Re: Windows XP not booting properly

From: Michael Cecil (macecil_at_comcast.net)
Date: 07/12/04 

Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 07:01:08 GMT

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 23:24:04 -0700, "James"
<anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I'm just putting together an new system for a friend, it's
>the first time I have used Windows XP. It is a legal OEM
>copy. When the PC is turned on, it goes through BIOS
>initialisation etc then looks for a boot record on the
>HDD, it cannot find one so looks on the Win XP Home CD.
>Sometimes it boots up ok with the CD, othertimes the CD
>causes it to enter new setup screen.
>
>I have no idea what's happening because I reformatted the
>HDD and tried a copy of Win 2k and no probs it booted
>fine. So it does not appear to be a hardware issue but
>more an issue with Windows XP Home. can anyone suggest why
>it will only boot with the CD and will only boot with the
>CD most of the time? without the CD, the pc says that
>there's a boot failure....

Assuming you've got a PATA drive on some 3rd party high speed IDE
controller card:
Put the harddrive on the standard IDE controller. Boot from the CD and
use XP to partition the drive, then install XP. Once XP is installed,
load the drivers for the controller where the harddrive was initially
connected. Once those drivers are loaded and the device manager doesn't
show any exclamation marks, move the hdd to the high speed IDE controller
card and you should be all set. 

-- 
Michael Cecil
http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/

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