Xp Boot up Looping?

[sevenal]

XP Boot LOOPING
XP won't start just keeps rebooting
It's not seeing a hard drive on boot up
You see the XP boot screen but , goes to boot option window.
Wont start on last known,safe mode, or normal

Boot says
0 Master none
1 Master none

Is this HDD failure or corrupted boot sequence?

[aje]

If BIOS told me that it wasn't finding a master (which is what I'm interpreting from your post. If I'm misinterpreting please just disregard me) I'd check and make sure my IDE cables were connected with the jumpers set correctly. Then I'd try again with a different IDE cable to see if that was the problem.

[jrsweger]

If you are seeing the XP logo, you must be getting something from the harddrive. If this worked before, I would guess that there is a harddrive problem. If a new build, check the jumpers, cables, etc. Maybe try booting to safe mode - press F8 - after the bios screen.

[sevenal]

been working fine for several months
till now

[Big_Daddy]

Try booting with the CD or a Linux CD (Knoppix or Mandrake Move). See if the drive can be seen.

Can you see your CD drives? If not, your IDE controller may be gone.

[sevenal]

when i run chkdsk

it reports

the volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems

[sr71000]

if u'r running chkdsk then it's finding u'r hard drive. get powermax from www.maxtor.com and use the tools to check your harddrive....use the full test.....see if that'll work.....are both the harddrives on the same cable...if they both fail the test...then switch to the other connector on the mobo and try again...see if that helps! make sure you don't low level format with powermax but u can't do it by accident..it says low level format and it makes u confirm twice...so make sure you don't do any formatting...just check the drives. go here and search for powermax....it fits on a floppy and then u boot from the floppy. when you download powermax it's an executable file...u can't just copy that to the floppy...u have to run the program and it'll make the floppy for u.

[sevenal]

OK the solution i found at another forum.
But I wanted to thank everyone here for helping me.
As I understand now!
IBM HDD are prone to just stop spinning.

I removed it give it a rap on the top and WA LA!
it boots normal

Thanks again ALL.

sev

[snowy]

would this method work on other hdds that arent IBM?

[sevenal]

I had to replace the HDD as it continued to freeze up or seize.
But I was sucessful in getting it started and backing up the data.