Dare ya - explain this if you can

[Ron Patterson]

PART 1:
Pent IV 2.6 GHz - Win XP - working perfectly - left on - went
shopping - came home expecting to see screen saver - had black screen with
"Missing operating system - replace and strike any key when ready" - no
one else has access. I rebooted over and over - first my normal screen
with text about the computer would come up for the usual few seconds - then
would go black with the above message. My sphincter muscle was chewing my
shorts at this point.

PART 2:
I inserted an old boot disk from Win and rebooted to an A: prompt. Changed
to C: and typed DIR.
It showed C: and a list of files. On second glance I noticed they were not
system files but backup files I had in my
F: drive - an external 750Mb Zip drive. So, the computer was trying to
boot from C drive but reading files from F: drive. I removed the zip disk
and rebooted and right into XP as normal now. Fixed. But what happened?

Did the computer reboot by itself while I was gone. - I have never had to
reboot XP myself for any problem much less see it reboot all by itself? I
had no electrical outages as all clocks in house are correct. Why did Win
XP boot by itself and then into a strange boot?
If it did reboot - why did it look in the F: drive. Obviously it did
because C: Dir listed the backup files in the F: drive. I assure you it was
not because there was a disk in the F: drive as that disk in never removed
and it has never interfered with boot process. As a matter of fact, I don't
think the F: drive is even looked at when the puter boots, but if so is
last on the list.
Can anyone explain this?
AliBaba
Blue Master

 

[The Unknown P]

Did you leave it on and connected to the internet without
the firewall on? Perhaps a program then decided to do an
automatic update and broadcast your open and unsecure IP
address and a simple script or two later and someone has
ammused themselves by almost messing you up. Just a
thought but you never know. Have fun.

 

[roger]

Did you left it connected to the Internet?
Do you have a firewall?
Maybe it was due to hackers.

 

[D.Currie]

PART 1:
Pent IV 2.6 GHz - Win XP - working perfectly - left on - went
shopping - came home expecting to see screen saver - had black screen with
"Missing operating system - replace and strike any key when ready" - no
one else has access. I rebooted over and over - first my normal screen
with text about the computer would come up for the usual few seconds - then
would go black with the above message. My sphincter muscle was chewing my
shorts at this point.

PART 2:
I inserted an old boot disk from Win and rebooted to an A: prompt. Changed
to C: and typed DIR.
It showed C: and a list of files. On second glance I noticed they were not
system files but backup files I had in my
F: drive - an external 750Mb Zip drive. So, the computer was trying to
boot from C drive but reading files from F: drive. I removed the zip disk
and rebooted and right into XP as normal now. Fixed. But what happened?

Did the computer reboot by itself while I was gone. - I have never had to
reboot XP myself for any problem much less see it reboot all by itself? I
had no electrical outages as all clocks in house are correct. Why did Win
XP boot by itself and then into a strange boot?
If it did reboot - why did it look in the F: drive. Obviously it did
because C: Dir listed the backup files in the F: drive. I assure you it was
not because there was a disk in the F: drive as that disk in never removed
and it has never interfered with boot process. As a matter of fact, I don't
think the F: drive is even looked at when the puter boots, but if so is
last on the list.
Can anyone explain this?
AliBaba
Blue Master

You could have gotten a momentary power brownout that was enough to reset
the computer, but not enough to power down clocks and things. As far as why
it wanted to boot from the zip -- who knows?

 

[Ron Martell]

PART 1:
Pent IV 2.6 GHz - Win XP - working perfectly - left on - went
shopping - came home expecting to see screen saver - had black screen with
"Missing operating system - replace and strike any key when ready" - no
one else has access. I rebooted over and over - first my normal screen
with text about the computer would come up for the usual few seconds - then
would go black with the above message. My sphincter muscle was chewing my
shorts at this point.

PART 2:
I inserted an old boot disk from Win and rebooted to an A: prompt. Changed
to C: and typed DIR.
It showed C: and a list of files. On second glance I noticed they were not
system files but backup files I had in my
F: drive - an external 750Mb Zip drive. So, the computer was trying to
boot from C drive but reading files from F: drive. I removed the zip disk
and rebooted and right into XP as normal now. Fixed. But what happened?

Did the computer reboot by itself while I was gone. - I have never had to
reboot XP myself for any problem much less see it reboot all by itself? I
had no electrical outages as all clocks in house are correct. Why did Win
XP boot by itself and then into a strange boot?
If it did reboot - why did it look in the F: drive. Obviously it did
because C: Dir listed the backup files in the F: drive. I assure you it was
not because there was a disk in the F: drive as that disk in never removed
and it has never interfered with boot process. As a matter of fact, I don't
think the F: drive is even looked at when the puter boots, but if so is
last on the list.
Can anyone explain this?
AliBaba
Blue Master

Was your XP drive formatted as FAT32 or NTFS?

If it was NTFS then that would not be visible from a Windows 98 boot
disk and what you are seeing is what you would expect - the first
available hard drive was assigned drive letter C:.

If it was formatted FAT32 then there is indeed a problem. Boot the
computer again with the Windows 98 startup disk and at the A:\> prompt
enter the following command:

FDISK /STATUS

Report the results of that back here.

If the XP drive was NTFS then boot the computer with your Windows XP
CDROM and choose the Repair (Recovery Console) option. When the
Recovery Console has finished loading enter the following command:

CHDSK /R

Report the results of that back here.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Ron Patterson]

You could have gotten a momentary power brownout that was enough to reset

the computer, but not enough to power down clocks and things. As far as why
it wanted to boot from the zip -- who knows?

Reasonable explanation. And subsequently I have found out that BIOS can get
scrambled
due to a power surge.
Thanks
A. Baba
Blue Master

 

[Ron Patterson]

Thanks Ron - you have helped me greatly in the past. Your response was
most insightful
and I have subsequently learned, the most accurate in describing the repair.
XP was formatted NTFS and the Win 98 disk was of course FAT32 so that
explains what I saw.
The problem was solved when I booted up without a disc in the F drive.
Subsequent to my posting I checked the BIOS and found the boot priority was
scrambled.

Another reputable source has opined that what happened is a temporary power
surge not
only forced a reboot but scrambled the BIOS. Apparently this is not an
unknow occurance.
It appears to be the only explanation for the event. And, I think we all
must agree that
a reboot had to take place in my absence for that message to be displayed.
I would be
interested in your comments on this or any other possible scenario.

As resetting the boot priority in the BIOS appears to have fixed this, I see
no need to proceed
further with your suggestions (unless you advise to the contrary of
course).

Thanks again Ron,
The A. Baba
Blue Master

 

[Ron Martell]

As resetting the boot priority in the BIOS appears to have fixed this, I see
no need to proceed
further with your suggestions (unless you advise to the contrary of
course).

My other comments were all with respect to the possible scenario where
the XP drive was using FAT32. As it was NTFS and not FAT32 those
comments would not be relevant.

"If it ain't broke don't fix it".

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."