possible hard drive meltdown

[Huguenot]

On my desktop, when I try to log on it keeps asking me to insert a boot disk in the floppy drive.

-- does this mean I'm screwed?
-- what if I don't have a boot disk and none of my other computers has a floppy drive?
-- Can I create a boot disk under Windows 98 to book up Win XP?

Fortuanately most of my important stuff is on my laptop, but still a pain in the arse.

[Rick]

The first thing I would check is the bios and what order the boot options are. Should be something like

A:
CDROM Drive
C:

I would probably try a repair install of WinXP. When doing a repair install the trick is to not think that the Repair Console is part of the repair install. Once you get past that it is pretty easy.

The other option is to try and get Windows to go back to the last saved option. It does not sound like you can do that.

[hurrikane]

can you get in in safe mode?

press f8 when it starts up. Also be sure you don't have anything in your floppy when you start.

[Rick]

It might also be something as simple as the little round battery on the motherboard being dead.

Possibly more research later.

[ggpagels]

Hug- I'm a little confused. You say:

On my desktop, when I try to log on it keeps asking me to insert a boot disk in the floppy drive.

If you can get to your desktop, you have booted from your hard drive. :confused:

[Rick]

Desktop computer. :)

[Rick]

Check out this site for some info on troubleshooting the problem:

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/bios/boot_Sequence.htm

[keith026]

To me it sounds like your master boot record might (MBR) might have gone bad. If you have a win xp cd you can boot to the cd and then repair it through the repair center, i think the command is c:\fixmbr I will double check that and see if i can get you a list of steps to help you out. if this is the problem it is pretty simple and quick to fix.


edit: fixmbr command is located under the recovery center not repair, if you run the repair center it will restore windows, and you will loose anything on your desktop and my docs folder (its kinda like a new install).

did you install anything new before this happened hardware or software? can you boot to safe mode if so you can use the built in system restore to go back a few days/weeks or to a point before the problem started. I would try system restore as a first step.

[Huguenot]

Believe it or not still working on this problem (using the laptop instead).

Question: Can I use a Compaq Win XP Home2 disk (from my laptop) to boot up a Dell Win XP Pro PC.
My problem is the computer was orignally Win ME and somebody "upgraded" me to Win XP Pro so I don't have a disk. I know it's piracy but Win ME was soooo bad I was desperate.

[Rick]

I would go ahead and try getting to the repair console using the HOME version of XP.

If the repair console doesn't work email me.

If there is something on the hard disk that you just have to recover, if it was me, I would put in a new hard disk at C: and make the old hard disk your D: (or whatever) drive. I would then install an operating system on C: and try to recover anything I could and wanted off of D:.

There are always plan B, C, and D. Of course none guarantee sucess. :)

[dehere]

IMHO I think I'd take out the hard drive in your computer, borrow someone else's computer and load your hard drive as a slave drive and save, move, backup or whatever all of the data files on the questionable hard drive before I'd do anything to try to save the OS on the problem drive. Once you've saved all of the important stuff, including the pst files and such, worry about trying to resurrect that drive. Just my opinion.

[km]

I totally agree with Dehere. That drive is dead meat Andy. If you can get the files off it you will be lucky. Been through this a dozen times myself, you just can't repair them, backups are the only protection because this is going to happen to every hard disk eventually.

It could be a messed up boot sector or other Windows logic mess, but that still requires a Format c:\ to clean it up and you'll have to re-install Windows anyway and lose all files.

Most likely the drive is corrupted and no longer usable. Full data recovery is available (look in Yellow Pages) but expensive.

[njcurveball]

I am sorry for my NON punctuality in this thread, but I was just browsing the messages and read it.

IF you have "death of a master boot record" as the start implies, there is a way out. I performed this Lazarus feat with my PC about a year ago. You need to download something called Knoppix which you can then burn to a CD giving you a live version of Linux.

It really isn't as hard as it sounds. You simply boot from the CD and use a Pseudo Windows interface. Best part is that you can download it from free. Anyone that tackles Microsoft Access can use something like this with no prolems.

After you fix your Master boot record, you can re-boot back into "Gates world'!

Hope this helps someone in the future.

Jim