Boot up disk

[redvette]

Hi Gang

Well here is another problem I am having, I don't think this one is what would be callled weird.

I have made several what they call Boot up disks, to be used when you have boot up problems, that sounds simple enough.

A while back I had this boot up problem, I started up my computer one morning and it would not boot up, it keept going in loops, like the boot up properties/entries were gone. So I had like 3 or 4 disks I had made for this occasion, sitting there, so I thought here I go a good chance to try one of these. So long story short I tried all of them and not a one of them worked.

So simply my next question is not why they did not work, that would be impossible to answer, but how to and what would be a good source to make one that will work next time. So wrap your brains around that one.

Thanx....Gunny

[strollin]

How did you create the boot disks? Did any of them work when you first burned them?

[Nuclear Krusader]

Just use your OS install disk.

Your loops coulda been Windows' 'automatically restart' option being enabled: instead of giving you a BSOD with a code man could use to diagnose the problem, the OS just rebooted the computer in its sympathetic but entirely ineffective and utterly aggravating effort to spare you the grief. Did you try to get to the boot menu by pressing F8 immediately after the BIOS screen?

[redvette]

Hi Strollin

To tell you the truth I did not try them, I think I have the idea that trying them when you did not have that problem might goof something up. Dumb thinking I guess, but no I had them sitting there just thinking I hope I never have to use them, but if I do they will come in handy.

Thanx....Gunny

[redvette]

Hi NUC

Well as it turned out, I did try the windows disk, and I tried the repair and it did not work either. I know I should have posted this question right after I did this, cause I am forgetting some of what took place.

As it turned out I had to do a complete new install, I lost everything, so it has been a slow recover. I had some of it backed up, but some of the latest/newest stuff I lost. I did not have my Outlook mail, or my Yahoo mail saved either.

So I want to avoid that ever happening again, I have my drive cloned plus backed up on a weekly plan. But I still want to have a good boot up disk handy

Thanx....Gunny

[Nuclear Krusader]

Which OS?

[redvette]

Hi NUC

Win 7, IE.

Thanx....Gunny

[strollin]

What program did you use to clone the drive? Most (all?) of the cloning programs I've seen have the ability to create a boot disk to be able to boot the system and recover the drive should the system not be capable of booting.

Win 7 has a built-in facility to create a system image and a boot disk to use for recovery. I'd suggest you do that as a minimum. After creating the boot disk, try booting from it to make sure it works. Simply booting from it won't affect your system but will raise your confidence that it will work when/if you need it.

If for some reason the boot disk doesn't work then post back for help as to why it won't boot.

Obvious things first, when you tried booting from the disks you have, did you set the CD\DVD drive first in the boot order?

[redvette]

Hi Strollin

I believe I did have the Win 7 boot up and one from Acronis, and the others I don't remember where I got them.

And yes I have the DVD drive listed first in the boot up.

Now what should I see when I put a boot up disk in the drive.?

Thanx......Gunny

[strollin]

If things are working correctly you should see a msg something like "Press any key to boot from CD..." If you don't see that message something is wrong. What happens when you try to boot from one of the boot disks?

Do you have another computer to try the disks on? Maybe your DVD drive is faulty.

[redvette]

Hi Strollin

Actually nothing happened, I did see the "Press any key to boot from the CD" and when I did that nothing happened. And I did wait for several min to see if it would do something.

Thanx....Gunny

[glc]

Originally Posted by redvette Hi Strollin Actually nothing happened, I did see the "Press any key to boot from the CD" and when I did that nothing happened. And I did wait for several min to see if it would do something. Thanx....Gunny

Bad CD or bad drive.

[redvette]

Hi GLC

I hate to shoot you down on your suggestions,, but I tried 2 diff drives and at least 4 boot up disks.

I am not saying your ideas are not possible, maybe 3 of the disks I could agree on the bad CD, but the 4th one was done with Acronis, and I trust that site as you do too.

I did another one using Acronis and I did put it in to see what happened and it did come to the "press any key thing, and I did and it did start with what looked like a boot up. So I think maybe it was a bad disk or the program screwed up. Or I screwed up. :-)

I did this on my spare computer so I was not afraid to stop the progress of it.

Thanx....Gunny

[glc]

Whatever you are using to burn these disks with may be giving you bad burns, or you may have a bad batch of blanks.