD ROM device drivers disk to get the CD drive working?
Click to expand...


Please try to reply in the same thread, it's much harder to find your
replies this way.

To boot the system from the CD, the CD drive must be first in the boot
sequence, which is set in the BIOS.

If you are unsure as to whether the CD drive is physically working, there is
a simple way to verify this. Shut down the system, open the case, and
detach the two cables from the hard disk. Now, boot with the CD in the
drive. You should see Setup start, which is all you need to know (the
drive works). Setup will then fail, as there is no hard disk to install
to.

You will still need to go into the BIOS and change the boot sequence so that
when you install the new drive, the system boots to the CD rather than
hanging on the new unprepared drive. How you get into the BIOS depends on
your system, and there will be a message displayed at power-up, such as
"press DEL to enter setup". Other possible keys are F2 and F10.

It's unlikely that you will have to supply any driver files for the CD drive
during install.

HTH
-pk
 
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