Windows XP only boots with XP cd in drive

[motoxpress]

I think I have a corrupted NTloader but the computer will only boot with the XP cd in place. Otherwise, it will say "DISC BOOT FAILURE. INSERT SYSTEM DISC AND PRESS ENTER".

How do I repair the ntloader?

-mx

 

[Navid]

Are you sure that's the problem?
It sounds like it expects to boot from your optical drive.
Get into the BIOS and put your hard drive ahead of your optical drive in the boot priority list.

 

[Fraggable]

If you have a corrupted NTLDR then you need to go to the recovery console (via the Windows CD) and run fixboot or fixmbr, I'm not sure which fixes that file.

But try what navid said first, that may be it. I'm not sure why you think your NTLDR is messed up?

 

[motoxpress]

I have arranged the boot order appropriately and it will simply not load Winxp when it's just the HD. I think there is a virus on an iold HD I was copying from that went after the bootloader or ntloader

-mx

 

[motoxpress]

Ok. tried both of those and no joy. Really don't want to re-install...

-mx

 

[Navid]

Explain exactly what you mean by the title of this thread.
Do you mean if you put the XP CD in your optical drive and reboot, you can boot to the XP on your hard drive?

 

[motoxpress]

Yes, I can boot from the HD into windows XP only when the Windows XP CD is in the drive. It appears that I have some kind of corruption in my ntloader or something. I have replaced ntloader, boot.ini and ntdetect.com and still can't boot without it.

-mx

 

[Navid]

How many partitions or hard drives do you have?
Is XP on drive C?

Right click on "My Computer" and then click on "Manage".
Click on "Disk Management".
Which partition shows as "System"?
Which one shows as "Boot"?