RE: FN-FORUM: Booting problems

date posted 31st January 2006 13:13

Lol - I just got halfway through a reply saying exactly the same thing!

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL REMOVED] [EMAIL REMOVED] On Behalf Of Jamie
Sent: 31 January 2006 13:45
To: FN-FORUM / [EMAIL REMOVED]
Subject: RE: FN-FORUM: Booting problems


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.

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