Bootup Woes

  • Thread starter Thread starter Don
  • Start date Start date
D

Don

Teddy Otero wrote:
....
Yesterday I installed my brand new Windows Vista Ultimate for the first
time. All was hunky-dory through install - imagine my dismay when I
rebooted for the first time without the install DVD and I got a big fat
error message (worse than ntldr): BOOT DISK FAILURE. INSERT DISK AND
PRESS ENTER. So what'd I do? Put the install disc back in and it boots
up fine...
Click to expand...

I'd want to know where in the boot sequence you see that message. It
could be that you have your BIOS set to boot only from the DVD drive,
for example, since it sounds like your hard drive is working okay.

Is it your BIOS printing that error message, or does it come from some
part of the Vista boot manager?
 
Well I can't take it any more - I was sincerely hoping that upgrading from
the beta would have fixed this!!!

So when I was running the beta, I would get an "ntldr" error message at the
very beginning of my bootup, after the bios screen. I tried to fix it with
the install disc, but it couldn't find any startup problems. Ha! So, I fixed
it in an odd way - I left the install DVD in during bootup, it would say
"press any key to boot from CD or DVD..." but I would NOT touch a key, and
when it would start booting from the hard drive, everything would be fine.
Presumably it got some missing startup files from the DVD and used them to
boot.

Yesterday I installed my brand new Windows Vista Ultimate for the first
time. All was hunky-dory through install - imagine my dismay when I rebooted
for the first time without the install DVD and I got a big fat error message
(worse than ntldr): BOOT DISK FAILURE. INSERT DISK AND PRESS ENTER. So
what'd I do? Put the install disc back in and it boots up fine. Once again,
the install disc says it can't find a startup problem. Lies! :)

Boy I'm irritated. Does ANYone have ANY insight into this? I'd be in your
debt forever...

Teddy
 
Hi,

First, ntldr missing is a big clue. Ntldr is not used in Vista, so it means
your mbr is not pointing to the right bootloader. I've seen this happen when
the system bios blocks the os setup from writing to the mbr during setup.
Erroneously, it is now looking for the wrong thing. Go into the system bios
and disable any feature regarding bios-based antivirus detection and save
changes. Then boot with Vista disk and run a startup repair.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Don,

My BIOS is set to look first at the optical drives, then at removable
drives, then at hard drives. I've tried setting it to look at the hard drive
first, but it just immediately says "boot disk failure."

So where in the boot sequence I see this message is right when an OS would
take over and start loading. Right after the two BIOS screens are completed
(the one with the RAM check and the second where it lists found components).

Thanks so much for your help!

Teddy
 
Rick,

ntldr was the error I was getting when I was running the beta. And because I
was first trying to partition and then dual-boot and whatnot, I can totally
see why the MBR was messing up.

Now, however, I'm not getting a ntldr error. Since I installed the full
version yesterday, I'm just getting a "boot disk failure." When I booted
with the Vista disk and ran a startup repair, it said it couldn't find any
problems.

However, I'll definitely look more carefully through my bios and see what
kind of antivirus stuff I can disable. :)

Thanks so much!

Teddy
 
I've also checked around my BIOS and can't find a THING about antivirus
stuff - I know exactly what you're talking about too - it would prevent
things from writing to the MBR. I have an... nForce4 board... this one,
actually: Asus A8N5X Socket 939.

Thanks again,

Teddy
 
Are you running multiple hard drives on your computer?

--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User
 
Yes, but my bios lets me choose the order they boot up on. I have a sata
drive, two IDEs, and a removable USB drive. (and that's the order I have
them set up to boot). Do you think I should physically disconnect them and
see if that's the problem?

Teddy
 
I have installed the various versions of Vista on 60 various computers. On
eight of those computers I have run into, and solved, this nasty boot
problem. I have also assisted with this problem for a rather large handful
of people who post here with a similar condition.

The problem concerns computers with the following configuration/condition:

1. A computer with multiple hard drives (any mix of S-ATA or PATA it
turns out)

2. Any of the 2nd, or higher, drives has been setup as having a logical
partition/partitions

3. The user installs Vista by booting from the DVD

When a drive is setup with a logical partition, 8 meg of unallocated space
is reserved at the beginning of the drive.

