Boot up

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joe
  • Start date Start date
J

Joe

My computer does not boot up on its own anymore. I have
to put my XP CD in the drive in order for the computer to
boot up. When asked to "press any button to boot from
CD" I do nothing and the computer boots up.
I would like to fix this problem and then change my
current ATA HDD to a SATA HDD without keeping the current
ATA drive. Can you help?
 
Hi,
what did you do before it's broken? Please try to remember after what it
stopped booting on its own.
Maybe the hard drive is not "active" as loader. With boot sector probably
everything is fine is you anyway can load the system. Also check settins in
BIOS or try to set it to default.

Polk
 
Are you aware that this IS NOT Microsoft support - it is a user-to-user
newsgroup hosted by Microsoft and any help you get is from another user;
somewhere, anywhere on planet Earth?
 
It sounds as though the computer requires the hard drive to be first in line
in the boot sequence in order to boot from the hard drive. Try changing the
boot sequence in the system BIOS. When you boot the system, usually the
first screen contains a message with an instruction to hit a specific key to
enter setup. When you see this message, hit that key.

Then, navigate to the section where the boot sequence is located, just go
through the various screens until you find it. Then, if the hard drive is
not first in line, place it first in line in the sequence, save exit and
reboot without the XP CD in the drive.
 
Hi, Joe.

Michael Solomon has told you how to fix your current problem by having your
computer look for your HD before your CD when it boots.

To swap to a SATA HDD is easy if you want to do a "clean install" on the
SATA drive: Just boot from the WinXP CD-ROM and follow the prompts. The
only tricky part would be installing drivers for that SATA drive/controller.
New drivers for that hardware can be installed from within WinXP if the SATA
drive is to be used as a secondary drive. But, if it is to be the BOOT
DEVICE, then the drivers must be built into your WinXP installation during
Setup. If the drivers are not on the WinXP CD-ROM (and most SATA drivers
are not), then you must have them on a floppy diskette before booting from
the CD and running Setup. Early in the Setup process, after it detects your
hardware configuration, it will BRIEFLY flash instructions to Press F6 to
install drivers for SCSI or other third-party mass storage devices. Quickly
press F6 and wait while Setup continues as if it didn't notice; after
copying a lot of files, it will halt with instructions for how to use the
floppy to install the drivers. After the clean install, you will need to
reinstall your applications and restore your data from backup.

To preserve your installed applications, you can do an "in-place upgrade".
This is pretty straightforward if you are reinstalling WinXP on the same
HD - which already has the WinXP Registry in place. However, if you need to
move WinXP to a new HD in the process, then you have to get your existing,
customized Registry in place on the new HD before doing the upgrade - and
that can be difficult. Post back if you need to do this, telling us more
about your HDs and their partitions.

RC
 
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