Unable to boot form xp pro cd

[scorry]

Hi,

Is there anybody out there who can help me. Im not exactly what you could call a whizz kid when it comes to computers,(typical woman) but I do my best, anyway, here's my problem: Ive been trying to install xp on my PC. Ive formatted my HDD, so its a clean install and ive change the BIOS settings to show the CD Rom as the 1st Bootable Device, however when i try to boot from the installation Cd the system doesnt recognise the disk, the screen keeps saying 'please insert bootable system disk'. (I have checked the disk on another system and it reads fine so I know its not damaged in anyway) So there you have it, not sure what ive done wrong, but im hoping theres a simple answer to this most annoying problem out there somewhere. Many Thanks.

[Thong_Ispector]

If that is a recovery disk and not a full version you may need to create a small partition andmake it bootable for the CD to work...

[kc0arf]

Hello,

Under Windows 2000, there is an option to make 4 floppy disks, and start the software installation from there. You might be able to do that with XP. I am not sure; I do not have an XP disk handy here to look for it.

Also check to see if that particular disk will boot the other computer you had handy.

You are doing the right thing with the BIOS.

Christian

[scorry]

If that is a recovery disk and not a full version you may need to create a small partition andmake it bootable for the CD to work...

Hi, many thanks for replying. Yes it is a recovery disk, however last night it started to load, got so far and then said a file was missing, so i skipped it to see if it would go any further and the next few files were missing. so i decided to abort and reboot, when i did this, it would reboot from disk and i got a message saying' NTLDR missing, press CTRL, ALT and Delete' which a did quite a few times and the same mesage kept coming up and now i cant get passed that. I have absolutley no idea what this means, and how to solve it. Aaaaaagh!!

[scorry]

Hi, many thanks for replying. Yes it is a recovery disk, however last night it started to load, got so far and then said a file was missing, so i skipped it to see if it would go any further and the next few files were missing. so i decided to abort and reboot, when i did this, it would reboot from disk and i got a message saying' NTLDR missing, press CTRL, ALT and Delete' which a did quite a few times and the same mesage kept coming up and now i cant get passed that. I have absolutley no idea what this means, and how to solve it. Aaaaaagh!!

Sorry, typo! it would NOT reboot from disk and i got a message saying' NTLDR missing, press CTRL, ALT and Delete' which a did quite a few times and the same mesage kept coming.

[Laser]

It sounds like your CDRom drive is the problem since it's having trouble reading the cd and you've confirmed that another system reads the cd fine. I'd try another cdrom drive.

You can download boot floppies from Microsoft
if you can't boot from CD.

[scorry]

It sounds like your CDRom drive is the problem since it's having trouble reading the cd and you've confirmed that another system reads the cd fine. I'd try another cdrom drive.

You can download boot floppies from Microsoft
if you can't boot from CD.

Many thanks, had already tried another cd rom drive. But now the mystery deepens, have actually manage to get xp to start installing (dont know how!!!) but now the installation is getting stuck, required room on drive appears to be less than required to complete installation. My disk is 80G, should be plenty big enough i would have thought - i think i might just give up on this one!!, and concentrate on the problem with my Laptop - thats another story!!! :cry:

[dlh6213]

Here are complete instructions for installing XP; go through it and see if you made any mistakes. Even if you don't think you did, start over and try again. If you can't get the CD to work, get the floppies as suggested in post #6.

Was your CD-ROM working before you tried to install XP?

[scorry]

It sounds like your CDRom drive is the problem since it's having trouble reading the cd and you've confirmed that another system reads the cd fine. I'd try another cdrom drive.

You can download boot floppies from Microsoft
if you can't boot from CD.

My CD Rom works fine, ive even swapped it for another drive - didnt work. Thanks anyway ;)

[scorry]

Here are complete instructions for installing XP; go through it and see if you made any mistakes. Even if you don't think you did, start over and try again. If you can't get the CD to work, get the floppies as suggested in post #6.

Was your CD-ROM working before you tried to install XP?

CD ROM was working fine - Ive managed to solve the problem, got a brand new hard drive - xp has now loaded fine. :D

[dlh6213]

Wow, that didn't sound like a hard drive problem to me. Thanks for letting us know how you fixed it :)

Marking this as solved, even though you did it on your own :D

[scorry]

Wow, that didn't sound like a hard drive problem to me. Thanks for letting us know how you fixed it :)

Marking this as solved, even though you did it on your own :D

I know, very odd. It was wierd, because eventually xp started loading, then it got stuck sayinging not enough space, then it said missing files, so i just thought, i'd start again with a brand new HDD - wanted a bigger one anyway! :lol: