No Boot Loader/ Can't Select OS To Boot, Hangs On Blinking Underscore?
Sep 9, 2009
i have ONE hard drive with partitions. I had a really bad setup first, I had 1 partition with 3 windows installs on it, folders like WINDOWS, WINPRO, WINN, I never took the time to delete them or whatever, and I was using winpro as my main OS. When I was running the above setup, when I boot up it would ask me: Select what OS to load Windows Pro, Windows Home, Windows Home
I decieded to install Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, worked flawlessy, but I wanted to go back to windows xp pro 64 bit. So I made a new partition and installed windows XP pro 64 bit onto it. when I tried installing windows xp with my CD, the first part would work fine, but then when it restarted to continue the setup, it would load my MOBO logo and then after, it would just show a blinking underscore "_" on the top left corner, and nothing else.
I managed to install a fresh windows xp from my USB flash drive, but when booting up normally it still does not let me select what OS to log on to, it just shows the blinking underscore in the top left after the MOBO logo passes, I actually have to boot by USB drive to boot this fresh install of windows. I think something is wrong with my boot loader, but have no idea how to fix it.
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Feb 8, 2005
I was working on my friend's computer and I had to switch the hard drive over to his new computer to try and get it to work on the new computer. It didn't work, so I tried to put the harddrive back in its original computer and now I have a problem. When I try to start up the computer, everything runs fine through the POST and then, before it goes to the Windows screen with the little bar that goes sideways, it stops on a black screen with the blinking underscore (_). I've restarted it many many times and it all ends up the same, stopping at the flashing underscore. I've tried to boot to a Win 98 boot floppy to get it to the command prompt but I get an error saying that it is the incorrect disk. I've also tried to reset the bios by taking the battery out for a while. It reset the bios good and all but I still got the same problem. I think it has to do with the MBR cause I know the harddrive works (as a slave in another computer) and I know the RAM is new. I don't think those are the problems because before I put the harddrive in the new computer to try and boot off it, it worked fine. I can't get into the start up menu either by pressing F8. The only thing I can think of that might work that I haven't tried is to boot off the XP cd and do the recovery console thing. Unless I know that it will abosolutely fix it, I'd like to stray away from it. If you think otherwise, I'll gladly try it. I think I had a problem like this before and I got past it somehow, but I don't remember how I did it.
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Feb 3, 2010
Just wanted to give a solution for an issue that I had on a Dell Optiplex GX270, where it was having problems hanging when a couple of peripheral USB items were plugged in. After I had installed an HP printer, I plugged in an 8Gb thumb drive. It would hang for a very long time until I finally had to reboot. When it went through the short Dell setup screen, it just went black with a flashing underline in the top left corner instead of going to the first Windows startup screen. The funny thing is that I would unplug the HP printer's USB cable while the computer was still powered, and it would immediately start Windows. Through several different test cycles I found that A) Leaving the printer USB cable plugged in during a restart brought up the blank screen w/flashing underscore. B) Not connecting the printer USB cable during a restart brought Windows up properly. That told me that there was a problem with BIOS. I went to the Dell website and flashed my BIOS with the latest update for my computer. That resolved the issue immediately.Hope this helps others resolve similar problems, because it seemed like there
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Nov 11, 2006
I am unable to boot my PC most of the times.Whenever I switch on my PC,I see the following message nine ot of ten times. DiskError/Boot Faliure Reboot and select proper boot device or insert Boot media in selected boot device If I press enter after this messages & keep pressing following messages appear from time to time (Not simultaneously). If just after making the switch on, I press F2 key to check the boot device preference
If just after making the switch on , I press f11 key to reach the boot menu I always find the 1.44 MB Floppy option highlighted as the booting choice.(though there had not been any floppy in the floppy drive, I dont have any really)I make the hard disk option highlighted & it solves the problem only a few times. But next time when I try F11 key to check the boot menu again I find 1.44 MB floppy highlighted.
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Jan 15, 2007
One of my computers started having somwhat an erratic behaviour so i formatted it and reinstalled windows. The erratic behaviour (such as firing "invalid/corrupt file" at me all the time, and rebooting spontaneously) didn't stop, so i tried mounting the HDD in another computer and do the whole thing again.It went fine, and i got all the security updates, installed all my programs.When I plugged it back into it original place, windows won't load (not even in sec mode) - all i see is a white underscore blinking on the top left corner.Can you guys help? Father Google doesn't seem to have an answer for me.
