PC won't boot, help please...
 

Guys

Can’t get my PC to boot. After a few seconds I get

“Detecting Raid Array”
“Press F10 to go into Raid set-up utility”

Pushing F10 does nothing.

After a few seconds of it saying this it seems to carry on booting then stops again saying

“MBR Error 1”
“Press any key to boot from floppy”.

I don’t have a bootable floppy disc. But do have an Acronis True Image bootable CD. When I boot from this I am able to get into the Acronis setup/recovery screen (before windows loads) and I can see all my drive’s are visible and available. Just won’t boot.

If I go into the CMOS settings (not really sure what I’m looking at) but seems that my primary hard disk is not present and I can’t auto detect it. Also If I remove power to the HD I get the same errors, therefore I don’t think the problem is the HD.

Any ideas?? I am a complete novice so none of this makes much sense to me, hoping it will to someone….

Cheers

Dave

Is it XP ? Do you have an XP CD ?

If so, boot from the Windows XP CD, press the "R" key in the setup in order to start the restoration console. Select your windows XP installation from the list, and enter the administrator password.
Enter the command: "FIXMBR" (without the quotes) at the input prompt and confirm the next question with a "Y" (without the quotes). Use exit to restore the computer.

Thank for the reply but it won't let me boot from the XP Pro CD I have. Wondering whether its damaged or something (doesn't look it though).

Just says:

"Boot from CD"
"MBR Error 1"
"Press any key to boot from floppy"

Any other suggestion?

Cheers

Dave

Strange that your Acronis CD boots but your Windows CD won't.

You could always make a bootable floppy disk and put fixmbr or mbrfix on it manually, then boot from it and follow the instructions above.

I'm assuming that you don't have the PC set up to dual/multiboot ? Just boot to XP.

I've just downloaded a file I've found which is supposed to run mbrfix from floppy/cd. Burnt the ISO to CD but does exactly the same thing. Can't burn to floppy as the laptop has no FDD....File is here if that's any help:

PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU POST - Wilders Security Forums
No dual boot, just to XP.

Very lost, thnaks for the suggestions so far though.

Sorry, without seeing it I'm a bit stumped. Can you boot from a USB memory stick ?

Thanks for trting anyway fella, appreciate it.

Managed to burn that file but it made no difference, did boot but wouldn't let me do anything. Don't really understand it all so new PC now on the shopping list.....

have you not tried something simple like chkdsk from the dos prompt as it may be a small error on your hard drive !!!

I didn't think you can boot to DOS prompt on XP, hence the need for a boot disk (which dosen't work).

All I seem to be able to do is get into the Bios or Acronis rescue.

Cheers

Dave, it sounds to me that the Master boot recorder Is fault and gone down, which is obvious by what you have said. If by doing the procedure dj Junk recommended, and it don't work, then it sounds to me the master harddrive is dead.

You say that the acronis bootable cd will see the drivers, but your bios won't. This says to me that the harddrive is indeed dead. Don't throw away your laptop mate, just get a new hdd and re-install....if you have any problems then give me a shout and i can get a laptop hdd for you and do a full install.

Welcome To PC Medic

John

Is it possible for the hard drive to be dead but all the data to still be intact? I wasn't convinced it was the HD that was at fault as after removing the power to the HD exactly the same error came up. Good news if it is though as it's the easier option.

If it is the HD that's actually at fault then I can of course just install a new one and copy over the backup from the second drive.

Nip down to PC World I think then for a new HDD.

Cheers

Dave

Yes. If the MBR is damaged, you could still recover data from it using recovery software. Good luck.

No good I'm afraid, just installed a new HDD, restored the old backed up image onto it and it's doing exactly the same thing...

So if it's not the hard drive what can it be??

Dave

can you do a selective restore?
IE:

New install of Windows
>>
Restore data (Other than windows)

Not wishing to state the obvious. . .

How many disks were there in the machine before you replaced one?

Were they configured as a raid array?
- if so - which type

Have you replaced the disk with a "like for like" one (SCSI > SCSI, SATA > SATA or IDE > IDE).

Jason

Won't boot from the Windows CD :(

2 physical drives, 3 partirions.

OS in on disk 1 partition 1 (SATA). Files and OS backup on partition 2
Disk 2 is photo storage.

No raid array.

Yes, even down to swapped 80 gig for 80 gig

I've just dug out a very old IDE HDD from the garage. Restored an old backup to (same backup as I restored to the new SATA drive) and it's booted up.

Will this mean it's the motherboard, controller or something?

did you install the driver for the new sata hdd before you installed windows?

when you put in the recovery disk it says press f6 if you wish to install a driver etc?

good news you got the ide working ok.....if you put in a new sata hdd, windows cannot be installed without the drivers for sata/raid to work.

John

Would it need a new driver even though I replaced like for like? 80gb SATA to 80gb SATA.

The only recovery disk that would work was my Acronis disk, no F6 option. Wouldn't boot from XP disk.

Working at the mo but think I'll take is as a sign and build/buy a new one in due course.

Dave

yes mate...even though it is like for like the raid/sata still needs to be setup so windows can be installed. :D