PC asks for Boot Disc on Start-up

[cliff east]

After a recent Senior Moment, I re-installed XP and have since encountered countless problems. The latest being that I have to press F11 on start-up and arrow down to HDD. How can I prevent this please.
Also, when I go on to "Stand-by" mode everything shuts down but on restart up - I get a blue screen and I have to switch off & restart.

[gerbil]

Hello, cliff... most of us will suffer senior moments if we are lucky enough. Could I have a look at your boot.ini file, please? It is C:\boot.ini [you must set to show protected op sys files].
Else this will retrieve it for you - go Start, and paste into the Run box:
control sysdm.cpl,,3
...press the Startup n Rec Settings button, then the Edit button.

[Frank Wallis]

According to the problem that you have mentioned, it means that there is a problem with the booting file of the system.

Either you can access the boot file by
typing "c:\boot.ini" in run field or you can right click on My Computer and than click on properties.
In properties , click on Settings
under "Startup and Recovery" and then click on Edit.

You will than see a notepad which has info about boot file.

Just highlight that information ,copy it and than paste it here in this thead.

[OlyComputers]

It's not a problem with Boot.ini

When restoring from a start-up it gets a BSOD, which means it's past the boot.ini phase and when booting the system from scratch you have to manually select the boot order. This is a bios matter and not related to the boot.ini file.

As far as the restore issue I'd suggest installing SP3 and hoping for the best, if that doesn't work then do a repair install of windows (factoring in that it may be an issue with a program that is trying to restore with your system, so you should look into that first)

For the manual selection of the hard drive I'd guess that you never changed your boot order back after you booted from your CD drive for the install. Open your bios settings (usually DEL or F4 at start-up) and change the boot order and hard drive priority.

[Frank Wallis]

Cliff,

First please

When you boot your Computer, do you see a welcome screen of WinXP?

Does your Computer passes that welcome screen?

Regards,

[OlyComputers]

it sounds to me, I could have misinterpreted this, that he's able to boot fin if he manually selects the drive but he BSODs if he tries to come back up after putting his system to sleep.

[Natch]

I have to concur with OlyComputers - first we need to address the BIOS boot-order priority settings; then we can resolve the problems on operating system startup.

From a powered down situation, start the computer, and enter the BIOS settings (one of DEL, F1, F2, sometimes F4 or F10) - the ensure that your main HDD (the one with the OS loaded) is the first in boot priority.

[gerbil]

"After a recent Senior Moment, I re-installed XP and have since encountered countless problems. The latest being that I have to press F11 on start-up and arrow down to HDD."
Why does he have to use the F11 one-shot boot device selection? BIOS should not go there by itself unless there is an interrupt? There is a boot problem.. somewhere...
Separately, and yes, a BSOD occurs when there is a driver loading issue, way after boot.ini is finished with. So a driver or service is bad, even one from LKG.

[cliff east]

According to the problem that you have mentioned, it means that there is a problem with the booting file of the system.

Either you can access the boot file by
typing "c:\boot.ini" in run field or you can right click on My Computer and than click on properties.
In properties , click on Settings
under "Startup and Recovery" and then click on Edit.

You will than see a notepad which has info about boot file.

Just highlight that information ,copy it and than paste it here in this thead.

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

[OlyComputers]

Bios wouldn't go to the boot menu ever, if the boot settings are incorrect it would just generate an error of "invalid boot device" or "ntoskrnl not found". The F11 (on systems that have it) is something that you need to do manually during boot, like DEL to enter setup. If using this menu allows him to boot it means that the boot device is valid but the settings in BIOS are incorrect.

[cliff east]

Morning - so what do I need to do. Please make it simple as I only use the thing - I don't usually try to fix it.
Cliff

[Bob_180_Bob]

Hi Cliff,
I am not sure what is going on but your boot.ini file is good.
First up, (turn off your computer at the power point) open your box and look on the main board ( the largest circuit board in your box) and find a battery that is about 1/2 inch round and flat. You can get your fingernail under it and click it out. Leave it out for 5 mins and then replace. Start your computer again and see what happens.
Do you have an emergency start up disk?

[Frank Wallis]

Well I don't think anything is wrong with
the boot.ini file of this user.

I agree with Oly Computers, there is something wrong with the settings in BIOS.

[gerbil]

Of course BIOS does not "go" to the boot menu... ntldr loads and parses it. And from there everything is fine.
Cliff, enter BIOS Setup [instruction is on the first POST screen [Pause key will hold the screen for you, Enter to continue]. Set your boot order to have your System drive [the one with ntldr, boot.ini etc] at the top. It could be that you have something like a network boot device at the top, having a CD/dvd combo there would not be a problem if no boot disk was in it]. By the way, does C:\ntdetect.com exist?
As for the bluescreen issue... just guessing here, but it could be that Setup loaded the wrong HAL for your motherboard during installation. Tell us the make, model of your mb, plus the HAL original name:
Go system32, rclick hal.dll, properties, version tab and select Original Name; post it here.

[Natch]

A couple of clarifications:

First POST screen is the first (usually black and white, text only) screen that is shown when your computer turns on.

Instructions for getting into Setup are "Press F1 to enter BIOS" or "Press F2 to setup" or "Press F10 for Setup" or something similar.

Once you have gotten into the setup menu, you need to look for the boot order, boot priorities, something along those lines - and choose the Hard drive that has your Operating system as the highest priority.

Once you have done this, you should dave the settings and exit. Your computer wilkl restart, and it should solve the problem.

However - if it does not, then you will need to reef out your Operating system install CD / DVD and cause your computer to boot to this disc; when it gets through to the first selection menu, choose Repair install using the recovery console.

This will take you to a text-only prompt that will ask you which OS you want to repair; follow the prompts, and then when you get through to the C:\ prompt, run the FIXMBR command on your OS drive. This should solve your problem if the first steps do not.

Please let me know how you go.

[teamconsultant]

Below is what I have at start up. It always stops at F4. I want it to go to windows xp. Can anyone help?

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
C:\ = "Microsoft Windows"