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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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Sep 25, 2006
when I edited my boot menu I left off the NoExcute=OptIn at the end of the boot menu line to load my system and was wondering if I can add this now without messing everything up ? I just found out what this option does and looks to me like a have to option. This is on XP Pro.
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Jan 1, 2008
I have a new laptop that came with Windows Vista. I have been trying to load it with Windows XP because Windows Vista didnt work. I am pretty sure a format and clean install will wreck my warranty, hence the dual boot. So far, I have been able to partition and install XP SP-2 to a partition. I've booted into XP fine but my Vista partition is not available. I think that the partition table or MBR has been corrupted.
So to repair this, what I did was boot up from the Vista recovery DVD and run the 'startup repair' option to reload the bootloader for Vista and thus, enable dual booting. When I rebooted I got a black screen saying 'Invalid Partition Table' or something to this effect. I tried repairing the MBR and so on and so forth from the console on the recovery DVD but this proved to be pretty much totally fruitless. So I went through and did an install of Windows XP once again, to my other drive partition I had created. So I am basically where I started.
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Dec 17, 2007
I haven't installed anything new on my computer but today after having my computer shipped to me via UPS I cut on my computer and where the XP load bar screen was I got: "reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device".Seeing this I knew I went into the BIOS setup and tried to turn the system priority to look at the HDD. Instead I only had the option of the DVD drive and the CD drive.I have no idea how to solve this problem and don't have any of the recovery CD's. I DO NOT WANT TO REFORMAT because like a bad little boy I did not backup my 4 years worth of work.
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Apr 22, 2010
How can I Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media wnidows xp without cd.It is possible.
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Jun 24, 2008
The unit has an HP mainboard 800mhz, a P4 2.6Ghz processor, 300Watt PSU, and all was well until until I actually attached a known good XP HDD to the otherwise completed system. It failed to boot, resulting in only a flashing underscore after the HP/P4 boot screen, no beeps. Same thing happens if I try to boot from an XP CD
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Oct 26, 2007
On boot sequence, PC hangs on Windows boot screen - with the good old progress bar churning along for eternity. It just stays there. It is possible to boot into safe mode, safe mode with networking, etc. but never boots up normally. 'Last Known Good..." does not help at all.
I have tried 'repairing' XP using the recovery console (deleting the boot.ini file, then BOOTCFG /REBUILD and then FIXBOOT) to no avail. Do not know where in the boot process it is getting hung up and not totally sure how to determine that.Using Windows XP Media Center Edition with SP2. Plenty of RAM and disk space.
Had this problem once in the past and it seemed to self correct after about 50 reboots.
Does this sound like a re-install of XP is required or are there any other options that might work?
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Sep 7, 2005
my wife deleted her configuration for her boot loader and now we cant get her windows to load i have put her hard drive on my computer to try and reformat but i just cant get it to boot from disk dont know what im doing wrong we have windows xp i have partition magic on my disk and tried to add windows on her disk using this but it dosent recognize the disk
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Aug 10, 2007
My PC has Windows XP and Linux operating together with GRUB boot loader. I have to reload XP, and when I insert windows OS CD, it encounters GRUB boot loader and hangs.How to reload XP... i.e. how to get past GRUB boot loader.
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Dec 2, 2006
I installed a beta of Vista just to try it out. I used Partition Magic to create a second partition to run it on. I installed it with no problems and was able to boot between Vista and XP when I needed to switch. When I was done with Vista, I didn't uninstall using Vista's uninstaller. Instead I used Partition Magic to reformat the partition. I've installed Ubuntu on the partition that Vista was on and I like that pretty well. Problem is, when I try to boot into XP, it still thinks that Vista is installed on there and goes through Vista's dual boot prog. When I select XP it loads normally until it gets to the part where it should run autochk. It crashes saying it can't find it (it must be looking for Vista's copy since XP still has its) and I can't do anything except turn the machine off. Point of the story: How do I modify the boot loader on my XP drive? I can still access the infor mation from Ubuntu so if I have to edit something I can.
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Nov 16, 2006
Is it possible to add a bootable file to the windows boot loader?I want to add a Dell Diagnostics utility. Currently, the only way to access it is with a dos floppy disc, or the windows cd. If so, how is it done?If the above isn't possible, how do I add DOS?
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Jan 7, 2006
i recently installed linux on my second hard drive but it never worked so my question is how do you turn the boot up menu back to windows instead of grub (i think) its just the hassel of having to go down the list and selecting windows??
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Sep 8, 2009
I have a fresh install of Win XP on my C: drive and whenever I boot the PC I get options on which windows install to boot into. I had a Win 2000 install on my D: drive at one time but that drive has since been reformatted, so I'm at a loss as to why I have to choose an install at every boot.
