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Disk Boot Failure on new system build, WIN XP Professional

Starbuck1975

Starbuck1975

Lifer
This is my 4th build, but the first time I have encountered this problem. System specs:

Abit AN8 32x MOBO
Kenwood 32x CD-ROM set to Master on IDE2
Plextor DVD burner set to Slave on IDE2
Maxtor 80GB set to Master on IDE1
Maxtor 80GB set to Slave on IDE1
WD Caviar 250GB on SATA1
eVGA 7900GT KO
2x1GB OCZ dual channel Platinum
Enermax Liberty 500W
WIN XP Professional retail

The WD Caviar is a fresh hard drive, and the one I intend to use as my boot disk for my OS.

One of my Maxtor drives, the one set to slave, has some save game backup files and MP3.

The other Maxtor drive, set to master, is the drive I used to boot my OS from. I did not format this drive or remove the OS prior to this build.

Build my system and booted into the bios without a scratch. Set my boot priorities to floppy, CD-ROM and finally hard drive. Made sure that my WD Caviar was set to first priority in the boot sequence for hard drives.

Accessed Windows installation, and the setup process managed to recognize the previous version of WIN XP on my old Maxtor drive. Similarly, it designated my old Maxtor drive as drive C:/

I had setup ignore this previous install, and instead formatted my new drive. As others have encountered, Windows only posted my WD Caviar drive as being 150GB...my understanding is that a subsequent install of Service Pack 2 would resolve this issue. Also, setup designated my WD Caviar drive as J:/

I went through the install process without a hitch. After accessing WIN XP for the first time, I pulled up My Computer. Sure enough, I was able to access my old Maxtor drive as C:/ and saw my previous OS installation folders. I was able to access my other Maxtor drive and view my backup files. Similarly, I opened my new WD Caviar drive and saw that all of the OS files were installed.

I took out my installation disk, inserted the Service Pack 2 disk, and rebooted when prompted.

After going through the bios screen, I received a disk boot error from the CD-ROM, as there was no longer a CD-ROM in the drive. I was unable to access Windows at this time.

I hit reset, accessed the bios, and disabled every boot option except the hard drive. I also disabled the IDE controller in case my previous install of WINXP on the Maxtor drive was causing the problem.

Saved the bios, rebooted, and now I am getting a DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER.

What is the proper troubleshooting path for this error. I supect that I will have to disconnect my Maxtor drives temporarily, and start from scratch. If so, is there something I can do such that WINXP setup recognizes that my WD Caviar drive is 250GB prior to installing SP2?
 
You should know that windows xp has problems with installing more than one xp on one build. So in future ALWAYS disconnect the drive which has xp installed. After all the hotfixes and SP2 are installed than you can attach you old hard drive. But still avoid doing this. Two hard disks with WindowsXP or Windows 2003 Server on a same machine will always cause problems.
 
I have a similar setup, and WinXP makes the same mistake as Ubuntu does.... assumes your first IDE drive's MBR is where the bootloader should go, even though your 1st SATA drive is where you installed.

The only way around it I have found is either disconnect all other drives for the entire installation process, or use fixmbr from the recovery console (1st option is easiest!)
 
You should know that windows xp has problems with installing more than one xp on one build. So in future ALWAYS disconnect the drive which has xp installed. After all the hotfixes and SP2 are installed than you can attach you old hard drive. But still avoid doing this. Two hard disks with WindowsXP or Windows 2003 Server on a same machine will always cause problems.
Click to expand...
My intention wasnt to have two versions of the OS running at once...in my previous builds, I always load the OS to a fresh hard drive, and then leave the previous boot drive in tact so that I can transfer files over...in every instance, windows setup never recognized that the OS was already installed on a seperate hard drive other then the designated boot drive. Guess that I didnt encounter problems in the past reinforced a bad habit.

I wont have time until tonight to get to fixing the problem, but I will disconnect my Maxtor drives and try to boot from my SATA drive alone.

One question...will I have to reinstall windows?

Also, as I mentioned, setup did not recognize the full capacity of my hard drive. Once I install SP2, will it simply recognize the entirety of the drive? If not, is there a procedure to do a clean install where WIN XP setup will recognize the entirety of the drive capacity?
 
After doing some more research online, it seems my troubleshooting path should be as follows:

1. Disconnect my IDE drives that may be causing a conflict.
2. Attempt to boot machine normally to see if Windows kicks in.
3. If Windows does not boot, attempt to access Windows through safe mode

Regardless, I may just do a clean installation. I have found a couple of threads on slipstreaming the service packs onto a new installation CD. So far, the most comprehensive approach seems to be the following:

Slipstreaming Windows

This does seem to be a fairly cumbersome solution. Also, the instructions call for Nero, but I have Adaptec EasyCD creator installed on a laptop on which I can create the new boot disk. I checked my version of EasyCD creator, and it does allow me to create a bootable CD with no emulation and 4 sectors, as specified in the instructions on the link above.

Anyone have any experience using this slipstream technique to validate that it is a stable approach, and do I necessarily require Nero to create the new boot disk with SP2.
 
Well I got it to work last night. I removed my IDE drives, slipstreamed WINXP with SP2, and ran a fresh install.

System now boots without a hitch...also added my IDE drives back into the system, and it is not causing any problems. My OS still designates my install drive as drive C:/, with my Maxtor drives, and their partitions, taking up other letter designations.

Ended up using NLite for the slipstream, which made life a lot easier.
 
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