Re: Problem installing Windows XP

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"Khono82" <Khono82@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:A82BC057-4900-43ED-A2CE-3C35666D3150@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
> "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:
>
> > What exactly happens when you reboot the second time round
> > without the WinXP CD in the drive?
> >
> The machine attempts to reboot but fails and displays "BOOT FAILURE:
INSERT
> SYSTEM DISK AND REBOOT"

When you complete the first cycle of the WinXP installation
then you have a basic version of Windows loaded, including
the usual boot files. The message you get indicates that the
boot environment is flawed. Here are the things that are
required - tick them off one by one and post the results.

1. The boot files must reside on the primary master disk.
2. They must reside on the active partition of that disk.
This must be a primary partition, not a logical drive.
3. The following hidden files must reside in the root directory
of the active partition:
c:\ntldr
c:\ntdetect.com
c:\boot.ini
4. The machine must have a Windows Master Boot Record (MBR).
5. The active partition must have a Windows boot sector.

I don't want to spend the time yet to go in detail into each of
these points. Here are the first two points:

Point 1: If you've built the machine yourself then you can
easily check this yourself.

Point 2: Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk from www.bootdisk.com,
then run fdisk.exe to check and/or set the active partition. Fdisk
will also tell you if this is a primary or logical partition.


.

Relevant Pages

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