New Harddrive + XP

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Originally posted by alacritous
Not to criticise,

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I don't want to do too much, but I think its needed. I just want to fix the problem so I can do what I need. And I realize your trying to help, though.

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Originally posted by dglienna
Read my posts!

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I believe all you said was "do you have it set to boot to the CD first? it may be booting to the empty drive.", and nothing about the bios. You said you "meant" so that covers that.

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Originally posted by dglienna
If you don't know, as the computer boots, you can press a key to get to SETUP/BIOS. You can change things that come into effect the next time the computer boots.

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I know........................

I'll try changing some of the bios's settings.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

Alacritous

My my, hasn't this got outta control. I strongly advise NOT to use FDISK, forget it, Boot the Windows XP CD, either by booting off the the CD or the link I sent you telling you how to get the floppies to start setup.
Format you HDD in SETUP, make sure that other drive isn't connected.
Install Windows and you should be right.

It seems as though you tried to install Windows with that other drive in the computer, because it would've put the boot files on that HDD and you've taken it out, it can't find them any longer and won't boot.

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Originally posted by Ideas Man
It seems as though you tried to install Windows with that other drive in the computer, because it would've put the boot files on that HDD and you've taken it out, it can't find them any longer and won't boot.

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Umm, no, it seems not.

Like I said, which obviously I have to repeat, while I had ONE DRIVE in it and it was formatting/partitioning, I shut it down.

NOTHING is bootable, for your information. (Well as far as I know the WinXP and Win98 CDs arn't.)

Alacritous

OK, my mistake, well, just back into the formatting/partitioning stage again however you did it last time.

and you don't have a bootable floppy? can you get one?
even late DOS versions have CD support. If you can do this, then you can run SETUP off of the CD, which willl format the drive.

Check out the link, support as in utilz/diognz for most harddrives yours is there might help .

http://www.wolfontheloose.com/index_...drivetools.htm


And here for all boot disks

http://www.bootdisk.com/

Hope am not adding to the confusion, but the sites are always handy to know anyways.

Good luck

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Originally posted by whothis
Check out the link, support as in utilz/diognz for most harddrives yours is there might help .

http://www.wolfontheloose.com/index_...drivetools.htm


And here for all boot disks

http://www.bootdisk.com/

Hope am not adding to the confusion, but the sites are always handy to know anyways.

Good luck

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Thanks, I'll check it out.

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Originally posted by dglienna
and you don't have a bootable floppy? can you get one?
even late DOS versions have CD support. If you can do this, then you can run SETUP off of the CD, which willl format the drive.

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What are you talking about? How am I supposed to know what to do with a bootable floppy when you said to get one?

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Originally posted by Ideas Man
OK, my mistake, well, just back into the formatting/partitioning stage again however you did it last time.

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Like I said, it doesn't work anymore.

OK, this is really starting to piss me off.

Now, I can't even get into the BIOS.

I don't know whats wrong, but everytime I press F8 (what I thought it was) it doesn't do anything.

I try other buttons, such as Esc, F12, and F2, but it still does nothing.

It brings me to this menu:
"Your computer was not shutdown properly", etc.

I don't know what the **** is wrong, but I really want to get this working.

I was thinking of having both of the drives connected, and putting in the WinXP CD. After I do this, I was thinking of installing it, but on the new 120GB hard drive. Now, obviously, it says "You are trying to install Windows XP on a computer that has a newer system", etc. So, I was thinking to uninstall Windows XP Service Pack 2, and try again.

But, obviously, I don't want to uninstall and find something doesn't work then have to install again and things get messed.

I am now doing error checking and other various hardware tools. After I do this, I'm going to format again.

EDIT
I have visited the Western Digital homepage, which I should have done a while ago.

In their "Knowledge Base", I see the "NTLDR is missing" erorr, the same one as mine. It states that it is caused by a corrupted partition, exactly what happened when I tried to install. (http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....YWdlPTI*&p_li=)

They stated to ways to solve the problem:

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Boot to the floppies supplied by the operating system.

Set your computer's boot sequence so that you can boot from your operating system installation CD-ROM.

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I must use the second way, because I do not have the floppies.

So, now, it brings me to my BIOS, in order to change the boot sequence. Now, like I said, I can't get the BIOS to open because of some strange reason.

The solution is coming!

Thanks,
Alacritous

Sorry if I got mad or critised too much, it was just because I was mad (:mad: ).

:D

it tells you when the system first boots up. the problem is that it sometimes flies by too quickly. if you can hit the pause key at just the right time, you can read the screen before you press a key to un-pause. the pause key on my system is the Shift-Break key. On yours it may be different.
I've seen the DELETE key, and the SPACE bar bring up SETUP. Look on your motherboard's site for info.

