Guest philo Posted August 3, 2007 Posted August 3, 2007 My neighbor gave me a bunch of left-over parts from an upgrade... (An AMD_64-3200 mobo and a few HD's 100 & 250 gig.) I built a machine from them and decided to see if the machine would boot from either of the drives. One of the drives started to boot to XP...then crashed. I slaved the drive to another machine to see what was on it...and there was no Windows (or Winnt) folder... but oddest of all...*no* root directory files...which means boot.ini is not even present... How the heck could it have started to boot XP? BTW: No .chk files were written nor did chkdsk find any problems
Guest Tim Starid Posted August 3, 2007 Posted August 3, 2007 RE: Odd XP ? I've had this happen for 2 reasons: 1. The OS was set to only connect to a server and to pull files off, at which point without the server connection (which may be inside a LAN) it wouldnt boot. Solution: Delete all partitiions and reformat. 2. The OS on the drive came pre-packaged with an OEM machine (IE: Dell, HP, Compaq, etc) and the OS was built to validate the Motherboard BIOS (which may or may not match depending on if they came from the same computer). If this is the case you will need a new copy of Windows or the old motherboard that came with the OEM machine. All in all, when in doubt reformat. If the format doesent take then you likely have a bad drive. "philo" wrote: > My neighbor gave me a bunch of left-over parts from an upgrade... > > (An AMD_64-3200 mobo and a few HD's 100 & 250 gig.) > > I built a machine from them and decided to see if the machine would boot > from either of the drives. > > One of the drives started to boot to XP...then crashed. > > > I slaved the drive to another machine to see what was on it...and there was > no Windows (or Winnt) folder... > but oddest of all...*no* root directory files...which means boot.ini is not > even present... > > How the heck could it have started to boot XP? > > > > BTW: No .chk files were written nor did chkdsk find any problems > > > >
Guest philo Posted August 3, 2007 Posted August 3, 2007 Re: Odd XP ? "Tim Starid" <TimStarid@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:76C861BD-AD6E-4C9A-8F5A-A28D53B61D1C@microsoft.com... > I've had this happen for 2 reasons: > > 1. The OS was set to only connect to a server and to pull files off, at > which point without the server connection (which may be inside a LAN) it > wouldnt boot. Solution: Delete all partitiions and reformat. > > 2. The OS on the drive came pre-packaged with an OEM machine (IE: Dell, HP, > Compaq, etc) and the OS was built to validate the Motherboard BIOS (which may > or may not match depending on if they came from the same computer). If this > is the case you will need a new copy of Windows or the old motherboard that > came with the OEM machine. > > All in all, when in doubt reformat. If the format doesent take then you > likely have a bad drive. > > Well I'm going to of course format the drive before I use it... but I was trying to figure out where the boot info was kept on the drive if not in boot.ini
Guest Gary S. Terhune Posted August 3, 2007 Posted August 3, 2007 Re: Odd XP ? Boot.ini probably WAS present. It's a "Protected Operating System file", one that is hidden unless you expressly unhide those files in Folder Options. I recommend against leaving those files unhidden. Only leave them visible as long as absolutely necessary. -- Gary S. Terhune MS-MVP Shell/User http://www.grystmill.com "philo" <philo@privacy.net> wrote in message news:e4VSk1g1HHA.6072@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > My neighbor gave me a bunch of left-over parts from an upgrade... > > (An AMD_64-3200 mobo and a few HD's 100 & 250 gig.) > > I built a machine from them and decided to see if the machine would boot > from either of the drives. > > One of the drives started to boot to XP...then crashed. > > > I slaved the drive to another machine to see what was on it...and there > was > no Windows (or Winnt) folder... > but oddest of all...*no* root directory files...which means boot.ini is > not > even present... > > How the heck could it have started to boot XP? > > > > BTW: No .chk files were written nor did chkdsk find any problems > > >
Guest Gary S. Terhune Posted August 4, 2007 Posted August 4, 2007 Re: Odd XP ? Have fun! -- Gary S. Terhune MS-MVP Shell/User http://www.grystmill.com "philo" <philo@privacy.net> wrote in message news:OR%23p16i1HHA.5796@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl... > > <snip> >> >> >> >> I guess I should have mentioned that I had windows explorer set to view > all >> files... >> I could view boot.ini OK on the boot drive.... >> but the drive I had slaved had no root directory files. >> >> Guess I could put it back in and try again... >> I'd have expeced a "non system disk" error though >> >> >> > > > Well I tried booting from the drive again and this time I did get the > "non-system disk" error... > which leads me to conclude that boot.ini must have somehow disappeared... > anyway I'm going to run the mfg's diagnostic on the drive before I use > it... > and if it tests good...will of course format it > >
Guest philo Posted August 4, 2007 Posted August 4, 2007 Re: Odd XP ? "Gary S. Terhune" <none> wrote in message news:O92Vxli1HHA.5884@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > Boot.ini probably WAS present. It's a "Protected Operating System file", one > that is hidden unless you expressly unhide those files in Folder Options. I > recommend against leaving those files unhidden. Only leave them visible as > long as absolutely necessary. > I guess I should have mentioned that I had windows explorer set to view all files... I could view boot.ini OK on the boot drive.... but the drive I had slaved had no root directory files. Guess I could put it back in and try again... I'd have expeced a "non system disk" error though
Guest philo Posted August 4, 2007 Posted August 4, 2007 Re: Odd XP ? <snip> > > > > I guess I should have mentioned that I had windows explorer set to view all > files... > I could view boot.ini OK on the boot drive.... > but the drive I had slaved had no root directory files. > > Guess I could put it back in and try again... > I'd have expeced a "non system disk" error though > > > Well I tried booting from the drive again and this time I did get the "non-system disk" error... which leads me to conclude that boot.ini must have somehow disappeared... anyway I'm going to run the mfg's diagnostic on the drive before I use it... and if it tests good...will of course format it
Guest philo Posted August 4, 2007 Posted August 4, 2007 Re: Odd XP ? "Gary S. Terhune" <none> wrote in message news:ubsZ1Jj1HHA.4584@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > Have fun! > Yep...it will be fun... I also think it interesting to note that the used parts I received from someone else's upgrade... are newer than anything am currently using!
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