Computer loops into a reboot during XP startup

[IrritatedBoy]

System information:

Chiefmax 680w power supply.

Foxconn WinFast 6100K8MB-RS Motherboard with Athlon XP 2600+ CPU.
1.5G DDR RAM. Video supplied by onboard GeForce 6100 chip.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB Drive. Model:ST380013A (primary boot drive) Master drive in IDE connector 0.

HP DVD740 LightScribe Drive Master Drive in IDE connector 1.

2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 400GB SATA Drives Model ST3400832AS in a RAID 0 setup. SATA connectors 3 & 4.

Seagate SV35.3 ST3750330SV 750GB 7200 RPM SATA. SATA connector 1.

Problem:

Computer reboots during XP startup. It gets through memory post, device detection and then starts up XP. You can hear the monitor prepare for the video input change with a small click. At this point the system resets--as if you had hit the reset button.

Attempts to solve.

Booting into Safe Mode--Failed exactly the same way.
Booting into Safe Mode with command prompt--Failed the same way.
Booting from backup drive (I have a secondary windows partition where I selected it from the boot menu during start-up)--Failed the same way.
Switched out monitors--Failed the same as the rest.

I have a secondary computer that is only able to run windows 2000. Thus I have been unable to attempt to boot these drives on another system. The rest of my computers are notebooks.

[Allan]

Reboot and immediately after POST start tapping the F8 key. Choose "Disable restart on error" and let's see if we can generate a blue screen error. If so, tell us the exact error message.

[IrritatedBoy]

Reconnected HD and tried doing what you asked. WinFast BIOS screen comes up first. Has option to view POST by tapping TAB key. Tapping TAB key several times. POST screen appears. I start tapping F8 key. Now startup stops after "Verifying DMI Pool Data........"

Actually it stops there EVERY time no matter what I do now. Arrrgh!


Thanks for responding. Anything else I can try?

[IrritatedBoy]

NEW INFORMATION!

I have to make some changes from what you may understand about my system.

I was wrong about my primary boot drive. That was my SECONDARY boot drive.

My primary is the 1tb SATA drive which I incorrectly listed above as an 800GB drive (don't know how I got all that mixed up).

The 1tb drive is partitioned with an 80GB primary windows partition on it. All my drives are NTFS formatted.

When I had changed boot devices during bootup I had selected the secondary boot drive, thinking that it was attempting to boot from that. It never successfully did, so it reverted to the original boot partition and thus I would get the same errors.

Thus I have not actually tried another windows bootable device yet. I want to run a check disk on this drive. Thinking about making a BartPE CDROM on one of my portables.

The last boot message still applies however. Stops in the middle of the boot process "Verifying DMI pool ....."

Sorry about the confusion. But you need that info to help

[IrritatedBoy]

OK, I have booted into a Windows XP system.

I found an old drive, installed Windows XP on it and the system works fine. I have put the non-booting drive in and through the working XP system and ran check disk on it. It comes out fine. I ran a thorough check using onTrack--Fine. Defragmented the partition (it is partitioned), viewed the files on the drive. Everything looks fine.

Tried to set it as the boot device--Fails the same as before. I am unable to get a blue screen.

Before my first boot failure, the system was rebooting from an install of bitDefender 10.

How do I get this drive to boot?

I have complete access to this drive through the new XP drive I made.

[patio]

Set up the trouble drive by itself as master...dis-connect all other drives.
Boot to the XP CD and choose R at the first screen...this will take you to the Recovery Console...
Let it load completely and at the prompt type in fixboot...
Remove the CD and re-boot.
If no joy-joy is experienced repeat the above except this time type in fixmbr...you will get a warning message...ignore it and select Y...
Again remove the CD and re-boot.
Best of Luck.

If no luck post back for info on a repair install....

[IrritatedBoy]

Thanks for helping out!

Unfortunately the install disk does not recognize the windows partition as a windows install. Thus I am not presented with the option to repair. I just get the installation routine and then a screen asking which partition I would like to install Windows to--Install, Delete, or Quit.

[IrritatedBoy]

OK, borrowed another WinXP CD and was able to get to the recovery console.

Typed in fixboot. the computer couldn't find the system.

Typed in fixmbr. No warning message. Just another c:>

rebooted system. No change in result.

[Broni]

I'd run HD diagnostic on that drive.

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool.

[IrritatedBoy]

Not optimistic about this. Already did diagnostic with OnTrack. Passed SMART, and EXTENDED TEST full media scan to detect bad sectors--took a couple of hours.

This software doesn't seem to do anything different. Running it now--no problems so far.

Could I copy the partition over, reformat it and put the system back (I know I can--I guess I'm asking if this might solve the trick)? The trick is to get all the system files etc. There used to be a Robocopy program with a ton of flags to do this. Is there a better way, or is this still the best way?

[dahlarbear]

OK, I have booted into a Windows XP system.

I found an old drive, installed Windows XP on it and the system works fine. I have put the non-booting drive in and through the working XP system and ran check disk on it. It comes out fine. I ran a thorough check using onTrack--Fine.

What type of interface does the old drive use (e.g. IDE PATA, SATA) and what port does it use on the motherboard (e.g. Master on IDE connector 0) ?

And the troublesome drive, what model number, is SATA ?  Connecting to SATA port 1 ?

[IrritatedBoy]

What type of interface does the old drive use (e.g. IDE PATA, SATA) and what port does it use on the motherboard (e.g. Master on IDE connector 0) ?

Old Drive is Master on IDE connector 1. I have a DVD-R+- on IDE connector 0. Didn't think this would matter as it boots fine here.

And the troublesome drive, what model number, is SATA ?  Connecting to SATA port 1 ?

SATA on Port 3. Ports 1 and 2 are used for SATA Raid (although disconnected at this point).

Diagnostic as suggested earlier comes back fine.

[patio]

Try the same as above on SATA1...

Unfortunately the install disk does not recognize the windows partition as a windows install.

That's why this is happening...

[IrritatedBoy]

And the troublesome drive, what model number, is SATA ?  Connecting to SATA port 1 ?

Reading into your question I moved the SATA drive to port 1. re-tried to fix the boot sector with fixboot. Looks like it could be working. re-booting now.

no go. Trying fixmbr.

Thanks

[IrritatedBoy]

Going through recovery console to fixmbr.

The warning message scares me. It says that I could lose the ability to access my partitions. I have lots of important data in those partitions!

Shouldn't I move those to another drive first? I have a backup, but it's a couple of days old and in messy backup files. I don't want to have to go through a restore process if I can simply move them to another drive.

Moving the partitions over until I hear otherwise.

Thanks