Hello,
Once again, I have solved one of my many problems by myself. It's the {DELETE} key. So, I went into BIOS, and changed some settings. I overclocked the 1.8GHz to 2.4GHz, which I should have done later (read on). I changed one of the CD-ROM's to boot instead of the other (it was my cd-rw, but I changed it to my real CD-ROM, even though the ribon cables arn't connected like that). I press the button for "save and exit", and it saves, then exits. After waiting a while, nothing appears on the screen. I shutdown (press the on button), it does nothing. So, I'm forced to turn the On/Off switch (on the back) to off. I try doing various things, which some are listed below:

- I try disconnected the 2 CD-ROMS (because I think the fact that I made one bootable, when the cables don't go that way might have done this)
- I try switching the hard drive to the new 120GB.
- I try booting from a WinXP and Win98 CD-ROM

- After thinking it might be my monitor, I try switching monitors with another, and it still shows nothing.

So right now, I'm stuck doing absolutely nothing (can't even boot...). BTW, I'm posting on another computer in my house. The reason I said read on about the overclock is this. If I didn't do the overclock, then I could have pointed it down to the booting part of the CD-ROM's, making that the problem. See, now, I can't test to see if it wsa the overclock or the booting of CD-ROMs

Just for an opinion, do you think I should post another thread in the General Computers forum about this problem?

EDIT
I fixed it by changing the Frequency Multiplier and the Frequency (something) to a different one. I had to change the JumperFree setting to Jumper. I am trying to edit the BIOS so I can "change the boot sequence so you boot from the operating sytem installation CD" as the Western Digital people said. I think I have a clue on how to do this, but can anyone tell me if you know exactly? Otherwise, I'll just find out, just might be a little while. Although, I think I have it.

Thanks in advance,
Alacritous

Code:

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NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

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The reason why this is happing is because you failed installing xp and the computer is trying to boot off the drive before it tries the cds.

Can you post some information on your motherboard so i can find a manual to walk you thru configuring the bios so that it tries to boot of the cds first.
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Try this:

Boot of the old 20gig drive. (Im assuming this has xp on it)
Right Click On my Computer and Select Manage

On the left hand side select Disk Management under the Storage node.

Right Click On the 120gig Drive
Delete any exisiting partitions.
Create a New Partition and format it.

ShutDown the computer.

Remove the 20gig hard drive and try to boot from the cd.

Hello,
My idea on changing the boot sequence worked! So, right now I'm installing Windows XP (well, formatting)! Even though I pretty much solved everything myself :), without you all helping me it wouldn't have been fixed. Because, I wouldn't have even gone to the Western Digital website if you guys hadn't told me to. (Thanks to Microsoft for the badly explained article)

SO THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!
ALACRITOUS
:) :D ;) :p :cool: :bigyello: :wave: :lol: :ehh: :thumb:

Don't blame Microsoft for your own stupidity. If you hadn't shut the thing down while it was formatting, you'd be right, seems odd that it would suddenly 'stop' working as well.

And what article are you referring to anyway?

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My idea on changing the boot sequence

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Don't pat yourself on the head for that idea. I said it three times. The first one was 9/9/04. See below:


There may be a BIOS setting to let you boot to CD. Check the Boot Order: set it to CD, Floppy, HardDrive.
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do you have it set to boot to the CD first? it may be booting to the empty drive.
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I meant in the BIOS. That would cause an error if it's booting to an empty drive first. If you set it to CD first, you can change it back after doing the OS install. The CD would also boot properly.
Read my posts!

Doesn't your machine boot to the floppy first if there's one in there? It should. Make CD first, floppy second, and HD third while installing the OS.

If you don't know, as the computer boots, you can press a key to get to SETUP/BIOS. You can change things that come into effect the next time the computer boots.
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I pretty much solved everything myself

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You're welcome.

You'll probably do it again!

Yeah I thought that comment seemed odd, both actually.

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Originally posted by dglienna
Don't pat yourself on the head for that idea. I said it three times. The first one was 9/9/04. See below:

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Don't want to get on your bad side, which I probably alright am, but here it goes. Also, don't get mad at me when I put your replies away.

Your right, don't you love it?

I think it's unfair you quoted "My idea on changing the boot sequence" and nothing else. I never said I made that idea up. I just said [not clearly] that I searched through my brain and thought of that idea, stated by someone else, which happens to be you.

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Originally posted by Ideas Man
Don't blame Microsoft for your own stupidity. . . .
And what article are you referring to anyway?

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My stupidity? Hmm, maybe you better compare the article from Microsoft and the article from Western Digital.



Thank you..................

After all, the best thing is that I got it working? Does it matter how I solved it? Now, yes, maybe in math, you want to understand how you got to the answer and show your work.

"Even though I pretty much solved everything myself , without you all helping me it wouldn't have been fixed.". I think that gives credit where due.

Alacritous

Not that I want to start any flames or anything, but the article is for upgrading from a previous version of Windows to XP, not what you did, completly different.

not a problem. glad its fixed.

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Originally posted by Ideas Man
Not that I want to start any flames or anything, but the article is for upgrading from a previous version of Windows to XP, not what you did, completly different.

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I totally understand. I was given that article, and I was just noting.