Error loading Operating System, not so typical...

[josh_newbi]

Hello, when loading my windows xp, I get an error saying Error Loading Operating Systems.

I've read some of the other threads about these errors, but none of them seem to be very helpful.

It's a fairly new computer, and it has been working for quite some time, so unlike the other situations, where people get the error right after installing xp, I got mine at random.

I wasn't using my computer one day, so I decided to turn it off and save on the electrical bill. I was at the login screen in windows xp, and I pressed the power button on my computer which initialized the shutdown process.

A few hours later, when I load up my computer, everything seems fine up until I get the Error loading Operating System.

I've never had this problem ever before, and I made absolutely no changes to any bios settings.

So far, I've tried loading defaults on bios, tried replacing the IDE cables (it's a 20gb Western Digital Harddrive) and had no luck so far. I was thinking about reformating, but I really want to try and avoid doing it, hopefully it'll save me time.

I would really appreciate any info at all on getting this fixed, I don't know what I'll do with out my computer.

Thanks

[Backdated]

What are ther specs of this machine and how much free space is on that hard drive?

[josh_newbi]

asus a8v deluxe motherboard
1.8ghz running on a 64bit processor chip
pc4000 512 ddr ram
geforce 4 128mb video card

I'm not sure how to check how much free space i have on my harddrive, but last i checked when it was owrking, it had like 12gb.

It's a fairly decent computer, only thing about it is my harddrive, western digital 20gb, which is really old. I have a 200gb maxtor SATA but I was unable to install windows xp on it because my bios did not recognize it, so my windows xp is on my old western digital 20gb harddrive. However, I can acess my 200gb sata when I load up windows xp  on my WD 20gb with the proper drivers installed. But that's just another problem i've been having. Currently, Error Loading Operating System which is located on my WD20gb isn't working.

[GX1_Man]

Check your hard drive with free diagnostics from the manufacturer's web site.  

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1122425778

[Backdated]

Your BIOS won't recognise a SATA drive but the SATA controller BIOS will. You need to read up on the basics.
If you wsh to use the SATA drive as a boot drive at some point, you'll need a SATA controller driver on a diskette. Simply press the F6 key when asked to do so by WinXP setup and insert the diskette when prompted.

As for your current predicament, far more details are needed. Does Event Viewer offer any clues? Are there any detailed error messages such as 0x000000D1 (0x000000.....) etc?

[josh_newbi]

I have a cd that came with my maxtor 200gb SATA harddrive. I managed to boot off that cd and make a floppy disk. I also managed to get my windows xp setup screen going, and when i pressed f6, it loaded stuff off the floppy disk. I had to press 'S' and it gave me 4 choices, windows nt, 2000, 2003, windows xp. I choose windows xp: serial ata150(something like that) then pressed 'enter' to continue my instalation. But when it came to selecting which harddrive to install windows xp on, only my 20gb shows up. I want my 200gb SATA harddrive to show up so I can get windows xp up and running. Why doesn't it show up?

[josh_newbi]

As for your current predicament, far more details are needed. Does Event Viewer offer any clues? Are there any detailed error messages such as 0x000000D1 (0x000000.....) etc?

I can't really give that much information on it. The only message/error or anything that seems abnormal is when booting up my computer, after it goes through the whole detecting primary and slave drives I get a Black screen and in the top left corner saying "Error Loading Operating System." and my computer just sits at that screen not doing anything. If however, I change boot settings to boot off of a cd, the blackscreen where I get "Error loading Operating System" turns into something like "Press a key to Load from Cd 5..4..3..2..1" If I don't press a key, then right beside it, it will give me the errors message "error loading operating system." It actually looks more like this " Loading from cd......Error loading operating system" I can, however, press a key while it promts me to boot off a cd, and get it to load windows xp installation.

That's about as much information I can get to you. Before this all happenend, my harddrive was making noises every now and then. unusual noises  that sounded like buzzing noise like a robot/machine shutting down following a click noise. And sometimes when i'm using my computer, it would give me a blue screen telling me to disable shadow caching in bios and a whole bunch of other garbage leaving me with no other choice but to restart.But I was always able to restart my computer and boot back into windows. I'm pretty sure this is because my harddrive is super old.

[GX1_Man]

Did you bother to take the advice I gave you up there?  


We can't help those who will not help themselves.  

[josh_newbi]

Did you bother to take the advice I gave you up there?  


We can't help those who will not help themselves.  

yea, i will definately give this a try. I can't exactly get this on floppy because my laptop doesn't have a floppy drive, I'll try and get it done at my friends place. I'll update you on the info when I do a diagnostic check on my harddrive. But i'm also still trying to figure out how to install xp on my 200gb SATA. I actually had the diagnostics cd for it and ran it. It didn't detect my harddrive :\

[GX1_Man]

I think you have two problems. A dead or dying 20 gig drive and a SATA drive that you cannot get to run correctly. Once you diagnose the smaller drive, physically remove it from the machine, put the SATA in, enable in the BIOS, boot the XP CD and stand by with the floppy.

[Backdated]

The SATA driver isn't recognised because you need drivers for your SATA controller, not some random driver off a CD. You will more than likely find this driver on the motherboard companion CD or at your motherboard vendors support site.