HP computer reformatted

[Rosenblatt N]

Thanks for any help you might be able to provide.
I foolishly reformatted my HP computer, including fdisk.  I've tried to install Windows XP Professional, which shows as being on the hard drive (c:) now.  However, the computer will NOT boot off the hard drive, only off CD or floppy.  Is there a secret to doing this?

[johnwill]

It would help if you specified what error you get when booting from the hard disk.  Did you have any errors during the installation?

[Raptor]

Did you forget to remove a floppy from floppy drive?

You can set the boot order in the BIOS. I suggest you see if setting your hard disk as the first boot device solves your problem.

[American Bookkeeping Comp]

Thanks for your replies, but they don't help.  There are no error messages, and the hard disk is selected as the first boot device.  It simply will not try to boot from the hard drive.  If there is no floppy and no CD, it says Operating System Not Found.  I've done with this with countless other computers over the years, no name clones.  My feeling is that HP has done something to the BIOS to keep people from screwing around with the system.

[dl65]

Rosenblatt N......Have you gone into the bios to see what the boot sequence is .......and are you able to change it?

let us know
dl65  

[2k dummy]

No name clones don't use proprietary crap. What some "stamped" machines manufacturers do (notebooks are particularly bad) is use a HD overlay when the machine is set up. The first sector (or first 4 - depending) is written by the overlay and the MBR is shifted out to follow the overlay. It acts as a translator and the OS never actually sees the MBR. Once you have changed this, you probably cannot use the OEM restore disk. Sometimes this can be overcome by using fdisk /mbr and sometimes not. If that doesn't work, the only solution that I am aware of is to use a debug routine to wipe the first 4 clusters, after which Fdisk should work fine.