Boot from CD causes computer to not boot anymore?!

[NivekC4]

I have Windows XP Professional installed on my computer. I have the BIOS search for bootable floppy, then cd rom, and then harddrive as the boot order. My mom left a cd in the drive, and it said, "Boot from CD: press any key" ... my mom hit a key (unknowingly) and it continued to drive to install/boot from this cd. The CD that was in the drive was "Dazzle Compact Flash Reader CD".

After my mom accidentally selected to boot off the CD, the computer will no longer boot into windows. I can't even make it to the Windows boot screen. I've changed the boot order to go straight to the cd, I've tried unplugging my cd roms, and last of all I tried restarting without any cd's in any of the cd roms. It is as if that "booting from cd" wiped out the boot sector that is read on the harddrive ...

Has anyone else ever had this problem before? I couldn't find help by searching on anandtech, nor on google.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Bleep]

why dont you simply boot into the BIOS and set it to boot from floppy 1st then boot from HD2nd and other devices 3rd.

Bleep

 

[NivekC4]

Originally posted by: Bleep
why dont you simply boot into the BIOS and set it to boot from floppy 1st then boot from HD2nd and other devices 3rd.

Bleep

I've tried that ... and it still didn't work.

For some reason, the last thing I see on the screen before it hangs forever is "Verifying DMI Pool Data ................."

I"m not even sure what that is, and how it is affecting the boot, but it won't even make it to the Windows XP boot screen so I can hit F8 to go safe mode or boot last good configuration.

Thanks for the input though.

 

[gnumantsc]

Try pulling out anything that is USB and bootup from there to see if that helps.

But the question here is how the heck is that CD bootable? Maybe you should call their tech support and ask if they ran into this sort of situation.

 

[Jiggz]

Set the bios to boot to the CD again. This time place the Win XP CD and then do a repair installation of Windows. Or if you know how to use the Repair Console you can fix the boot sector which could fix the problem.

 

[NivekC4]

Originally posted by: gnumantsc
Try pulling out anything that is USB and bootup from there to see if that helps.

But the question here is how the heck is that CD bootable? Maybe you should call their tech support and ask if they ran into this sort of situation.

I've been booting on minimum configuration (lcd, keyboard, and mouse)

 

[NivekC4]

Originally posted by: Jiggz
Set the bios to boot to the CD again. This time place the Win XP CD and then do a repair installation of Windows. Or if you know how to use the Repair Console you can fix the boot sector which could fix the problem.

I tried this last night. I first tried to do the repair install, and it still hung at the same point. I tried to repair again, and it said, that repairing it the time before was unsuccessful, and asked if I wanted to try again, which I did ... and it was still unsuccessful.

I then went to the Repair Console. Recognized my windows installation on the harddrive, and I selected it. did a fixboot, and also did a repair on the boot sector...but it still hangs at the same spot on reboots.

I'm thinking i've exhausted everything I possibly could have tried to repair/recover the boot sector if it was damaged. Now I am not sure whatelse could be affecting the boot up?

Ideas?


Thanks.