HELP: Loading XP again!

[tbourner]

Can someone help cos I'm an idiot!!

 

 

Got a new motherboard and processor about a month ago cos of a blue screen incident (I blamed the motherboard).

Got a new SATA HDD as well.

Got 3 other HDDs still installed with all my SW on - all IDE and an IDE DVD writer.

Loaded my XP home again, loaded everything else, all been fine for a month.

Didn't change anything last time I switched off but this morning it went to the "If you haven't seen this screen before... blah ... press load Windows normally... blah ... or use safe mode... etc.", did load normally, XP load screen for about a second, then a quick blue screen flash, then rebooted!!!

Tried safe mode and 'use last known good install', they all do the blue screen reboot loop

 

I then foolishly reinstalled Windows onto a Windows2 folder on the same partition as the old install though so I have a dodgy dual boot now!!

 

BUT I noticed that my CD rom is trying to boot every time now, rather than only when a cd is installed. It comes up with "boot from CD..." and then tries to boot from the HDD, when before it would go straight to HDD unless there was a CD in.

In BIOS the CDrom is the primary boot choice.

 

Also, my HDDs are in a different order in BIOS, my SATA is now the secondary master on the 2nd IDE slot or something somehow!!!

 

When I chose the new install (on the dual boot choice screen) it went into Windows OK and when I chose the old install it did the reboot loop!!

 

 

I just unplugged my 2 IDE leads from the motherboard, and it booted straight away into this working (old) install of Windows on the SATA with no probs or blue screens or anything, which means I can log onto the net again (couldn't in the new install).

 

So maybe I'm thinking my DVD/CD writer's gone bandy and is cocking up the system.

Except in BIOS when I booted just then with all IDEs out, the SATA is still stuck in the secondary master slot, it came up as drive F when I had the others in place!!!

 

Hope my BIOS isn't naffed.

Bloody Novatech.

[MaveriK]

So your windows is loaded on the SATA drive?

 

If so in the boot order ensure that this is listed as first boot option (sometimes you have to list it as other device or scsi)

 

Doing this will also stop the annoying "boot from cd" thing

 

Once its up and working (fingers crossed) do a windows and office update.

[silvershark44]

Yeah just make your hard drive the first boot device in your bios.

 

infact turn the cd rom drive off at boot, because if you need it again later, you can just turn it back on again

[tbourner]

It is the first boot device, but it's listed as one of the IDE ports when clearly it isn't!!

 

This suggests my BIOS is going funny (maybe a jumper reboot is in order - if I can find out which jumper to use!).

But then why would one Windows version on the primary partition of the drive work and the other not - and then the non-working version does work when the other (IDE) drives are removed from the MB!!!

 

 

I tried swapping the boot order from CD-ROM first to HDD first, which got rid of the 'boot from CD' bit but still did the blue screen reboot on the original install.

[tbourner]

Anyone?

 

 

 

 

OK then who knows how windows works when it loads?

 

I now have my original Windows loaded into the C:\Windows folder on the SATA drive, when it wouldn't load I used the Windows CD to reload it onto the same drive without reformatting, but loaded it into a folder that I called C:\Windows2. This is clearly a little unorthadox and I'm not sure how it's actually working and booting into the 2 seperately.

 

SO... Can I just simply delete the 'Windows2' folder now I'm running in the original setup? What other files are loaded outside the 'Windows' folder that might screw it up? What do I have to do to reverse my new load of Windows2?

Once I've got rid of that I can default the BIOS and slowly put drives back in until it works again!!

[mattanna]

I have loaded windows from scratch a few times before, some bios do not suit it and you need to upgrade or flash the bios to an xp compatible version(for your machine or motherboard)which not all are, this may be the issue, like said before you can go into the bios and set primary boot device.Would also be worth running scandisk(go into run then type scandisk)when you are loaded up to check your hard drive for faults, as this can cause the blue screen too

[tbourner]

Does anyone know how to delete Windows from the HDD without ruining the first install?