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Booting Problems (XP and Linux)

I

ironliver

n00b
Joined
Mar 15, 2005
Messages
8
Im completly frustrated right now, and out of things to do. Hopefully someone here will have an answer or direction.

Info about my comp:

Abit NF7s
Athlon 2800
SATA HD (Originally had Win XP on it)
ATA HD (Arch Linux)

I tried putting on Arch Linux on my ATA Drive. The installation went fine (i think). I put the grub loader onto my SATA HD. When i went to boot, the grub loader wasnt working. The screen just kept displaying 'GRUB' all across the screen, and kept repeating. Nothing would boot.

I decided to just try to get my Windows XP working again. I did this by booting off the WINXP cd and going into the recovery console. I tried the fixmbr , fixboot, bootcfg commands from tutorials ive read, but it wasnt working. The error i would get now is "Error Loading Operating System". Now, Im really panicking, as i have A LOT of information i dont want to lose. When i go into the recovery console, i still see my files, can read log files, but when i try to access some other directories, it says 'access denied'.

I then decided just to re-install Windows XP onto my SATA drive. When the XP installation listed the Partitions, it had listed the NTFS partition, but it said i couldnt install onto it unless i format or partition it (i forgot if it said format or partition, but it was one of the two). As i said earlier, i have many things on the drive that i dont want to lose. So i just stopped the install.

So next i tried to put WindowsXP onto my ATA drive. My reasoning is that maybe i can see the SATA drive in XP, and back things up onto my ATA drive, so i can reformat/partition the SATA drive, then reinstall xp onto that.

I just repartitioned it and formated the ATA drive with the WINXP CD Install (NTFS), the install goes through, but when it goes boot, it says "Error Loading Operating System" Again!! I have no idea why it is doing this. I even unplugged the power to the SATA drive, as i thought maybe it was getting mixed up. Nope didnt work. I went into the BIOS, and tried every HD in the bootup order, but it all said the same thing.

This is really crazy to me. Why would it do this? It should be just like putting XP onto a blank HD right? I've done that plenty of times. So as of now, my computer is sitting there absoluty useless. Nothing works.

Sorry this is so long... just wanted to give the whole story. Anyone have any ideas to get my Computer working again? and also not losing my info on the SATA drive?
 
Load windows Recovery console and type fixmbr, and maybe a fixboot.
 
just tried that. Didnt work.

Does anyone have an idea how this could be happening? When i partition and format a drive, *Everything* is erased correct? Such as the windows boot loader and anything that would be on it.

This makes no sense to me... I cant even install windows on a blank disk. Whats going on...
 
Hm, the problem you describe later sounds familar to me. When I had my two orginal SATA drives, at one point it said it couldn't find an OS. Turned out to be a cable problem. Unplug the SATA cables like you did, but unplug the power to it as well. I noticed, when I was trying to get info off my SATA, using an Old ATA (both sata's had failed0 having the power plugged it was also screwing it up. Don't ask why, as it shouldn't make sense at all...
Anywho, check your BIOS after to see that its not reading any SATA drives, and that its picking up your ATA as Primary Master. Might have to switch the jumpers on it. Once thats done, I'd suggest, trying to reinstall Windows XP again on the ATA. When you get to the partion screen, just press C -- L (Think those are the keys for Clear Partion / Delete Data/Partion) Then just do a quick format and have XP install.

If that doesn't work, I'd hope you have another computer, with SATA capability. You could stick your SATA in, slave it (if possible) and have another computer take your information.

---
Blah, ignore the whole power/cable solution as you did that..

AH! Another thing!
When I installed Linux onto my ATA drive on my old computer, it gave me a problem like yours. Said there was no OS. Turns out, you have to change your HD in your BIOS from AUTO to, the one that stars with a L. Might be like LFM, or LVM, or something
 
It's LVM, or perhaps you meant LBA
I've had this problem too, even though i'm just running ATA. I had to completely wipe one disk in order to get Windoze to do anything right :(
 
Well I was off.
You are right.

Its LBA. So hit Del to get into the bios or whatever key, and then Standard CMOS -- scroll down to your ATA drive, and hit enter. Change the Access mode from AUTO to LBA.
 
Wont linux only boot off of a FAT32 partition? I thought it doesn't work on NTFS....maybe I'm wrong
 
lesman said:
Wont linux only boot off of a FAT32 partition? I thought it doesn't work on NTFS....maybe I'm wrong
Click to expand...

? Linux doesnt even use FAT 32. It can make a partion as FAT 32. And yes, it doesn't work NTFS. It can Read it, just can't write to it.
 
OMG !!! abudhu, i could kiss you right now! If you live in the Bay Area, CA ill buy you a beer!

What you said worked! I had it change the mode to LBA in the bios, even though it was set on auto. I remember in the table that lists your devices, it said CHS when it wasnt working. I looked at that, and it seemed strange, but didnt have a reason to change it since i dont even know what it means, and i had it set on auto before. But i changed it to LBA, and it works! Thank you soo much. I can even read my SATA drive so i can back my stuff up.. youre such a life saver! thanks
 
abudhu said:
? Linux doesnt even use FAT 32. It can make a partion as FAT 32. And yes, it doesn't work NTFS. It can Read it, just can't write to it.
Click to expand...
Ahhhh....didn't know, I don't use Linux, I just heard about that little partition thing somewhere through the line. Oh well. Thanks for the info though! :)
 
ironliver said:
OMG !!! abudhu, i could kiss you right now! If you live in the Bay Area, CA ill buy you a beer!

What you said worked! I had it change the mode to LBA in the bios, even though it was set on auto. I remember in the table that lists your devices, it said CHS when it wasnt working. I looked at that, and it seemed strange, but didnt have a reason to change it since i dont even know what it means, and i had it set on auto before. But i changed it to LBA, and it works! Thank you soo much. I can even read my SATA drive so i can back my stuff up.. youre such a life saver! thanks
Click to expand...


Haha, Not a problem. Its what we are here for. Glad to be of service.
 
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