Disc Won't Boot - No Boot Sector On Hard Disk?
Jan 19, 2009
I have just recently gotten a new computer which came with Vista. Previously what I have done with any new operating system I got was installed it into my old computer. However, I came to find out you can only have one computer assigned to each cd, unless I wanna buy another one, which is unecessary. I wanted to get rid of Vista and return to XP but the XP disc would not install because of multiple errors, such as missing ntldr.
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Mar 27, 2010
Bought a new copy of XP with service pac 3 to put on a p4 with a western digital 300 gig hd. I came back to check to see if the formatting was complete and I had the message "a disk read error has occurred press ctl+alt+del to restart".And when I tell it to boot from cdrom xp disk, it starts "setup is imspecting your computer's hardware configuration" and the screen goes blank after a few seconds and it stops doing anything. I'm afraid the mistake I made was deleting the boot sector partition.
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Oct 17, 2008
I have several programs on my computer that I don't even know what they do. I'm going through them and deleting what I don't need.
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Aug 11, 2007
Browsed these forums and others, tried various solutions, and I can't find anything that's helping me out.I'm running Windows XP Home on a laptop, and when it attempts to boot, it tells me that hal.dll is missing or corrupt.To correct this, I put in my Windows XP CD, and I can get it to the recovery console just fine. At the recovery console, I've tried the following:- chkdsk ("The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems.")- bootcfg ("There are currently no boot entries available to display.")- fixboot ("The boot sector cannot be fixed.")
- expand from CD ("The specified file was not found."- repair installation (It won't even begin. Error as soon as I select the partition C:)
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Feb 5, 2008
I cannot run a anti-virus because I don't know What the owner account password is, and I cannot login to the admin account. Any way of getting past this? (such as doing a install despite the virus or prhaps bypassing the login screen altogether)
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Dec 27, 2007
I have a dell PC with windows XP Media Center installed. I think that a virus damaged the boot sector in fact I cannot start my PC.
All I am able to get to is the BIOS or the diagnostics tool, F8 doesn't work, which means I cannot restart in safe mode or last known good configuration and if I use alt+F11, which is the option you have on Dell PC to reformat it in order to have everything the way it was at the time you bought it, it doesn't work.
A friend of mine told me to boot from the CD and then use the fixboot command, the problem is that DELL does not give OS CDs anymore and I honestly do not know what to do
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Sep 9, 2007
Windows XP .I am trying desparately to enlarge my c drive, which is partitioned from a large drive also containing f (programs) and g (data) drives. I need to enlarge the c drive to allow proper cmptr operation.i used Partition magic , which seemed to work up until the point where it rebooted and gave me error 58 "unable to write to the boot sector. Virus protection software may be running. "I have disabled Norton Anti virus, and Spyware Dr (complete shutdown). Still no success.How do i disable virus protection in the boot.
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Dec 18, 2005
SATA Drive not recognized as boot drive on XP installation.Need to create an Xp boot sector.I have been working on this for days. Successfully installed once and ended up with corrupted files on the Win98 partition, so want to get it right this time. (Don't remember how I did the "successful" install - after several days of various problems - most of which are now solved - I am a little brain-dead.What I am looking for is a way to create an XP boot on the SATA drive. I assume this means changing the MBR.
System: MotherB: Asus A7V600 with VIA Chipset
Drives: 0 120gb SATA; 1 15GB IDE; 2 10GB IDE
Current Status:Win98 and WinXP both operational but no dual boot. Win98 was installed first. Both systems were a clean install. Both systems installed on FAT32 in seperate partitions on the SATA drive. Computer startup simply goes into Win98, as there is no XP boot sector on the proper drive......
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Mar 4, 2006
I have a toshiba laptop running windows xp. It crashed yesterday and now whenever it boots it give me the following error A disk read error occurred Press ctl alt del to restart.I managed to get to the selection of boot in safe mode, but it still won't boot and then I get I/O error reading boot sector.At this point I just want to get the data off it. Toshiba's recovery disk only has the option of formatting the disk and restoring the system to it's initial state (the Toshiba tech support explained that was a benefit, getting it back to the original state
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Aug 12, 2005
hey anyone remember that boot disc that had everything and it also had a mouse function in it? it was like boot magic or something i cant really remember. I only remember it had 2 versions one was the floppy which was free and the other you had to pay for the cd version
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Dec 28, 2005
Hey, have built a new pc, but am using the same hd as my old one, when booting i get a "disk boot failure insert system disk and press enter" however when i press enter it boots up, not really a big problem just annoying and i wonderd if anyone could help get rid of it.
