This has been one of the most frustrating two days I’ve had in a long time. My current installation of Windows XP Home has been moving slow and I decided to reinstall the software. Everything is backed up safely on my large internal HD and my external HD.
My computer: P4 3.0 Ghz, 1 Mb RAM (dual channel), Gigabyte 8kN….(forgot exact number) Seagate SATA 160 Gb, Maxtor IDE 80 Gb, and Seagate IDE 300Mb, Genuine Windows XP home SP2
Essentially, my system won’t boot from the Hard Drive. I get either “cannot find OS” or currently “NTLDR is missing” The details of what I’ve already tried and how I’ve gotten to where I am are listed below. Beware it’s long!
I unplugged the two older IDE drives which hold my back up data and proceeded to install XP to the newer SATA drive. This is the same drive that was my C drive with the same software for the last 6 months. After a few fits and starts I got through the main part of the installation and into XP. I started loading the chipset drivers from my Gigabyte MB. After these were done, on the last restart of the system, I plugged in the two other IDE drives so I could move files and install some of the backed up software.
This is where the real fun started. Upon rebooting the computer BIOS detected all my drives and just before windows is supposed to load, I got a “Cannot Find OS” message. Hmm, OK so I’ll just do the Windows installation again.
The problem was that I cannot get it to load again. I go through the same steps, it partitions the drive again, copies the setup files, and then it prompts me to remove any floppy discs and the computer reboots to finish the installation. But it never finishes! It starts the same process all over again.
I’ve tried reformatting, using the Seagate tools, wiping the MBP with various utilities, booting from floppies but I’m stuck in a loop. It never takes me to the info screen to set up the time, or input my name and product key etc.
So I go to sleep.
In the morning I decided to make the Maxtor IDE drive my boot drive. It’s always been a back up and never a boot drive. The SATA and the other 300 Gb are connected. The Windows installation goes smoothly and I’m in windows. I install my Silicon Image driver and the SATA shows up. I install the GigaRaid drive and the 300 Gb shows up. I can access files on both drives.
I rebooted the system without the windows CD in the drive (after changing the BIOS boot order back to HD >CD>FDD) and guess what? “cannot load OS” I put the disk back in went to the recovery console. I tried the following: “fixboot”, “fixmbr” Seagate tools to write 0’s to the boot track, another tool to erase the MBR. Each time I’ve tried to reinstall windows, I get either "cannot load OS” or in the latest attempt “ntldr not found” (I’ve tried to copy the file from the CD to the root directory with the same result.)
I’m at work now and have the CMOS battery out for my next round of tries. If you’ve made it this far, I’d appreciate any thoughts you might have.
