Dell 2400 will not boot after xp install

[kenjmor2006]

I have a dell 2400,2.2 gig cpu, 512 ram, that I just put a new hard drive(40 gig) in,I installed winxp pro ,but the computer will not boot from hard drive,I went to repair console on the win xp cd,and typed fixmbr, then when it said it had done that I again typed fixboot, but it still will not boot,any ideas? Thank you....Ken

 

[Proximon]

Not sure

Did you enter the BIOS and assign the HD you installed as the primary boot device?

 

[kenjmor2006]

Not sure

Did you enter the BIOS and assign the HD you installed as the primary boot device?

Sorry I should have mentioned I have bios set to boot hard drive(master) (cd rom) Each has its own cable. Thanks Ken

 

[kenjmor2006]

Bios is set first hard drive then cd rom, each has their own cable....Ken

 

[Proximon]

So this is an IDE HD? Are the jumpers on the drive set to master or cable select?

 

[kenjmor2006]

set to master,in bios it is set on auto,thanks for the help....Ken

 

[Proximon]

If you can burn a CD on the system you are using now:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Use that to boot and run the appropriate hard disk tool on the drive.

 

[kenjmor2006]

If you can burn a CD on the system you are using now:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Use that to boot and run the appropriate hard disk tool on the drive.

I can boot as long as the xp pro is in the cd,so what do I need to do? reformat,delete the partitions,then what?

 

[Proximon]

XP would have formatted the drive correctly initially, unless you gave it some command that overrode the default settings.

I'm more interested in diagnosing the hard drive to see why it's not bootable.

You said you installed XP, so I'm guessing there is no issue with reading or writing to the disk, only booting from it. If you can boot from the CD, you should be able to get to a command prompt. If so, you probably know your way around well enough to navigate through the hard drive and see if the files are actually there?

Some HD diagnostic tool would help here.... I guess you could at least run chkdisk on the drive from the command prompt.

 

[Guest]

Did you have a legal Dell Windows XP Pro CD or are you using a pirated copy?

Grumpy

 

[kenjmor2006]

wow what a low blow,of course it is legal,same as the computer was sold with.

 

[kenjmor2006]

Hello friend,I will try and go into detail what I have done,the computer I bought had a froze hard drive(mechanical) I purchased a maxter used 40 gig hard drive off ebay, installed it,I formated it first,then I installed windows xp pro on it,by letting it partition the entire drive as ntfs,all except for 8mb that windows said was for formatting tools, the install went smooth no problems,I used the coa key numbers that was on the sticker on the computer. As long as I have the cd in ,it will come up and say strike any key to boot to cd ,then it will boot up the hard drive after that,if I take the cd out,it just comes up strike f1 to continue,or f2 for utilies. I have tried boot repair from the xp cd. all the files are there,I am starting to look at maby a bios upgrade next? By the way I also had a 20 gig hard drive and it done the same thing. Thanks for the help......Ken

 

[Proximon]

It does sound like a motherboard issue.

Do you have the drive connected to the primary IDE channel? It looks like your board has a primary and a secondary channel.

I would think that as long as the BIOS recognizes the HD, that there is no reason to flash it.

I still think you should burn an ultimate boot CD and run the Maxtor diagnostic tool from it, just to be sure the drive is OK.

 

[kenjmor2006]

Wow this has turned into a project,I have a copy of dos boot cd 5.7,it has maxters hard drive diagnostics on it and everything checks fine,I also ran dignostics on the mother board and it checks fine,I even flashed the bios from ao3 to ao5.I am clueless ,if I leave the xp disc in it will boot up and run normal,but if I remove the disc,it just comes on to continue run f1, or f2 for setup utlities....thank you friend for the help....Ken

 

[Proximon]

Are the CD drive and the hard drive on the same cable?

What would happen if you disconnected the CD drive and tried to boot?

 

[kenjmor2006]

The cd rom and the hard drive are on separate cables,I am leaning toward a mothe board problem,everything else checks out,and I dont know about the program I used to check the mother board with,My God man I appreciate your help ....Ken

 

[Guest]

Did you check C:\ for the following files:

boot.ini
NTDETECT.COM
ntldr

You have to enable display of system files to see them. Those files MUST be present for Windows to boot from C:\.

The reason I asked about a legal CD is that some pirated CDs don't put those files on the C: drive. I've never had a problem installing Windows XP from a genuine Dell Windows XP CD.

Grumpy

 

[kenjmor2006]

Hello Grumpy,looks like your really on the right track,I called Dell,the Computer has to have the exact disk that came with the computer to work,the number is embeded in the disk for the computer.So I ordered a disk.I was using a genuine copy of windows xp pro,but they said it would not word. I really hope this will fix it,and I am very grateful to guys like you who go to extra trouble to help,God Bless all of you,thank you.......Ken