Reinstall System Help Thx

[zhuer2009]

I tried to re-install Win XP pro to my old dell Poweredge 400SC.

In the beginning, it just could not boot from CD Drive ( I have made the CD drive the first boot choice in Bios).
When i boot it up, the CD led light will light for a second, then off. Then the machine just continue boot from my C drive. My current OS is Vista.

After change my BIOS back and forth a couple of times, right now my dear Dell just can not boot at all. When i check my BIOS, I found that all my harddrives (Primary master drive and slave) were labeled as unknown device.

BTW, before this happen when my machine boost up. It always showed that diskette drive 0 seek failure.

Can anyone give me some advice here? Thanks in advance,

Z

 

[TeeJay1952]

Check cabling, make sure hard drive is seen in bios before you run chkdsk on it. Try another hd.

 

[RebateMonger]

I own six Dell 400SCs, so I might be able to help.

It sounds like you need to get that CDROM booting no matter what else is wrong. It could be that the XP CDROM is damaged or that the CDROM drive is failing. A common failure mode of CD drives is that you can't boot from them anymore. I'd try a known-good bootable CD and see if that boots.

If not, you can try a different data cable to the CD drive and if that doesn't work, you should probably try a different CDROM or DVD drive. They are standard drives, so you can pull one from another PC if that's available. There's also at least one SATA connector on the motherboard that you can try if you only have a SATA CD/DVD drive available.

 

[zhuer2009]

Thx for the reply. It is really helpful.

In the machine I did install a DVD drive. I also did try to boot up from the DVD. It just pup put some error message. Said" short of diver or...." I could not remember clearly.

But one thing really interested me is that why the second time I turned on the machine. It is just mysteriously not recognizing my Harddrives. Because the harddives are down or some other stuff is wrong. It would be great appreciated that you could give me some advice why this happen.

For the connection, I did check all the cable connection and make sure they are connected, no loose.

Thx,

I own six Dell 400SCs, so I might be able to help.

It sounds like you need to get that CDROM booting no matter what else is wrong. It could be that the XP CDROM is damaged or that the CDROM drive is failing. A common failure mode of CD drives is that you can't boot from them anymore. I'd try a known-good bootable CD and see if that boots.

If not, you can try a different data cable to the CD drive and if that doesn't work, you should probably try a different CDROM or DVD drive. They are standard drives, so you can pull one from another PC if that's available. There's also at least one SATA connector on the motherboard that you can try if you only have a SATA CD/DVD drive available.

 

[TeeJay1952]

#
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Caution There can be many instances of the registry subkey that is mentioned in step 2. You must make sure that you are in the appropriate registry subkey before modifying the UpperFilters and the LowerFilters values. To verify that you are in the appropriate registry subkey, make sure that the Default data value is DVD/CD-ROM and the Class data value is CDROM.
# In the right pane, right-click UpperFilters, and then click Delete.
# Click Yes to confirm the removal of the UpperFilters registry entry.
# In the right pane, right-click LowerFilters, and then click Delete.
# Click Yes to confirm the removal of the LowerFilters registry entry.
# Exit Registry Editor, and then restart the computer.