Windows xp not booting from hard drive

For example, the device pathname format for a standard bootable drive C configuration would look like this:. When Windows XP encounters a fatal error, the default setting for handling such an error is to automatically reboot the system.

If the error occurs while Windows XP is booting, the operating system will become stuck in a reboot cycle--rebooting over and over instead of starting up normally. In that case, you'll need to disable the option for automatically restarting on system failure.

When Windows XP begins to boot up and you see the message Please select the operating system to start or hear the single beep, press [F8] to display the Windows Advanced Options Menu. Now, Windows XP will hang up when it encounters the error and with any luck, it will display a stop message you can use to diagnose the problem. If you can't seem to repair a Windows XP system that won't boot and you have a recent backup, you can restore the system from the backup media.

The method you use to restore the system will depend on what backup utility you used, so you'll need to follow the utility's instructions on how to perform a restore operation. If you can't repair a Windows XP system that won't boot and you don't have a recent backup, you can perform an in-place upgrade. Doing so reinstalls the operating system into the same folder, just as if you were upgrading from one version of Windows to another. An in-place upgrade will usually solve most, if not all, Windows boot problems.

This screen will prompt you to press R to repair the selected installation or to press [Esc] to install a fresh copy of Windows XP. In this case, initiating a repair operation is synonymous with performing an in-place upgrade, so you'll need to press R.

When you do so, Setup will examine the disk drives in the system. It will then begin performing the in-place upgrade. First choice was the right choice for me, awsome was that simple and fast to fix this issue on my HP Pavilion dv notebook. Hey, Thanks for your help. I always wondered what a third-party raid driver was. I was already suspicious Like an idiot, I formatted C:. Well damage done. I got KillDisk and really crapped it out. Same problem until I found your article. A year ago, my step-son was going to throw this laptop away.

No problem. I formatted with XP and got drivers through my driveragent subscription and got a brand new laptop. Good God! Thanks again. Thank You…this really helped me out and am now able to install XP…this is a lesson well learned,thanks again. Thanx a LOT …. Thank you!!! I have had this problem and always thought it was an issue with my motherboard or something else … you rock. This worked like a charm. Works like a charm, installing XP Pro right now! Thanks mate, worked a treat on a Lenovo X60!

Just knowing that changing the SATA mode helps the startup helped me out a ton! Thanks again for a great article. Bro, thank you very much you solved my problems.. I tried a lot of queries from Google — tried nLITE as many of you might have after getting this error. Saw that this might be a BIOS problem after reading this thread.

One only place where I could do it. Now XP can install. It works!!!! Brilliant…suspected at the outset that XP was lacking some drivers…this guide helped a great deal.. Super Simple. Mostly time I found blog but I never gain lots of information but this blog have lots of important information about this and I got lots of information on it.

Thank you so much! Worked right away. Thank You Very Much! I just wanted to say thanks. Thanks much for this! This saved me the trouble of messing with Warranty and just finding the same problem! Thanks a lot Raymond , you got me back on track. Its nice to see that someone has the answers. After 2 weeks and new hard drives for no reason I found your post especially the one about moving it to a cd instead of the floppy. Thanks Again!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for ths great tip.

Thank you so much for your article! I really appreciate the time you put into it, because, being a moderate computer geek not a nerd, mind you I have the knowledge that I need…but unfortunately not much when it comes to BIOS. Raymond a big thanks,i was completely stuck,i just took the combination option in the bios for raid mode and hey it found the partitions!

Cheers raymond. Unbelievable, I went through and updated drivers for everything on my computer, I downloaded new disks, completely wiped harddrive set everything to 0s then installed totally new label and linux OS then tried XP and vista, but neither would boot. So finally called Dell and of course stayed on the phone with them until they decided it was just that my hard drive was completely broken and sent me a new hard drive.

It worked with nLite! Only problem for me was to extract Floppy-files without a floppy-drive! I have dell Tried to install xp as i was not able to start window. I changed, 1. Thanks a lot for your help! Drive was not detectable but chnaged the drive settings a little different from post and it worked! You are the man. By default the HDD is top of the order so the laptop will tend to boot straight to Vista otherwise. Never could find them. But this posting led me to where i needed to be.