The Vista installer, it appears, will start installing boot code to the
unallocated space on a 2nd, 3rd or 4th drive. I have used a hex editor and
have found this code there. This 8 meg of unallocated space is quickly
filled and the installer places the remainder of the code on the disk chosen
by the user for the Vista install.

The Vista install completes and the user removes the DVD. Upon startup, the
user finds that Vista will not boot. Vista is looking for the boot code on
the drive where the user had chosen to install Vista (system partition). It
is not there. Part of it resides on another drive where it is not
recognized.

If the user puts the DVD into the drive tray, Vista boots fine. Startup
takes the code from the DVD.

This should not occur, but it is too late to change the code on the Vista
DVD's at this point. The work around is to physically disconnect any drive
that you do not want the Vista installer to touch. In this way, all of the
code is written to the desired drive/partition.

Upon arriving at the Windows desktop, go to system management | Disk
Management and change the drive letters for your CD drive, DVD drive, USB
drives, card readers etc. to the end of the alphabet. This gets them out of
the way prior to you shutting down the computer and reconnecting your other
drives.

Now, shut down your computer and reconnect your drives. Upon booting to the
desktop, you will see that the new drives are recognized and initialized.
You will also see that the drive letters are in sequence, and not broken up
by the various other drives (you previously moved them). You may be asked to
reboot so the changes can be made permanent. Do so if directed.

The next time you boot to the desktop you can rearrange those re-lettered
drives if you so desire.

Now, I am not certain how pervasive this problem is but I have seen it on
old/new motherboards from 3 major M/B manufacturers. It is not, of course,
going to affect those who purchase a new computer with Vista on it. It
"will" affect those who upgrade or build their own computers, as these are
the users who are more likely to have multiple drives installed in their
machines.


--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User
 
Holy cow! Thanks so much - that sounds like my problem exactly...

I'm confused, however, about your "workaround." Do I need to
reformat/reinstall without the other drives attached or are your
instructions below just a fix I can do on my current vista install? It seems
like there must be a missing step or description, because I'm a little
confused.
Upon arriving at the Windows desktop, go to system management | Disk
Management and change the drive letters for your CD drive, DVD drive, USB
drives, card readers etc. to the end of the alphabet. This gets them out
of
the way prior to you shutting down the computer and reconnecting your
other
drives.
Click to expand...

Arriving from where? A fresh install?

Thanks,

Teddy
 
Start again with only the drive connected that you wish to place Vista on.

Please post back here with your results. I want to find out just how
pervasive this condition is.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User
 
Well crappypants. I guess I'll get on that new install later this evening.

In the meantime, where is this system management/disk management thing? I
knew where it was in XP, but I'm still getting used to Vista...

Thanks,

Teddy
 
Right click on Computer. Choose "Manage"

--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User
 
Well wouldn't you know it. You're a genius! And this problem IS pervasive.
Someone should tell Microsoft.

I had formatted my other two 80GB IDE drives for storage purposes from
within XP in NTFS format. I had NO IDEA that they were "logical" drives. And
they certainly weren't partitioned, either. Why Vista put any kind of boot
files on them, I have no idea.

So I followed your instructions and it went like this:

I formatted the SATA, installed Vista, restarted without the DVD inserted -
it worked! I then assigned my optical drives to Y and Z, plugged my two IDEs
back in, rebooted, changed my optical drives back, then added my USB card
reader (4 removable drives) and my USB hard drive (so the one that will come
and go the most is the lowest letter, L).

No DVD? No problem! :) Finally.

T
 
Glad to have assisted - yet again! (-:

I believe that this is going to be with us for a very long time, I'm sorry
to say.

Thanks for getting back to the group.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User
 
Is there something easier than going through the install again? Maybe
something like the "fixmbr" in XP?

I have this exact problem. After a clean install last night, I tried to
boot this morning without the DVD and got the boot failure message.

Donald
 
There is no way that I have found to salvage a failed install that is due to
the physical problems I have described.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Back
Top