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Sep 3, 2006
I recently cloned my 40 gig western digital hard drive over to a 160 gig Hitachi.I am running windows xp pro sp2.First I used Norton Ghost,when finished copying I switched hard drives,relocated the jumpers so the new one was set to master. I restarted my personal computer.It showed the hard drive and the 2 cd roms but my personal computer wouldn't boot.I then formatted the Hitachi and tried again with power quest Drive image,I got the same results.It shows my new hard drive configured Then I get the splash screen then just a blinking dot in the top left corner of my screen so I tried again with hard disk clone, still wouldn't boot to the hard disk. I then created a floppy boot disk which made it load up perfectly.I tried the f disk thing. I tried the R repair with the windows xp disk.to no avail.My hard drive will boot great if I use a boot disk but it won't boot to the hard drive on it's own.If I put the original hard drive in it boots up fine.I have a compaq presario 5000.I have tried everything I could think of and everything I could find searching the web.
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Jul 17, 2005
I have a 2 hard disc system, Windows XP pro and most programmes run from the C Drive. A few, plus all my data run from the F drive. Over the last few days I have encountered a massive slowdown in getting the computer started - form certainly less than 5 minutes to over 20 minutes. I have not added anything to the autoruns at all.
Programmes and data (eg music) run fine if they are on the F drive, but if they are on the C drive they run incredibly slowly so music is fragmented and at times its like trying to wade through treacle to get anything done. I have been getting crashes of the PC with a message about a kernel problem... but haven't yet copied all the data from that to get the detail. When it crashes the next boot reports a disc boot system failure, when i reboot ahgain it loads up but painfully slowly. The C drive was defraggged just afew weeks ago. I'm thinking the drive is about to pack up....
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Oct 4, 2010
Trying to help daughter with PC problem. She has a Dell Optiplex GX260 running Windows XP Pro. For some time she has been having problems: freeze ups and other noxious behavior. When trying to open email attachments, tabs start appearing and keep on appearing until the PC is turned off. Finally, it stopped booting to Windows. When it is powered on, the Dell logo window appears briefly, then a black screen appears with a cursor top left.
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Nov 9, 2006
I have been using a Compaq Deskpro with Windows XP SP2. And then I sold that computer and bought a Compaq Evo. I then inserted the same harddrive but it is failing to boot. When I insert the installation disc it says "Press any key to boot from CD". Pressing keys does not activate anything and it stays on the same screen. I then created 6 set up disks and they all work perfectly loading drivers etc. The problem starts when I reach the stage where it says "insert Win XP SP2 installation disc and press any key when ready". Pressing the keyboard keys produces no response
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May 3, 2005
a friend asked me to install a new hard drive for him because his crashed. So i purchased a new hard drive (maxtor 60 gb) set out to partition and format the drive, using a win 98 boot disk. I partitoned the drive ( for large volume drive.) Formatted the drive ( format c: /s ) to include system files.and proceeded with Os install Windows 2000. Everything went as smooth as silk... the when install finished, I was prompted to remove the disk from cd rom and complete installation with the onscreen prompt. I removed disk, clicked finish and the computer rebooted upon loading, when it went to start windows it said DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER
I put the Win 2K disc back in and hit enter. It started windows perfectly no errors at all... then I took disk out re-started ( to check system stability) and back to the same error message: DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER. I of course freaked out, I feel like an idiot cause I cant get this thing to work right. tried reformatting without the sytem files, re-partioning tried win 98, winXP, nothing same stuff! So I talked to a pal got a hard drive wipe program off the net "killdisk", wiped the drive and tried to reinstall Win 2K, same problem.
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May 18, 2005
applications were running slow, having problems closing etc. I expected a virus problem, but NIS 2005 did not detect any viruses. This morning I attempted to boot the machine as usual, and I found that windows would not boot after repeated attempts in any mode. I borrowed a friends windows XP cd, i dont have mine on hand, and attempted to repair the installation. However, when it tried to copy files to the hard drive it said that it could not detect it.
Naturally, seeing this i assumed that the harddrive had gotten knocked around, bad power lead, etc. I made sure that the connecters were securely attached and booted again, repair etc, same problem. I believe that the problem lies with the configuration of using a PCI card to connect the hard drive to the motherboard. When its connected to the mother board, however, the boot agent wont run, saying that the "disk is not ready" or something to that extent.
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Jun 16, 2005
I recently tried to reinstall windows xp, but the installation was interrupted and left me with a partially installed windows on my hard drive. Now, whenever I try to install again, it gives me the error: NTLDR is missing. I made a msdos boot disc to reformat my drive such that I can try installing windows again. However, I have two hard drive (one for windows and programs and one for storage) and I don't know which one is which letter. How can I find this information, so that I don't accidentally wipe my storage drive?
