Boot Failure XP

[DougE21st]

Old XP Pro box (SP3 - all updates) froze, which was not unusual. Reboot yielded Boot failure message. Restart with Boot floppy (last updated 5/28/09) gets me a message saying that Windows could not start because of a disk hardware configuration problem & that it could not read from the selected disk. Could not start in safe mode - I just got multiple Boot failure messages. I checked the floppy drive cables. After pressing on all connections, safe mode seems to work. Now the PC does not recognize the USB keyboard. Crap! Try PS/2 keyboard - it works. However, restarts in safe mode still yields the disk hardware configuration message. I don't have a rescue CD, but do have the original Windows XP CD. I am out of ideas & think I have a problem. Help!

 

[hubbardt]

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/topic/138-how-to-repair-windows-xp/

 

[DougE21st]

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/topic/138-how-to-repair-windows-xp/

Thanks. This appears to be a great solution as long as I am sure that I that 1) I actually have a software problem & 2) I cannot boot from a CD. Correct me if I am wrong, but my current thinking is to create a bootable CD and if that will not work (it is a long shot considering that I can't boot from either the hard drive or the floppy) I will swap-out components (power supply, floppy disk, cables, etc.) until I am reasonably sure that this is a windows issue? I am not crazy about having to start from scratch with a pre-SP1 version of XP, even though that is likely in my future.

I have re-set all of my BIOS settings to default.

Any suggestions?

Again, thanks for your response.

 

[marbski]

goto bios and select your cd rom as your first boot..

 

[DougE21st]

After much time & effort (including trying both the geekstop solution hubbardt suggested & making the cd rom my 1st boot as marski advises), it appears I simply have a dead (or dying) hard drive. I pretty much figured this out after eliminating most other possibilities. I removed the HD and attempted several ways of having another computer recognize it. Windows Explorer could not see the drive, but Device Manager could detect the hard drive enclosure - the enclosure chip, not the drive. My iMac could not see the drive either. Finally, I took the drive to my local Micro Center. The really nice, knowledgeable, & helpful guy behind the service desk spend a fair amount of time attempting to read the drive. No luck. While Micro Center wants an unbelievable amount of money to recover data from a crashed hard drive, my time there was free! No charge. I was impressed. Of course, I still have a dead PC, but at least they were helpful.

Anyone have any suggestion on how to revive a drive (Hitachi Deststar 123.5GB) - or at least recover data?

I think I re-learned a lesson on backing-up...