Can't boot my OS disk

Question

I can't boot my OS disk when I put it in, I pressed F12 and chose to boot from TSST. What happens is that it will stall for a few minutes and then tries to boot from Broadcom. I tried to install Ubuntu and when I set up partitions I deleted a partition that came preinstalled and was hidden and only 71mb in size. I kept the preinstalled 5gb, but I assume that the one I deleted was used to boot the cd. What do I do now, is there an application I can download to make the CD boot? Thank you.

RoHe · Answer

The 71 mb partition you deleted was probably PC Restore which would have reset the hard drive to exactly the way Dell shipped it. The 5 gb partition is probably Dell's hardware diagnostics software.

You may need to reboot, press F2 to enter BIOS setup and change the boot sequence so CD is first on the list. Insert XP CD in the drive and close the drawer, then save the change to BIOS and exit. It should boot from the CD. If it doesn't, and you have 2 optical drives, try putting the CD in the other drive.

Ron

Message Edited by RoHe on 03-02-2007 09:17 PM

PETER345 · Answer

@RoHe wrote:
The 71 mb partition you deleted was probably PC Restore which would have reset the hard drive to exactly the way Dell shipped it. The 5 gb partition is probably Dell's hardware diagnostics software.

I think you reversed those. The smaller partition is for diagnostics. The larger for system restore.

Peter

Zanwar000 · Answer

So I have my System Restore partition, why won't it load? I know it's not the drive because I used a LiveCD to install Linux...

PETER345 · Answer

If you can boot Linux Live from a CD, then I don't know why you can't boot from the Windows disc. The options are:

1. You are trying to boot from the wrong disc (e.g. it is the resource disc instead)
2. The disc is damaged.

Did you try booting from it on another machine?

You could also try running the Dell diagnostics (you will have to make a boot cd/floppy now that you removed the diagnostic partition? It will scan the entire disc and make sure it is readable.

Peter

Zanwar000 · Answer

well it's the right disk, the orange one that says OS disk. And it can boot from another laptop that I tried it on. Problem is that it boots immediatly wehn I do it on the other laptop but not at all on my inspiron. SORRY - SOLVED. I disabled booting from Broadcom and it worked for anyone else who might have this problem.

Message Edited by Zanwar000 on 03-03-2007 07:04 PM

Windows General

Can't boot my OS disk

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