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Newbie PC builder needs help!!

R

Rick67

Senior member
Here's what's happening:

Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM:

No Emulation

Press any key to boot from CD

NTLDR is missing

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart


Anyone know what all this means?

Here's what I've got:

Intel P4 2.53GHz
ASUS P4T533-C
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
Four sticks of KINGSTON KVR1066X16-4/128 RAMBUS 128MB 1066MHZ NON-ECC
Antec True430
Western Digital SE 80GB
Creative Audigy Gamer
Plextor PlexCombo 20/10/40-12A
Logitech Elite
LIAN LI PC-61
Microsoft IntelliMouse SE
Sony FDD
 
It looks like I buggered up my hard drive.

I had a ASUS P4S8X mobo and I replaced it with the P4T533-C and for some reason my BIOS doesn't want to recognize my HD anymore.

Is there anyway I can get my hard drive back to the way it was before I hooked it up to the P4S8X and installed Windows XP?
 
Looks like you have your hdd formatted with NTFS and it's invisible to your BIOS. Try to get a utility from the hdd manufacturer site to low level reformat it and start again with a clean install.
 
gonzo2k,

Thanks! I'll try doing a low level reformat! Do you think this has to do with switching mobos?

Update! I found a utility on western digitals site that lets me do a low level format and I'm doing it now. Will this put my HD back to how it was before took it out of the package?


OMG! It looks like it's going to take over six hours to do this low level format!!! Is this normal?

Thanks for the help.
 
How do I do fdisk with Windows XP? I can't figure out how to make a boot disk? Also, why do I want to format the drive to FAT32? Shouldn't it be NTFS?
 
Looks like I screwed up the boot sector. I think there's a way to fix it but I've already started the low level format so I'm going to just let it ride.

Man this really stinks! I don't think I like building my own PC!
 
Although a low level format can be a good thing, as you found out it is slow. Also, it was probably not needed in your case. Yes, your problem was in switching MB's. You should have just downloaded a Windows boot disk (many sites have them) and done the FDISK/Format process. Would still have taken maybe 30-45 minutes, if not less. Then you would have been good to go. Live and learn like the rest of us. Sorry. 🙁
 
I don't know what's going on! I did a low level format and I get the same problem. about half way through the Windows XP install I get a page fault error. I've tried everything I can think of! Anyone have any suggestions before I box everythng up?
 
BIOS doesn't care about file systems (NTFS, FAT, whatever). It just loads the bootstrap program from the boot sector, and executes that. The "NTLDR missing" message is coming from this bootstrap code already, so the BIOS sees the drive, and it's flagged bootable alright. It's just that the rest of the operating system kernel cannot be found.

This means, retry your installation. Maybe something as simple as removing the CD from the drive might help.
 


This may not be relevant to the discussion.

But I have seen that when a floppy is the first boot option or sometimes, even otherwise, if a non-bootable diskette is in the FDD, this error shows up.

I'm sure this must not be the case. But it is interesting how XP refuses to boot if a diskette is in.
 
Before you retry your intallation (and you really should), go into the BIOS and put everything to defaults (basic, low settings) except the CPU. Do not overclock the cpu and make sure the RAM timings are at basic levels. Save and exit those settings before you retry. Pull and recheck your cabling on the CD ROM drive. Make sure there is not disk in the floppy drive either. If it still does not work, borrow a friends CD and retry the installation. It won't cause any trouble for him. If it does load you are not going to activate it anyway. But, if it does load successfully, you might have a bad CD. Possible, but not likely but you want to be sure you cover all the bases before "boxing it up".
 
If you are loading O/S for the first time, and your Western Digital is a single drive with no other drive on the IDE cable,
try taking off the jumper on the back of the harddrive. You can store it by turning it sideways.

If it looks like this - : : : | :

Change to this - : : : _ :

and it should work.
 
I give up! I've tried everything! I even went out and bought a new HDD. Everytime no matter what I did, I could not get Windows installed. I would either get a page fault or it would say it couldn't copy a file. It has to be a problem with my mobo and/or RDRAM. Either way, I give up. I think I'm hanging up my PC building gloves. I just don't have the time for all this. Why can't this stuff just work? Heck, the P4S8X loaded up windows xp no problem. I didn't change anything but the mobo and ram. Anyway, thanks for the help guys! Now I'm going to have to sell my Lian Li case, HDD, combo drive, and CPU. I can still RMA the board and memory, and bring back the PS.
 
I wouldn't take all your stuff back. A year from now you're gonna just laugh at this incident. Do you know how many mobos, ram, cpus and hds I've fried? Too many to even list. Ask everyone in here how many all-nighters they've spent on a system to find out one of the jumpers is in the wrong place! It's all part of the process. When you get a good running system all tweaked out you'll be a happy camper.
 
Hey Bro,
If you switched chipsets, then put your old MOBO back in and reboot. See if you can get the OS up and running, Then restart from XP cdrom and do a clean install, Choosing advanced options and select I want to choose the partition. This will put you into a reformat program, sort of like fdisk. It is designed to read NTFS.

Delete any and all Partitions. Boot, Logical or extended. when the Parts. are deleted, Exit setup with a new unformatted disk. Put the new system back together, and you will have a Clean, Disk. Never Low level format, unless as a last resort. That is the rule.

Do yourself a favor and install CMDCONS.EXE next time to save yourself some trouble.
 
Command Console is a utility for repairing 2000/xp installations. Same for these OSes as reboot to DOS in 98. When you install it, it adds a line to boot options (F8) to format or whatever in DOS Mode. Look on microsoft website for a list of commands, and you can print it in case you need them. CMDCONS is on the CD for 2000/XP in \extras I believe. It is not installed by default.
 
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