Member Avatar for pedro1

Have an HP box and trying to replace the 9G hard drive with a new 40G. Took out the old master drive and plugged in the new drive in it's place.
Can't boot up from the XP CD, even when tapping F8.
I always get the HP screen with a F2 setup choice which doesn't allow me to boot from the WinXP CD.

Anyone know how to get around this ?

Thanks

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by benyam_dessu

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A compact troubleshooting note for ’s situation: if a machine always drops to the vendor setup screen instead of booting an installation CD after a hard‑drive swap, the usual causes are (a) the BIOS not seeing a bootable CD, or (b) the new drive not being electrically/cably/jumpered correctly. ’s point about checking the BIOS boot order is correct — the checklist below expands that into a practical, ordered isolation plan.

  1. Power and cabling - With mains unplugged, reseat the drive power lead and the IDE ribbon. Confirm the drive connector is on the correct end/middle of the ribbon to match the jumper setting. Try a different Molex power connector and a different ribbon cable if available.

  2. Jumpers and channel layout - Ensure the hard disk is set to Master/Single (not cable‑select) when it occupies the master position on that cable. Put the optical drive on the secondary channel as the master device.

  3. BIOS checks - Reset CMOS to defaults, run IDE auto‑detect, and confirm the optical drive appears in the BIOS device list. Set the boot priority so the CD/DVD drive is before internal HDDs, save, and exit. Use any on‑screen prompt for a one‑time boot menu (keys vary by vendor).

  4. Media and device isolation - Verify the Windows CD is actually bootable by testing it in another PC (it should show “Press any key to boot from CD”). If the HDD shows zero capacity or CHS 0 in BIOS after reseating cables, move the drive to another machine to confirm whether the drive itself is faulty.

  5. Last resorts - If cables and jumpers are good but the BIOS still won’t detect the drive, try swapping in the old drive to confirm the system will boot normally; if it does, the new disk or its packaging is suspect. Consider vendor recovery/install media or a targeted BIOS update only after hardware has been ruled out.

This sequence isolates cable/jumper/power problems before assuming media or BIOS firmware faults. Advice from and about using vendor recovery media aligns with the final fallbacks above.

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Member Avatar for DMR

Can't boot up from the XP CD, even when tapping F8.

F8 only gets you to the OS boot menu option; it won't lead you to any option where you choose the actual boot device.

Using the F2 key, enter your BIOS setup.

* Make sure the Hard Drive and CD Drive are properly detected/reported in the BIOS' list of installed devices. If one of the devices is not detected, double-check the cabling and Master/Slave jumpers on all of the drives.

* Look for the boot device order configuration. Make sure the boot order is as follows:
1. Floppy disk
2. CD/DVD drive
3. Add-in controller cards
4. Hard drive
5. Network boot

* Save the configuration and exit the BIOS setup. The system should now look for bootable media in the floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, and on any peripheral controller cards before it looks to the internal hard drives attached to your motherboard.

If you have problems/questions with the above, please include the model # of the computer and the make/version of the BIOS (if possible) in your next post. Also- I'm making the assumption that the devices in question are IDE drives which are connected directly to the motherboard. IF this is not the case, please give us the details of your hardware configuration.

Member Avatar for pedro1

Followed the BIOS directions but it still will not boot from the CD, it always displays F2 options.

It's a HP Brio model, Pentium III, 600 MHz,
BIOS version: HW.27.09(QHW.09.05)

The new drive is a Seagate 40g. IDE
the CMOS Setup utility is reading it as:
> IDE Primary Master WDC WD4000BB-75DEA0

However when I select the Master and hit enter, it shows this:
IDE HDD Auto-Detection (Selecting says auto detecting but it does nothing)
Type Auto
Cylinder 0
Head 15
Sector 63
Capacity 0Mb
Access Mode Auto
P10 Mode Auto
Ultra DMA Mode Auto

Any ideas ?

Member Avatar for pedro1

Model #: DB771T

Member Avatar for DMR

* What (if anything) does the BIOS report for the CD-ROM drive?

* I'm not familiar with that particular model of HP; what options are you given when you press F2?

* The original BIOS description of the HDD (WD4000BB-75DEA0) looks right, but I'm not really sure aboutthe autodetect info; sometimes the "auto" setting reports weird or seemingly incomplete drive info.

Member Avatar for Maroll

Hello bro...If above instruction still cannot...I think u might find the recovery cd from hp because the original desktop cannot recognize the pirate os.....Or maybe you have the problem with your cdrom...Your secondary should be the type of your cdrom from the bios setup...

Member Avatar for benyam_dessu

Advice

When u always want to use a new Hard disk, use a cd of OS labled "For distribution with a new PC only...."

regards,

ben.

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