I tried to rebuild the boot.ini file using the XP Setup Recovery console but that only added a 3rd option to the list of installs to choose from at boot-up.
My question is, can I edit the startup options manually and delete the 2nd and 3rd lines, or is there another way to clean this up so my rig boots to the C: drive automatically every time?
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Oct 20, 2007
I decided to upgrade to Vista today from Windows Xp. Rather than doing the upgrade process, I decided to start off with a fresh format/install.
after the first reboot in the Vista setup process (where Vista attempts to load data from the HDD) the system would just sit there after post as if the Vista loader couldn't properly detect the partition. I currently don't have time to troubleshoot the Vista problem with my system, so in desperation I have tried to go back to XP. I am able to boot into Windows XP setup, format the drive, and copy over the beginning essential files. However, after the system reboots after the initial copy of the data... XP is not capable of booting from the hard drive. this was not a problem before I tried to install Vista.
To check if a problem had occurred with the drive, I installed Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu is able to boot from the drive without any problems. However....... when Ubuntu loads grub, it detects the following on the MBR: The Vista loader appears to be preventing Windows XP from properly booting from the hard drive. The drive is a Western Digital 320gb. I have 30 gbs set aside for Windows to boot from. The rest of the drive is another partition with files I cannot afford to lose.
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Nov 1, 2008
I had XP pro loaded on my boot partition and wanted to get rid of it. I deleted the entire volume D:, but my boot loader menu still lists that OS. Of course it can't boot to it any more, but I don't want to see in the menu at startup. What files are left over from that OS instance that I need to remove?
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Jun 13, 2007
I had been dual booting XP and Vista. At startup I am given a screen to choose whether to boot from XP or Vista, I think this is the Vista boot manager. Since then I reinstalled XP. Now, I am not getting the boot loader screen at startup so I can choose which OS. Is it something to do with modifying the master boot record? Or do I need a recovery disc or something?
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Dec 3, 2006
As in the title, im faced with a permanent 7B BSOD stop error message on my pavillion laptop. My current knowledge indicates that is a boot loader error, and as you may naturally expect, i am desperate to fix it! I have tried using the advanced startup options to use the last configurations which worked and safe mode, but i get the same BSOD stop error. I placed my hard disk in another laptop and it boots fine, i have even been able to log in and use it as normal. However, when i put a hard disk running a perfectly fine copy of windows xp home to my pavillion laptop, i get the same 7B stop error.
My pavillion refuses to boot from CDs as well. It seems to me the problem isnt with my hard disk and the OS version on it, but with the remaining components on my laptop...but what could be the criminal? Would anyone be able to shed some light on my problem? Of course, I will provide more details as requested.
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Jan 11, 2007
I just changed cases for my computer and now when I start it you hear 1 beep (i have AMI BIOS) It then goes to what looks like a command and then the message Reboot or select appropriate boot device or insert boot media pops up. I have checked all my connections and tried it every which way. I have went inside and out of the BIOS and still no luck. I have also tried reinstalling Windows XP, but it says restart the computer and when I do it doesn't continue the installer. Instead it says reboot or select appropriate boot device or insert boot. I also get the error of Overclocking Error.I have a 2.79 Pentium 4 HyperThreading processor, ASUS P4S800D-X, ATI X800XL AGP, Tech-link 425w PSU, 3 sticks Kingston 512mb 333mhz PC3200 RAM, Samsung Spinpoint 120GB ATA hard drive, LG DVD-RW-DL burner, and a standard floppy.
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May 4, 2010
DELL XPS 410 XPSP2 - system will not boot past the blinking cursor in the corner. I can't get to the BIOS and the PC will not boot from CD. I have tried to hit F1, F2, F8 andF12 at startup to no avail. I replaced the Video card with a known good card, still no luck.I tried the unplug/plug method for the I/O panel with no changes.The fans are working correctly, so I don't think it was an overheating issue and the power supply is up and running.
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Feb 11, 2008
I have a Dell laptop Inspiron 8500 that I used extensively for work. 2ghz cpu P4m, 2gig ram, 160gig hitachi HD.A couple of times in the past few months it has occasionally came up with only a flashing cursor in the top left. Now it does it once a week at least( update: even more frequent ). I've cannot boot into safe mode. The bios settings seem ok. I can only boot when it's like this from a bootable ISO CD.( ie Acronis rescue disk or XP setup ). To workaround so far, when this happens: I remove the laptop drive then use another computer to read the drive using a usb to mini IDE adapter to read off my recent work, I then re-insert and run the Hitachi factory tests for this drive via bootable ISO: It always passes fine. The drive reads fine too via the usb or in the laptop using a boot disk.Then I use "Acronis True Image home" to restore the drive back to the last backup( which I do 2 times weekly now because of this ) It takes 3hours to restore the image, and then I copy back my recent work , and all works fine for about a week( or now hours ).
