RE: FN-FORUM: Booting problems

date posted 31st January 2006 13:08

Did the hard drive have an operating system on when you booted off the =
CD the first time? If not the chances are you just need to modify the =
boot sequence in the bios.

Some bios are setup to look for an operating system on the hard drive, =
if its not found then it looks on cd, then on floppy.=20

In the case on an unfinished installation, the bios thinks that there is =
an OS on the hard drive so tries to boot it. The OS startup then tries =
to load NTLDR (A file to boot windows), but as it was not copied across =
properly it gives the error that it is missing and halts.

A boot floppy wont do you much good either, unless you create actual =
installation startup disks.

Depending on the cause you have quite a few options to try.

Option 1: Change the boot sequence. Do this by hitting DEL (or whichever =
key it tells you is setup/bios key) when the computer first starts up. =
Find the boot sequence options and move CD to the top of the list. This =
way it wont check the hard drive first. Save changes and reboot with CD =
in drive.

If that doesnt work it means the CD could be messed up or something, but =
you can try...

Option 2: Create installation floppies. You only normally use this if =
the computer wont boot off a CD. To do this you just need to put the cd =
in another computer which has windows running OK. Navigate to the CD =
drive in windows explorer or my computer (right click the cd and choose =
open/explore). Open the bootdisk folder, then double click makeboot.exe. =
Follow the instructions and then boot the other computer off those =
floppies. They just boot into the installation screens, you still need =
the cd present as well.

Performing an installation in another computer and switching it back is =
highly unlikely to work properly without further preparation after the =
installation. You shouldn't really need to do this ever anyway if you =
have either a working floppy or cd.

Hope this helps.

Jamie

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL REMOVED] [EMAIL REMOVED] Behalf Of Ian
Copeland
Sent: 31 January 2006 13:17
To: Jamie
Subject: RE: FN-FORUM: Booting problems



I can't even reinstall. I won't boot up any further than boot from =
cd/hard
drive/floppy.
I guess I'm going to have to stick it in another computer.
Might that harm the other comp?