Unable to boot WinXP, unable to use "F8" function for safe mode

crzjunglej2 · September 26th, 2005, 01:26 PM

Hey board, need a little help and you guys have always been able to help. Here's the situation, Friday night shutdown like normal, same night ran Norton, Ad Aware, no problems... Saturday morning I turn on the computer, Dell screen appears with loading bar... after that, all I get is a blinking cursor. Here's what I have:

Dell Dimension 8250 Windows XP Just received my new hard drive from Dell back in December because my previous drive died on me.

I contacted Dell, they're sending me a new hard drive. I think this was a quick fix, but I want to make sure before I give up on what was on my drive.

Here's what I've done since Saturday:

- Tried to hit "F8" during startup to load in safe mode, "F8" won't work. Only "F2" for Setup and "F12" for Boot Menu works. I get a lot of keyboard errors as well.

- Tried to repair windows through the Windows XP CD. Outcome: Said no errors with repair, still get blinking cursor.

- Ran a diagnostic through the Resource CD provided by Dell. Only received one error, Error Code: 1100:012a. I tried googling this code but the only site with this descrpition won't allow me access.

- Ran this command line in the repair a second time: CHKDSK /R. (Was in knowledge base on Dell's site) Ran fine, still get blinking cursor.

- Out of desperation (and maybe stoopidity! =P) I tried to re-install Windows XP but it said that there was already a version on my drive. I didn't partition my drives so I'm unable to load on a different partition.

- I did the check which checked the drive, and it passed. It shows the compacity of the drive (about 160 GB) and the available space (about 80GB). Which is where it was at before the blinking cursor appeared.

Based on all of this, and sorry it's alot, is there hope for recovering my files or should I just face the fact that my drive is toast and I'm going to have to just wait for the new drive and start all over again.

Smidley · September 26th, 2005, 01:38 PM

Wait for your new drive, reinstall XP, hook up the old drive as the primary slave, and transfer what you need over to the new drive.

Also, I doubt this will work, but it's worth a try: Boot up with the XP CD, enter the Recovery Console, once logged in type "FIXMBR" without the quotes, and hit Enter. This will fix your master boot record in case there is something wrong with it.

DutchMaster · September 26th, 2005, 01:42 PM

Whats the manufactor of the disk? I have fixed a disk before with Seagate Seatools, which you load from a bootdiskette.

crzjunglej2 · September 26th, 2005, 01:54 PM

first off.. great avator's Smidley and DutchMaster... actually I don't know the manufactor of the drive Dutch... which I'll keep in mind...

I talked to one of my tech guys here at work Smidley and they recommended the same thing after I posted... so I'm going to try FIXMBR and if that doesn't work I'll wait for the drive and use the old drive as the primary slave

thanks guys, so it sounds like there is hope for what was on my drive

I appreciate it!

crzjunglej2 · September 26th, 2005, 03:24 PM

anywhere I can go on how to set up the slave drive once I get my new hard drive?

thanks!

sr71000 · September 26th, 2005, 03:31 PM

ok..there are jumpers on the back of your drive. typically the settings are for master, slave, or cable select. Look at where the jumper is set initially and let us know. Also, look at your cable...does it have master and slave written on it next to two of the connectors?

crzjunglej2 · September 26th, 2005, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sr71000

ok..there are jumpers on the back of your drive. typically the settings are for master, slave, or cable select. Look at where the jumper is set initially and let us know. Also, look at your cable...does it have master and slave written on it next to two of the connectors?

I'll check when I get to the house, I'm pretty sure it's on primary since I only have one drive in my computer as of now... thanks for the response sr71000!

I'll probably have to wait until I get my second drive to even start concerning myself with this huh?

crzjunglej2 · September 26th, 2005, 11:14 PM

FIXMBR didn't work, will notify you guys once my new drive comes in, thanks for all the help you guys, it's greatly appreciated!