Re: Boot sector issue

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

Tom wrote:

John,
I don't have a floppy disk.. just the CD/DVD burner. Is there a way to do the boot process without the floppy drive? I'm driving to be floppy-less!

I understand your wanting to be floppy-less but as far as I am concerned Windows XP installations are at times much easier to maintain when a floppy drive is present. You can salvage a floppy drive from a retired PC or buy a new one for about $10. If your computer can boot USB devices you can try to create a floppy boot image for USB stick, doing a search for "Boot usb stick floppy image" will return information like this: http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm


Relative to the external USB drives are you saying I should wait until I see the Windows logo screen before re-inserting the external USB drives? OR, are you saying the IF I get the issue next time that I remove the external drives and reboot?

If you get the problem unplug the USB drives and try re-booting the computer. I have certain machines here that give the very same symptoms as yours, if I leave a flash drive plugged in the computer just boots to a blinking cursor, pull the stick and the machine boots without problems. This happens even when the hard disk is set to be the first boot device in the BIOS, but this isn't an occasional thing, it is consistent and the machine will not boot if a USB stick is plugged in, other users and posters to these groups have also often reported this kind of problem when USB hard drives are plugged in.


On the HD issue, about 4+ months ago I ran a test on the drive that wouldn't boot and it was ok. On the partition idea, I do have valid active partitions - the system partition plus the active user partition (148GB or so).

The only way to absolutely rule out the removal of the active flag would be to examine the disk when the problem occurs and verify the active status of the partitions.


Other ideas???

No, maybe someone else has other advice to offer.

John



"John John (MVP)" wrote:


Tom wrote:


It seems that my boot sector on my 160GB HDs keep getting 'hosed'. Not too sure why but I make backups of the active internal HD and then about 2 weeks later the HD's boot sector gets hosed and I can't boot (time interval isn't consistent). Only way around is to replace the non-bootable HD with the 2-week old bootable backup HD and copy the appropriate files onto the 2-week old HD. Then make a backup of the current active over the hosed HD drive.
I wear an anti-static wrist band; I also remove any potential static before I touch the laptop, just in case; I don't get static when I'm at the laptop (unless it's from my wife! ;-) ). What happens is when I reboot (cold or warm) the Dell splash screen appears and then I get the cursor in the upper left corner of the screen. Once I see the Windows splash screen, I'm ok but if I only see the flashing cursor at the top left of the screen, then I'm hosed!

This blinking cursor on black screen is usually a sign that there are no active partitions on the drive, the active partition flag was removed, or you are trying to boot to a different drive, like a flash drive. You can verify the status of the active partition in the Disk Management tool, the Active partition will be identified as the System partition. You can also use a Windows 98 startup diskette and Fdisk to verify the active status of the partition.

If you have a floppy drive you should make yourself an NT floppy boot diskette and keep it nearby, the nest time you get this problem see if you can boot your Windows installation with this diskette.

To create the diskette:

1- The diskette must contain an NT boot sector. Format the floppy diskette with a Windows NT/2000/XP operating system. Do not use a diskette formatted with a Windows 9x operating system, it will not contain the NT boot sector and it will fail to boot your Windows XP installation.

2- Copy the files ntldr, NTDETECT.COM and boot.ini to the diskette.

Now test the diskette to make sure that it works, go in the BIOS and verify the Boot Order so that the computer is set to boot to the diskette drive first then try to boot the computer with the diskette. The next time this problem comes up see if the diskette can boot Windows, if it can then look at the Active status of the partition.

If you are certain that there are no software/malware issues at cause and if you are sure that your cables are not defective and properly seated then maybe the drive is defective, get a utility from the drive manufacturer and test the drive. Also note that this issue is also often reported to happen when external USB drives or flash drives are plugged into the computer when it is booted, make sure that none of these devices are present when you boot the computer.

John



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