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Boot Disk Failure, Insert Boot Disk And Press Enter

coolred

Diamond Member
I am building a file server. It already has several drives with data on them, and I bought a new 300GB SATA drive for the OS. I have tried installing Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Fedora Core 4. I have tried Server 2003 several times, and have gotten the error several differant times during each install. Once it happened after disc one was done, once it got all the way through the outlook CD. Windows XP installed and bootted, but after installing directx and the chipset drivers, it requires a reboot, which then gives me the error.

FC4 installed fine and upon reboot it game me an error loading OS error. What gives?


Motherboard is a DFI Lanparty 250GB
 
I know you have to ask that, but no I did not. I am not that stupid. Maybe once I would let that happen, but this has happened like 5-6 times now.
 
Tried a differaant stick of ram and a fresh install of Xp(and formatted the drive I am installing on under my main rigs XP install, after the first reboot I get this error:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
<windows root>\system32\hal.dll


So the drive checked out okay after running scandisk. The memory still could be the problem, but the stick I am currently using has cause me no problems in my other system. So does that mean its the board?
 
IF you have the ultimate boot cd, pop that in and run memtest for one loop with one stick of ram. If it passes that, reboot and check out that drive with the manufacturer's utility. That cd has all the testing utilities.
If the memtest fails, go into the bios and set everything to default, to be sure you are not misconfiguring the ram settings. If it still fails, swap out the ram with a known good stick.. Fails again, try a different slot. Fails yet again, the motherboard is most likely toast.
All you can do at that point is clear the cmos and run it one more time. After that, I RMA or toss the motherboard, whatever is appropriate.
If it passed both the memtest and the drive test, then it gets a bit tricky. It could be the motherboard, but many bad motherboards will fail those two tests also.
 
Are you just installing a new drive in a running system? I've seen that HAL issue come up in a thread about moving a OS drive to a new motherboard, it has to do with system type be it uni-processor & such.
 
Originally posted by: vanvock
Are you just installing a new drive in a running system? I've seen that HAL issue come up in a thread about moving a OS drive to a new motherboard, it has to do with system type be it uni-processor & such.

New drive in a new system, DFI Lanparty UT NF3 250GB, Sempron 2800+, 1x512MB PC3200 memory made by Ultra(I have read good reviews about them, but I have heard the DFI is picky about memory, so this could be the problem)I have also tried 1x512MB stick of PC3200 Patriot memory(a better stick then the Ultra, but still not on the DFI overclocking compatibility list, I am not overclocking, so I would have thought it would be okay, I was just mentioning it wasn't on the list)Several drives in the unit, but I am pretty sure its not the drive, since I have gotten the error both with the new drive and with an older drive.

I have gone in with the XP Cd and did the recovery console thing. Using the fixboot and fixmbr commands, it solves the problem, but I may still see the error again later after a reboot. I was lazy so I did both commands at once, if it helps to diagnose the problem, I can go back in and do them one at a time to see which one, or if it requires both to fix the problem.

Skyking, the motherboard I have has the option of running memtest in the BIOS, I have enabled it and the system reboots and about the time it should boot from a drive a screen pops up that could be the memtest program, unfortunately it reboots immediately after this, so I can't say for sure that is what it is. But I assume if that is memtest running and causing a reboot, that there is probablly an issue with the memory. I get this with both sticks of ram I have tried. I need to get another optical drive for my main rig, so that I can get the UBCD. I am just debating that if I go out to get a drive, then maybe I should just get some better ram as well. I just didn't want to spend a ton of cash. I mean this is for a file server, so I want it to be stable. But its only gonna be storing and serving files to a 4 computer network, of which likely only 1 maybe 2 people would be using the other computers at one time. I was talking to someone else about this through PM's, he thinks its the ram, and he recommended some corsair(he said even thier value brand would be okay, he also recommended I go to 1GB)thats like 125 bucks, where as the ram I have now I paid 20 for. Where as I can get some kingston value ram for like 60.

It would be cheaper just to get a motherboard that is not so picky, but it would be easier to replace the memory, since I won't have to repackage all the stuff from the motherboard. Basically I don't want to spend 125 bucks if I can get away with something cheaper, but then again, I don't want to get something cheaper, only to find its not good enough, or the memory is not the problem at all
 
I just thought of somehting, nto sure why it didn't hit me earlier. I have 5 hard drives in this system, most with other data on them. After the install, it saw the drive I installed the OS on as G: rather then C:, not sure why it did it this way, but it did. Its possible there may be files from a previous windows isntall on one of these other drives. I have tried installing several differant OS's on this machine, and I noticed after I installed SBS 2003, it gave me the error, so I refomatted and installed XP instead. After the XP install it gave me a boot menu for both XP and SBS 2003, so it is apparently storing the boot info on another drive, such as C: or whatever, maybe this is causing the errors, since it is looking for the boot files in an incorrect space or drive. I just tried several boots/reboots on the machine and it has booted fine since I used the recovery console.
 
Yeah I just unplugged all the drives but the OS drive and upon reboot I got an NTLDR file is missing error, so it looks like it is storing the boot files on one of the other disks. I will try an install with just that disk installed and see what happens
 
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