problem with boot up

[kuby123]

new pc with xp home. wd 120 mb hdd ntfs. Problem is when booting 50% of time get message like cant find bootable drive. I hit reset button and this time it boots okay. Went to msn knowledge base and it says bad or corrupted boot.ini file. Use win xp cd to repair. I tried but cant figure it out. I want to reformat entire drive, make new partition, and reinstall xp and critical updates. Not much else is on hd yet except for video, sound etc. I cant reformat because I get message saying something like "cant format drive thats is currently being used" please help... thanks

[Harry]

You can't format your main C drive if you booted up with it. You have to bootup with the floppy startup disks which you probably need to create and you will probably have to copy it on to 4 of them like you have to for Windows 2000. The other way you can probably bootup is by using just one Windows 98 startup floppy disk like you use for Windows 2000. It's a lot faster than messing with 4 of them. Good luck.

[WhatsThisBoxFor?]

I don't think you need a boot disk with xp, just make sure the CD is higher in the boot order than your hdd in the bios. Then put the XP disk in and follow the instructions. If you are using a SATA drive (I dont think you are) you will need to provide drivers but otherwise you can just format like that.

[Markoman01027]

The Windows CD itself is bootable. All you have to do is go into the BIOS and make CD-ROM the first boot up device. Then just follow the on screen instructions.

[kuby123]

okay, I've done all and did a reformat of c: drive. Then I install xp but it says it will install to same partition or other. The other is only 8 mb and the orifinal is 112mb. So, I install to the one xp highlights. I reinstall xp all the way and think its a-okay. Reload video, sound, critical updates, direct x, media player etc. I go to restart and the problem is still there. Anybody got any ideas? thanks

[WhatsThisBoxFor?]

Check all the connections on the drive, what brand is the drive, see if they have diagnostic tools on there website.

[kuby123]

Method 3
Start the computer by using your Windows XP CD-ROM. Press any key to boot from the CD.
After the setup files are finished loading press R to repair using Recovery Console.
When you are in the recovery console, select the installation to log on to (usually number 1), and then press ENTER.
Login to the Administrator account by typing the password for this account, and then press ENTER.
At the recovery console command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

For Uni-Processor systems:
expand cd-rom:\i386\ntoskrnl.ex_ drive:\Windows\system32

For Multi-Processor systems:
expand cd-rom:\i386\ntkrnlmp.ex_ drive:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe


Cd-rom is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive, and drive is the drive letter of the hard disk on which windows is installed.
If you receive a prompt to overwrite the file, press Y.
Type exit, and press ENTER at the command prompt.
THIS IS WHAT IFOUND AT MS KNOWLEDGE BASE. I HAVE P4 3.0 HYPERTHREADING CPU. IS THIS A UNI OR MULTI PROCESSOR SYSTEM?

[Markoman01027]

You need to remove the partition first, and then create a partition with that unallocated space.

By doing your way, you're just doing an over the top install.

[andyms18a]

have a look in your bios for fast boot and disable it and get a hard drive diag prog from your hdd manufactures web site and run a test on the drive

[kuby123]

I went to western dig site and did diag test. results came back PASSED. Then read about jumpers. Took out little 2-pin jumper on back of drive and left it out. now, pc boots every time and much faster too. Thanks for the help

[Panama Red]

Often overlooked is the jumpering on Western Digital hard drives. For some reason, not all drives will run in a Master/Slave or Cable Select jumper configuration. WD recommends their 'neutral' jumper config when running only one IDE drive. Glad you found it.

[Markoman01027]

Unfortunutely I got lucky when I used the CS setting for a WD drive that I worked on a few weeks ago.