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5165
August 7th, 2003 22:00
Boot Config problems
Hi,
My D8200 3.06 P4, 1Gig Ram, 2 bootable WD HDs on Promise Controller, Zip and two optical drives on Mobo, 4 USB devices, etc., has boot problems.
The problem is that the system hangs for one minute at the Dell Screen, It then shows the Controller card BIOS with the 2 HDs, but I must press F1 or F2 to continue to Windows or to the Setup. After a slow black screen, it finally gets to windows.
Normally, it boots to the desktop in 13 secs and gives me the choice of which of my drives to boot to.
I just recently added a processor, reseated everything , and checked the power connections. I then added a USB DVD/ RW. It was after these modifications that the boot trouble began.
I know how to access and change the boot configuration by way of the Recovery Console. However, it doesn't detect any boot entries, and gives an error when I type bootcfg /scan. Error: Failed to successfully scan disks for Windows installations. This error may be caused by a corrupt file system, which would prevent Bootcfg from successfully scanning. Use chkdsk to detect any disk errors. Note: This operation must complete successfully in order for the /add /rebuild commands to be utilized.
I have run chkdsk in its variations three times with no errors.
The Boot.ini file shows one bootable drive.
Can anyone pinpoint me to the cause and resolution of this problem. I couldn't find anything pertinent in Microsoft's knowledge base. And, I'm afraid to manually edit the boot.ini file, because that would just cover up the main problem, which is the slowness and failure to recognize the boot drives.
Thank you very much.
Jane
Message Edited by -Friendlyname- on 08-07-2003 07:44 PM
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-Friendlyname-
2 Intern
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858 Posts
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August 10th, 2003 12:00
Thanks for respnding. I'll do the system restore. As to the paging files, I do have them set to none on the virtual memory page. They are set to G:\, which is the 1st partition of my 2nd HD. They don't move from G:\, but, as you said, replicate. Is it necessary to change the drive letters? This must be a part of the same malfunction that is causing the boot problem, because it had never happened before the firmware update.
Anyway, on to system restore. I'll post back with results.
Thank you so much.
Jane
se7en5ive2
584 Posts
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August 10th, 2003 13:00
Jane,
Changing Drive letters is not necessary, just easier for me. Are your drives on one cable? I've a pair of WD 120's Partitioned out as C,D,E and F, E being the second partition on the C drive and F being the second partition on D drive. Both drives are on an ATA controller jumpered to master on seperate ide cables.
Your page file should not be replicating, so there might be a minor problem there. Return the paging file back top the boot drive and eliminate the file you created to the slave drive and reboot. You can switch that to the secondary drive later.
Hane you tried the System File Checker? If not go to Start/Progams/Accessories/Command Prompt ant the prompt type SFC/SCANNOW then hit enter. Have your XP disc handy or in an optical drive. It will repair any files that may have corrupted over time.
-Friendlyname-
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858 Posts
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August 10th, 2003 19:00
Hi again,
My JB1200s are on separate channels on the controller card, like yours. I'll try what you said about putting the page files back to the C:\ drive and deleting the ones on the second drive. It's just that they take up a lot of room on my 7.8 gig C:\ drive and make it harder to defrag. Of course, I can lower them to less than 1.5 gig. I do have 1 gig of RAM.
As far as the drive letters, they were much more intuitive before I did a clean reinstall of the C:\ drive a few months ago. The other letters all changed by themselves.
Also, I'm going to completely uninstall and reinstall the drivers (if I can) and software for the External DVD/RW drive.
Thanks so much. I'll post back.
Jane
Message Edited by -Friendlyname- on 08-10-2003 04:09 PM