I bought "ASO advanced Sytem Optimizer" and cleaned up the registry, and defragged the drive using "AShampoo Magic Defreg". I was excited because I thought it was a registry problem or fragmentation issue.It worked fine all week and seems faster even. I was happy.Today it did the same no-boot thing when I when to to boot up. Blank screen with flashing cursor in the top left.It really seems like something is killing or malwaring either the registry, mbr, or bootloader on powerdown. ( I have bitdefender 10 running when it's running.)I'm running the Dell diags disk and it all passes. I can boot and restore the partition using Acronis . I'm at a loss... Thanks for any help. I enabled shutdown event logging and no errors show in the system logs, but the applicationo event log shows userinit.exe could not run a script event ID 1000 at the timestamp that I did the shutdown.
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May 31, 2010
I have a computer with an 80GB Hard Drive on it. This HDD had XP on a 50GB Partition, and Linux on a 30GB Partition, installed so I can choose between either operating system with Grub when I boot up. Well, I didn't want Linux anymore, so I used Norton Partition Magic to delete the Linux partition. Now, when I boot, GRUB loads and it just says 'unknown filesystem' and then 'GRUB rescue'.Obviously I didn't realize the GRUB started with Linux first, so now I'm screwed and can't boot.
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Jul 10, 2007
When I turn my computer on it goes to the blue hp logo and then to a blank screen with a blinking cursor in the top left corner. If I hit f8 when booting it gives me 2 options...f1 to setup and f2 to resume. It won't let me go into safe mode or anything. I have tried booting from the xp cd, but nothing happens. I have tried replacing the battery and that hasn't done anything. It started when trying to open a program, the computer just went blank. When trying to reboot, this mess started.Also, I just got this error message, which is new.i got it after I unplugged the computer for awhile.. warning 251: system cmos checksum bad dafalut config used
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Jan 27, 2005
When booting up (XP), I get to the screen where I select the user name and enter the password. Then I get my usual wallpaper screen but no icons, start button, task bar, tray etc etc. I can't right click on the screen.
I CAN do Crtl+Alt+Del and get a run prompt up and browse the various drives (and even run software through this, e.g. internet) but the desktop is always completely blank. I have tried Safe Mode and restore last known good etc but neither works both same result, get to wallpaper but no icons.
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Dec 9, 2007
Hallo. Time going by, I have noticed I have installed quite some applications on my computer.I have Win XP SP2, Intel Pentium4 CPU - 2.8 GHz, 1 GB RAM (SSD), ATI Radeon X300 Series. I notice that booting is taking really long after I select my user account and I hear a lot of hard disk activity. I believe this can be because virtual RAM is activated, but, before going to buy some extra RAM (and SSD memories are not so cheap), I wondered if I could have fixed the issue through some start up software, or some better organisation of the user accounts (e.g. one account for gaming, one for video processing) so that only the requested processes would be loaded each time.
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Aug 31, 2005
Let assume that, in a disk we have 3-partition 1. in C: drive Windows 98 (FAT32), we install it first.2. in D: drive Windows 2003 Adv Server (NTFS), this was install 2nd.3. and, E: drive is FAT32, under Windows 98(FAT32)Now, all it works fine as dual boot, we will have menu at startup, there we can select the OS. Right.Now, if we install Windows 2000 Pro in C: Drive by means of format and install option. Windows 2000 is working fine. But we can�t able to load Windows 2003 Adv server, when we select that in the boot select menu.
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Mar 22, 2010
This is my first post on this site, I know that there have been posts on this topic becfore, however mine is different than the rest of the posts. In the other posts,this has occured on a modified computer, but when it happened to me, it was my unmodded computer. So heres what happened. I boot up, and after the HP screen, instead of going to the windows loading screen, I get a message with alot of text, but the main point was that "a failure was imenent", F1 to continue, F2 to enter setup. So i hit F1 to continue, and after a minute of a blank screen and the blinking text dash, the DISK BOOT FAIlURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK message. But I have never modified my coputer, and never used a setup disk before on this machine. BTW:I tried resetting BIOS, but to no avail.
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