WinXP startup problem

[YellowPeril]

hello all,
i am having problems getting windows to boot properly. after a reboot, windows will not start, and i will just get the generic system error : couldnt find an operating system insert a boot disk blah blah... i happened to notice that if i have a windows cd in the disk and it goes through the "press any key to boot from cd" thing without a keypress, it moves on to the hard drive and boots just fine. removal of the disk results in boot problems again. i have tried fixboot and fixmbr in the recovery console but no luck. any advice?

thanks

 

[Tigerbiten]

Have you removed / formated another hard drive.
If so it sounds like it was booting off that drive and then passing the loading of Windozes onto what you thought was your boot drive.
To find out if this is the case look for the boot.ini file.
You have to have to have hidden system files visible to see it.

Luck........

 

[MorfiusX]

Try booring from the Windows XP CD, then select the first repair option. (Recovery Console) then type "fixmbr" to make sure everything is copasetic.

 

[YellowPeril]

like i said in my origional post, i have tried fixmbr...

and yes Tigerbiten i did just remove my raid array, (forgot to mention that hehe). so that is probably the problem. how do i fix this though? i looked in the boot.ini

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=30
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" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

i checked my other computer and the boot.ini was the same as this...

 

[J4M3S0N79]

May be a dumb question but did you try changing the first boot device in the bios from CD to HD-0...make sure it is not 1. See the BootCD knows where to look for windows partitions and boot from there. Without CD, you may be still trying to boot from CD or hd-1 or 2.

M

 

[Tigerbiten]

Good idea that its got the wrong hard drive in the boot order.
Try unplugging all other hard drives.
Check what name comes up in the bios.
Then see if it will boot.

Luck.......

 

[napsterhaven]

I have just started havin this problem also. Have you recently installed SP2? I have heen had the problem since instralling it. Can anyone tell me how to remove it?

 

[YellowPeril]

i only have one hd installed, so it should be looking for that one now. good idea tho about the wrong hard drive in the boot order. i will check on that. yes i have sp2 installed, but it was working fine for a while, and im pretty sure that its just a matter of the boot sector in the wrong place.