UNSOLVED
Boot problem
I installed a new 80gb disk as planned replacement for original 40gb on my 8200. Formatted 80gb with NTFS, 40 & 40 gb partitions. Disconnected 40gb, connected 80gb as master, loaded WinXP. At boot, computer hangs at Dell screen for a LONG time (3-4 minutes), then I get message 'hard disk not found, press F1 to contunue, F2 to reboot.' Pressing F1 will finally get XP to open. Two questions: (1) What is causing this hang at the Dell screen? (2) There is a 32mb hidden partition labelled Dell Utility preceding C: on the original 40gb disk. What is this for, and do I have to install it on the new disk?
Don't know if this is a BIOS problem or not, but any help will be appreciated....... Mitch29
Tnx, Steve. Both drives jumpered as cable select. New disk was on end of cable by itself when I loaded XP. After encountering boot hang at Dell screen, I reconnected old disk as slave on middle cable plug - new disk would still hang on boot. Also tried putting XP CD back on, running the Repair utility, tried both FIXMBR and BOOTFIX, no joy. From a layman's viewpoint, I get the feeling that DOS is looking & looking at bootup for files on the disk to start XP, but cannot find them. Then, after 3-4 minutes and pressing F1, it finds them. Mystery to me. I've checked all BIOS settings, all normal there. I got to wondering if somehow my BIOS had gotten corrupted, but I'm loath to flash it - a potentially dangerous move.
The original disk still will boot up promptly when I connect it as Master on the end of the signal cable, so I'm still operational. But aggracated 'cuz I can't boot to the new disk & relegate the old one to file storage. If I could boot to the new one, I'd delete XP from the old to keep MS happy......
Best - Mitch
- I am wondering also if this might be a case of the new HDD is an EIDE ata 100 type that would benefit from using the newer IDE 40 pin 80 connector cable vs that of the older "traditional IDE" cable. Not know which type you have in the 8200.
volcano11
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Posted February 13th, 2004 20:00
How are the hard disks jumpered? Either set both to cable select and connect the boot drive to the end connector on the primary IDE cable, or set the boot drive to Master and the other drive to slave.
The 32 Mb partition is the Dell Utility partition that contains diagnostics. It is a hidden partition and can be deleted if you desire. You cannot install this partition on the new drive. The diagnostics can also be run from the Dell Resource CD.
Steve