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Dec 29, 2006
An external hard drive. When it is on & I try to boot,I get the following error : Invalid system disk Replace the disk, and then press any key I then have to turn off the external & press any key to get it to boot. Is there a way that I can boot with that external turned on. Some setting I need to change perhaps? I have an E-Machines computer about 2 years old.
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Jul 4, 2005
I want to copy files from my hard drive to my dvd writer.InCD screws this up.I want to be able to open windows explorer and move/copy]selected files to a dvd. I then want to be able to read the files direct from the dvd using windows explorer.
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Jun 10, 2007
first i get the HP blue screen. I tried F1, but i dont see my hard drive in the boot menu. I followed some steps in Hp's web site- took the cpu apart and unplugged both hard drives from the motherboard, plugged them back in. when i restarted ,i got the HP screen and then windows started to load up. After a few seconds the HP screen came back up and then the black screen: sk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter. I also noticed that pressing F10 for system recovery does nothing.
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Jun 24, 2005
I Installed a 2nd HD and cloned my first HD to it as a backup and would like to be able to dual boot. This is XP Pro. I would like to know what numbers to use in multi, disk, and rdisk.
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Jan 4, 2005
because mine won't boot. I get the message: "Windows didn't start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your reference manuals for additional information." Well, that sort of thing is beyond me. But first, my system and how I got into this mess:
Trying to get rid of the screen that prompts you on boot-up to select an OS and counts down the seconds, I went from My Computer>Properties>Advanced and unchecked the first box, the one that has a place to the right where you say how many seconds to display the OS choice. I had changed that choice to "0" many times, but eventually the choice screen always came back, so I got the idea of unchecking the whole box. Then--I forget exactly which part of Properties this was in--I found the two OSs listed. They were the same, except that the one that was selected had a few words after it that began with "No"--maybe "No selection"? (This problem of having to make a choice on boot-up started when the computer was new and something went wrong and a Dell technician had me reinstall the OS.) I thought maybe I could get rid of the annoyance by selecting the other OS, and did it.....
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Nov 29, 2006
Recently I was attempting to run a legit version of Splinter Cell, Double Agent on my PC. It indicated that my RAM was low and one other thing which I don't remember but it was also below spec. Anyway, I thought I would run it anyway, just to have a look even if it had a few issues with performance. Well, it crashed hard and froze my PC. I had to do a hard boot and ever since then if I have to reboot, my pc shuts down just fine but the boot up takes approx 90 minutes. I have run Adaware, Windows Defender & a full virus scan.
I have also run RegistryFix to correct the registry, all to no avail
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Sep 22, 2007
I am running XP home on my Acer notebook. I installed 2 drivers from AMD website to update my Turion 2.0 processer. On restart I got the error message for Hal.dll. I been searching for a while now and can only find help that involve using the XP CD. I've been trying to boot the disc, but it won;t. I can't get past the hal.dll error.
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Apr 16, 2005
I have this problem with my pc and it keeps restarting after the windows loading screen so i want to format the hardrive the only problem is that there are important files on there and am wondering if i could make some of disc floopy or CD that i could boot to and move all my important files to my 2ndry hardrive installed in the machine
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May 18, 2008
I'm sure this has been asked 100 times before but my computer randomly shuts itself down so I don't really have the time to look for it. I need to reinstall Windows XP. I want to do a clean install. I have the disc and the reg code. What I don't have is the BOOT FROM DISC option!! How do I get it or how do I do it?
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Sep 30, 2008
i have a custom computer build, working fine for a year and a half, system crashed while online. inserted windows XP system/boot disc, goes to mobo screen, goest to a blank screen. shows press any key to boot from cd. then verifying/inspecting system components etc. then a blank screen, system wont do anything.
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Apr 15, 2006
I was overclocking my cpu cause i replaced the stock fan with a cooling system and while i was overclocking i got a blue screen. So, i rebooted my comp and it says a file is missing or corrupt ( forgot what file something windows/system/config) and told me to repair it. and it wont let me use my windows xp disc. I set my cd-rom to 1st priority, im posititve my cd drives work, and the cd has only been used twice so im pretty sure it cant be that.
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Jun 22, 2005
I need to wipe clean the hard disc on a desktop. It currently has XP-Home installed, which was an upgrade from ME. The ME files were erased from the desktop after installation of XP. After formatting I assume I will need an MS-DOS bootup disc to install ME; install ME and then upgrade to XP-Home. If my assumptions are correct how can I create a bootup disc for ME? I am hoping that someone has a simpler method than I have outlined.
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Dec 4, 2006
I am trying to slipstream XP Pro & SP2 I did it all according to plan, the disc burned with no errors but it will not boot the system. When I look at the disc it looks like an ordinary XP disc, but when I put it in system it says PRESS ANY KEY TO REBOOT. Am I missing something, I did it last year with no problems; also I can�t remember how to put the key in automatically.
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