It Worked! Pat A 2 years ago. Derek 2 years ago. BEM T. Bro 5 years ago. Hendry 5 years ago. Pope 6 years ago. Mo 6 years ago. DD 6 years ago. Hadi 6 years ago. Martin 6 years ago. Ranjith R 6 years ago. Vin 6 years ago. Paul 7 years ago.

Nanjunda Patil 7 years ago. Rutwij 7 years ago. HK 7 years ago. The Toe Cutter 7 years ago. Carlos 8 years ago. Mike 8 years ago. Brad 8 years ago. HAL Admin 8 years ago. Henrik 8 years ago. Chandra Yerrabothula 8 years ago. Chis 8 years ago. Sam 9 years ago. JHudson 9 years ago. Ralph 9 years ago. Noel 9 years ago. SonyVaioVistaXp 9 years ago. Drychron Red 9 years ago.

Niket Trivedi 9 years ago. Bruno 9 years ago. Japhy 9 years ago. Rajesh 9 years ago. Saiful anuar 9 years ago. Logic 9 years ago. Dunk 9 years ago. Daniel 9 years ago. Drassx15 9 years ago. RG 9 years ago. Confidance 10 years ago. Nick 10 years ago. Prashant 10 years ago. Jimp 10 years ago. Depending on the speed of your USB drive, this may take a while. Is the USB device listed and does it have top priority? You need to make sure that your hard drive is partitioned and formatted properly.

Especially if you've had Linux or some other operating system on it, you'll need to repartition and format it. The rescue drive contain file manager and command line utility. You can launch DiskPart for disk partitioning and formatting from the command utility. If you are sure that your hard drive is set up properly i. If your hard drive is partitioned in GPT mode, you also need repartition and format the disc.

Enter the commands needed to repartition and format your drive. For example, try the following:. On your computer, disk 0 may not be the correct disk, you can use 'list disk' to find the correct disk. Run E:iwinnt Replace C: with the drive you want to install Windows to.

Proceed with the installation. The setup program will then silently close, which might make you think that something went wrong. Don't worry though. Note: The above guide works with Windows XP only. Firstly, download the software Win to Flash which does not need any installation. Despite your best efforts, if you fail to fix the "hard drive does not boot up" issue, you might be worried about your data loss.

Well, in this case, you will need to use Wondershare Recoverit — Data Recovery tool. This tool can help recover any type of data in no time. The best thing is that it supports both Windows and Mac. Now, connect it to the crashed computer. Now, to recover data from an unbootable system, you need to create a bootable media by following these steps:.

There are multiple factors that may cause problems during Windows startup and therefore, the first step you should take is a diagnosis that helps you find out what has been the origin of your problem in particular. Every time you turn on your computer. Your motherboard firmware must choose a boot device. Once this happens, Windows performs a brief evaluation to help you determine if all connected components are working properly.

This is done through the drivers that are installed and, when one of these determines that one or more of the connected devices is failing.

A series of errors is triggered that, in some cases, could prevent Windows from initializing correctly. For this reason, if your computer does not get Windows to start correctly, the first thing you should do is: disconnect any pen drive and confirm that everything is correctly connected to the motherboard.

Sometimes when an operating system fails to boot, knowing whether or not your computer turned on may be a bit confusing. The first thing to do to find out is to check if the computer's fans are working. There are some laptop models whose cooling system may be very discreet but, in most cases, they have a LED that lights up when the computer is on. In case your computer does not turn on at all, it is very likely that the problem is related to a malfunction of your computer's power supply.

To solve this problem, it is advisable that you request the technical assistance service of your provider or that you obtain a replacement power supply in case you cannot request the technical assistance service. As I mentioned before.

The firmware of the computer is in charge of looking for the boot device and if it cannot find a bootable device, it is very likely that the device where the operating system is stored has suffered some damage that corrupts the integrity of the partition table or the file system.

If Windows freezes during startup, it could be due to corruption or loss of data that makes up the boot structure of the operating system. To fix this problem, you may need to do a clean installation of Windows again. On the other hand, if Windows manages to start but it freezes, it is probably due to the execution of a program with corrupted files or it may even be a sign that the partition table of device C is damaged.