Unable to boot from CD

[NoTECHSAVEY]

PC crashed and had to reload o/s winxp pro. first placed hdd in other pc to recover files. then fromatted and loaded winxp with the bootable cd. once xp was loaded on hdd removed and placed back in original pc. got ntldr missing error. removed hdd back to backup pc and was able to boot up from hdd fine. thought need to format and load on original pc but cannot get pc to boot from cd. have cd picked in bios as 1st but when pc boots it just comes up at "searching for boot record from cd" and the cd drive never reads the disk. I know disk is good because it works in other pc. is this a bios problem.

AMD 1700
Gigabyte MB
Maxtor 80gig HD
WIN XP PRO o/s

[S.D.Willie]

try swapping the cdrom if you can. ive seen this problem with certain cdrom drives. if you have it set to "CDROM" as the first boot device, then i dont think the bios is in question. since you know the cd is good, ......well not much left save for the cdrom drive i would say.

welcome to techimo, good luck.

[DoctorReno]

I think the answer is easy.
Unlike past OS's, XP has something called WPA. In a nutshell with XP it documents each and every single piece of hardware on the machine at the inital installation of XP. After that it assigns points to new hardware installed. When 10 points is reached within a time period XP and this F'n WPA XP will not be able to boot and will require you to contact MS and go thru a bunch of hoops to reactivate XP. It's their (MS's) latest attempt to stop pirating but all it really does is inconvenience legit users.

In your case, installing XP on one machine and then moving the HD to another machine cannot work because when XP attempts to boot for the first time in the new machine it will detect ALL new hardware and you will exceed the limit.



Does this make sense? I can find links that can explain this better if you want.
Bottom line is you have no choice but to reinstall XP in the machine in which you want it to reside. No switching drives form one machine to another anymore.
It sucks but that is how it works.

[NoTECHSAVEY]

Thanks for the quick responses. Doc, I thought something like that was the issue but the problem I'm having now is that when I try to boot from the CD in the original problem pc so I can load XP it will not read the CD. The drive dosen't even spin up (no activity light or sound). I tried using some floppy boot disk but the floppy is not working also. Could my bios be corrupt. I cleared it with no sucess. #$%^ thing is getting to me. I have a Gigabyte GA7ZXE MoBo. thought about trying to flash the bios but the floppy not working kinda has me stuck....Any thoughts would be greatly app.......

[websteraaa]

Activation is only during setup
The way I read it, he cant even boot up to setup
Assume he set drive as slave to recover files thereby ruining master boot record (ntldr error)
he is trying to boot to a drive that has has boot/partitions/letters changed.
I think if he used win 98 boot CD, jumpered drive as master and repartitioned drive (fdisk) with first partition active, then format (C:\format /s), everything should work. Those system files will be win 98, but XP will overwrite them.

Also, despite "crash", he reported that drive works in second PC, so one must assume HDD is O.K. The other possibility is that IDE controller on mobo is fried (cause of crash???). "No spin up" One could also put the HDD 12V molex on a fan to see if voltage is there.

A sony floppy is abot $12 online

[paul9]

sounds like you may have lost power to the drives. will the cdrom even eject?

[NoTECHSAVEY]

Great site!!!! Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm trying the Win98 boot CD to see if I can get the hdd to boot. "I think if he used win 98 boot CD, jumpered drive as master and repartitioned drive (fdisk) with first partition active, then format (C:\format /s), everything should work. Those system files will be win 98, but XP will overwrite them." Will update as soon as I know. Have power to the Drives the cd will run on intial power up but acts like it is not reading it....more confused?????

[RicheemxX]

check all the connections you might have accidently knocked one loose. If nothing else pull the cd-rom and throw it n your other computer to make sure its working. You might have a fried ide channel or a fried PS considering the floppy is dead as well then I'd shoot for a dead PS.

I'd clear the bios by unplugging the comp and shorting the jumpers{if they are on the board} or pulling the cmos battery and leaving it out for several mins. Probably won't help much but it never hurts

edit: just saw the new post...are you using the same ide cable for your HDD and cd-rom?? if so did you remember to set the hdd back to master?? also check the bios to make sure that both drives are being detected properly

[sr71000]

hey, i hit this one too, there's so many things that can go wrong. there are a couple things to check. if the ide cords (the one that connects the hard drive and cd-rom have master and slave on them try setting the jumpers to cable select. some new computers actually decide what's master and what's slave simply by which part of the cable it's plugged into. if not, make sure that you have your hard drive and the cd drive on seperate ide cables. i'm not sure if this is on all systems but on mine i can't boot from a slave device, so if your hard drive is set as master, and u'r cd is set as slave on the same cable, or another then the cd won't boot. that would also explain the fact that the drive dosen't even spin up. the driver is what tells the cd drive to autoload when a cd is put it, so if there is nothing telling the drive to check for a cd it wouldn't spin (if its set as a slave drive, it would be ignored and would not spin up) this is how it is in my computer so hope it helps

that was a lot, so here's a recap if you had trouble following that. check inside your computer. if the cords have master and slave written on them then make sure all jumpers on all drives connected to ide cables are set to cable select (the settings are on top of the drive) if they don't say master and slave make sure the cd drive and the hard drive are both set as masters and do not hook them up on the same cable, positively sure that they are on seperate cables. (so many things to mention) also, check the top of your hard drive, on most, the master and single setting are the same, but on others there is a setting if it's the only drive on a cable, and a different one if it's a master, so if they are seperate on your hard drive, make sure it's set to master or single depending on your setup. sorry if i got too wordy but i tried to explain just about everything cus i don't know how much you know about computers

[websteraaa]

ya, might be set slave slave, HDD CD