Booting from CD-Rom

[konradjohn]

The overall problem is the computer will lock up on the windows boot screen. I've tried booting in safe mode and it locks up their too. So to fix the problem I wanted to repair windows through a windows operating disk. Their are 3 different cd-roms hooked up to the computer. 2 through an IDE cable and 1 via USB. I also made sure the computer was booting from those specific drives. The lights on the drives come on but the computer beeps and nothing happens. I checked the connections and nothing was out of place. Can anyone help me on this issue?

Computer Specs:

Dell Demesion 8400
Windows XP Pro SP2

 

[Harvey]

Was the machine working with all of those drives connectec, before?

Try unplugging all but the one hard drive and the one optical drive you want to use to boot.

 

[konradjohn]

Yes the computer was working fine before
I'm getting this error:

Phoenix Rom Bios Plus
Version 1.10 A05

Driver 1 not found - serial ATA, SATA 1
Driver 2 not found - serial ATA, SATA 2
Driver 3 not found - serial ATA, SATA 3
Driver 5 not found - Parallel ATA, PATA-1 (PRI IDE Slave)

 

[konradjohn]

Now when I try to boot I get a blue screen with this error:

STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF8AA2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

 

[corkyg]

This is usually fixed with a registry edit to remove upper and lower filters. Check out this MS KB.

KB

 

[Slowlearner]

Drive Not found or driver not found? This pc has only one ide channel so be sure to put the XP disk in one of the cd-rom drives connected to the primary ide channel.

Without any XP disks try to boot, and if it does not POST, take a look at the diagnostic lights at back 4 in a block labelled A B C D, and post what they indicate (color pattern).

 

[konradjohn]

Drive not found; sorry. There is no post readout for these computer. Got to love Dell's.

 

[Slowlearner]

What do the diagnostic lights show - all off or is there a combination of yellow and green ?If so what?
This isnt a very old pc, and while a hard drive failure is very possible, a repair install or fresh install on a new hard drive should be possible. There is probably more than one hardware failure so we need to figure out what - check all power connectors, re-seat memory, check fan connectors, blow off dust etc. Check the hard drive on another pc.

 

[konradjohn]

Heres what I know....
All the indicator lights on the computer flash green.
The harddrive works otherwise I woundn't get the windows boot screen.
The computer tries to boot off the assigned cd-rom but then the computer beeps and it continues to boot off the harddrive.

 

[konradjohn]

Scratch that...

Now I keep getting the blue screen. I don't really have any hardware to switch anything out.

 

[konradjohn]

I manage to find an extra harddrive out another computer and swapped it out. It booted up just fine with no problems. So I guess the harddrive is too far corrupt for me to repair it. What do you guys think?

 

[Slowlearner]

No, see if you can attach it as a slave and read it. As you were able to get to the windows boot screen I would guess that while there is some corruption of files or bad sectors much of the data could be read. First I would try using the hd manufacturers utility to check the hard drive - if it passes then running a simple chkdsk on the hard drive may fix the problem. If that doesnt, then move on to data recovery.