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austinbrtndr

19 Posts

24973

October 17th, 2005 17:00

Can't boot from cd (Dell L800r) SOS!!!

Ok, long story short, I changed my OS from W2kPro to XP, but had W2k still showing up on the hard drive (had to choose XP at startup)... I went into the registry to try and remove it. Now, when I boot up my computer it says there is an issue with system32 and to insert disc to repair. When I switch my boot up driver to cd it says "Invalid Boot Diskette/Insert BOOT diskette in A:"... I can't get the thing to boot from the CD! Anyone got any ideas? PLEASE HELP!

shesagordie

10 Elder

 • 

46K Posts

October 17th, 2005 17:00

austinbrtndr.
 
It sounds like you did not carry out a clean install of XP.  Upgrade the BIOS to A14 and reinstall XP.  
The following are the procedures for a clean install of XP.
 
You start by partitioning and formatting the hard drive, this is part of reinstalling the operating system. It looks like Dell has deleted the procedures for the L Series, use the D-2100 instead.
 
First, you make the CD/ROM/DVD the first boot device.  Procedures for configuring a Dimension series system to boot to the CD/DVD drive.
 

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>


 
After this you can use the following instructions.
 
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp
 
To find the Dell reinstall guide, that's specific to your system, go here

Prior to installing, remember to disconnect all external peripherals from the computer, except the keyboard, monitor and mouse. 
While installing, delete all existing partitions (Paragraph 5) when you are prompted, then remake and format
them (Paragraphs 6 & 7), following by installing XP.
 
You will have to reload the drivers and applications, etc,
After the installation, you will need to download and install the MicroSoft Critical Updates, plus any other updates you deem necessary, also remember to enable the firewall and install the AV software before going online.
 
Printing a copy of these instructions, as a reference while installing XP could also be a help.
 
Bev.
 

 

Message Edited by shesagordie on 10-17-2005 01:57 PM

austinbrtndr

19 Posts

October 17th, 2005 18:00

Thanks for the help Bev, but I'm still having trouble.  I disconnected the floppy entirely (I have to way to make any floppy disks anyway) and changed a few of the settings. Now the CD kicks in (audible), but I'm still getting this message:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM
You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair"

Any help?

shesagordie

10 Elder

 • 

46K Posts

October 17th, 2005 18:00

austinbrtndr.

Regards to the "following file is missing or corrupt \windows\system32\config\system" error message, check out the following 

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_sys32.htm

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545

Bev.

  

austinbrtndr

19 Posts

October 17th, 2005 20:00

Thanks again, Bev... tried both of those... the first one would only help my if I could access the Recovery Tool, which I can't as I have no way of getting into windows, even through safe mode... The second is no good to me as I have no access to a working floppy drive. Right now I'm on a friend's laptop sitting in front of my pc... here's a rundown of what's been done:

Boot order has been checked
Tried to load to XP with install disc
Tried to run to W2kPro
Tried both in Safe Modes with/without install cd
Tried debugging mode
Completely disconnected floppy drive
Tried adjusting Master/Slave; Primary/Secondary settings

I *think* that may be it... now, I can burn cd's with the laptop (hopefully to wipe the HD at bootup) and connect to my desktop via LAN. Is there anything I can do with that?

shesagordie

10 Elder

 • 

46K Posts

October 17th, 2005 21:00

austinbrtndr.
 
Have you tried booting the CD per the procedures I gave.  
 
Insert a bootable XP CD in your CD drive.
 
Restart the system.

The Dell logo screen appears.

  1. Press the key to enter the System Setup.
    The System Setup screen appears.

  2. Press the key to highlight Boot Sequence.

  3. Press the key until 1st Boot Device is highlighted

  4. Then press the key. to display the available boot device.

  5. Using the or keys to navigate, highlight ATAPI CD-ROM Drive and then press the key.

  6. Press the key to Save and Exit.

  7. When you are prompted to Save changes and exit now, press the key.

Your system will now attempt to boot to the CD that is inserted in the CD drive.

Bev.

austinbrtndr

19 Posts

October 17th, 2005 22:00

lol... well, it definitely did what it said it would... everything is deleted... I've still got my BIOS setup, but nothing else... I've inserted the WinXP install disc and tried bootup, but I'm back to the "Invalid Boot DIskette/ Insert BOOT diskette in A:" screen... I've configured my BIOS to run CD, IDE HDD, then disabled the Floppy drive. I've actually been working on this since about 8am and I'm not in much better shape than when I started! If you've got anything, let me know! Thanks again...

shesagordie

10 Elder

 • 

46K Posts

October 17th, 2005 22:00

austinbrtnd.
 
Thanks for the feedback, that's a handy link to "Darik's Boot and Nuke" I've it added to my files.
 
Have you managed to load windows?
 
Bev.

austinbrtndr

19 Posts

October 17th, 2005 22:00

Thanks again, Bev... I had actually already done all of that... I don't know why the install disc wouldn't load... I wound up downloading a copy of DBAN onto CD and inserted that into my disc drive on the bad computer.... it went right to work... so, I think my problem may be solved... but, for anyone who might do this in the future, you can find the DBAN program at : http://dban.sourceforge.net/ ... just be sure to label the disc to make sure you never accidentally put it in to your computer thinking it's your Britney Spears cd...

peterfelgate_ce40d3

1.3K Posts

October 18th, 2005 06:00

Sounds like a duff XP CD to me, as the constant factor in all this is that the machine won't boot from the copy you have, can't boot from HDD and reverts to floppy which fails (don't forget the bios isn't that intelligent and often when things go wrong the error message isn't always to be belived; thus don't worry about disabling the floppy drive etc...)....Try to use another copy; or if that isn't possible, try copying the disk using your laptop and then using the copy - remembering copyright rules etc....

KenD90027

3 Posts

September 12th, 2011 18:00

Hi, not sure if you still access this, but I am having the same issue with my old L800r. Did you ever find a solution?

ieee488

4 Operator

 • 

11.1K Posts

September 12th, 2011 18:00

The original post was becasue the person installed Windows XP alongside Windows 2000.

Is yours the SAME problem?????

KenD90027

3 Posts

September 12th, 2011 18:00

Well it WAS the same problem when i posted this reply...but has since progressed. This OLD workhorse pc was going to get a fresh HDD with fresh xp, but after I installed the replacement HDD (which was a formatted win2k drive) immediately got the  "Invalid Boot Diskette/Insert BOOT diskette in A:" error. i finagled and flashed the BIOS and eventually tried to do a floppy XP install, except my floppies didn't match my CD version so it failed, now I'm getting an NTLDR error. LOL. Maybe I'll try to find my original XP CD to match the diskettes. Unless you have any bright ideas (other than ALL the ones posted here and elsewhere on the web related to this error...cause I've tried them all).

ieee488

4 Operator

 • 

11.1K Posts

September 13th, 2011 11:00

Since you don't have matching floppy and Windows XP CD, I don't know why you expected it to work?

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=8030

 

http://www.syschat.com/install-windows-xp-without-floppy-cd-463.html

 

Because your desktop is so old, you might want run into the problem where the Windows XP partition must be 120GB or smaller.

 

shesagordie

10 Elder

 • 

46K Posts

September 13th, 2011 12:00

KenD90027

Are you using BIOS version 14, when support for Microsoft Windows XP SLP Code, was added?

What size is the IDE hard drive?

Bev.

KenD90027

3 Posts

September 13th, 2011 12:00

yes on bios v14, new drive: 20gb WD caviar. tried to put the original drive back in and getting a 7B BSOD. lol

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