Re: XP will not Boot up in any mode

From: Dick in Florida (DickinFlorida_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 01/21/05 

Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 10:33:08 -0800

I contacted compaq and they told me the following:

1. Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, and
    then restart the computer.

     NOTE: If you do not have the Windows XP Setup Floppy disk,
            download and create it from the following site:

            http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310994

2. Click to select any options that are required to start the computer
    from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
3. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the
    Recovery Console.
4. When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password.
    If there is no administrator password, just press ENTER.
5. Proceed to Phase 2.

I made the disks. When I boot up with disk 1 of 6, it first says it is
checking the
hardware configuration. When I press R at the windows set up screen (no
welcome screen) , all it does is ask for disk 2. Should it do something
else, or will something happen to enable me to use the R function after I
load all 6 disks?

"Sharon F" wrote:

> On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 18:17:02 -0800, *** in Florida wrote:
>
> > I now found that when I go to the D drive, which is supposed to be the
> > current system info for a restore, it represents the drive that was called G
> > on my system. This was an old drive from my prior computer that had windows
> > 98 on it. Could the system think it's supposed to boot from this drive
> > instead of C? I checked the bios, and it still recognized both physical
> > drives.
>
> On all the Compaqs I've worked with, there was a compaq disk (floppy or CD)
> that booted the system and then accessed the partition setup by them. That
> partition did not contain current system info. It contained the files
> needed to restore the system to factory state. As I mentioned before, many
> HP/Compaq systems no longer use the boot disk. Instead there is a function
> key to press that will access the compaq partition.
>
> The Compaq partition is usually hidden and accessible using the Compaq boot
> tool. It's possible that the boot disk you're using cannot see that special
> partition. This would give the impression that the drive letters are moving
> around.
>
> --
> Sharon F
> MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User
>