Doesn't boot

[Marky B]

I've used the guide on how to boot XP from an external hard drive. However, when I use the DVD to boot it says "booting from disk_" then goes into my operating system. What could be the problem?

 

[gbhall]

The drive defined in the bios at the top of the 'boot order' section is what the PC tries to boot off. Often if there is more than one drive on a different channel (for example you have both SATA and IDE drives) there is also a setting to define which channel is chosen as the first.

In cases where you are certain the boot order is correct, and you see the appropriate drive try, but fail to boot (as is the case for a DVD, you see the drive light winking), then there are possibilities such as (a) the disk in the DVD is not actually bootable (wrong disc type), (b) the drive is not defined to be bootable in the bios (applies to some USB drives), (c) the disc is damaged or scratched (d) the drive itself is actually faulty (e) the bios is corrupted and needs to be re-flashed. (f) the drive cable is not working fully.

Use your imagination to test these possibilities - borrow a known bootable DVD, put your DVD drive in another PC etc. PC hardware diagnostic are always a case of test by replacement.

 

[Marky B]

i have tried the origional disk that I used to make the ISO for the HDD bootable version of XP. That will boot perfectly fine. It's just when I boot into the hacked version.

 

[gbhall]

Then it must be clear that the .iso is not bootable. Note that the original disc XP install was not .iso format was it? Your use of the word 'hacked' concerns me. you are either using an illegal copy of XP (which we do not condone on this site), or you are using the word very loosely to mean, for example you have tried to slip-stream SP3 onto an earlier XP install disc.

 

[Marky B]

My new Disk isn't in ISO format. It was in ISO when I was editing the files but I burned it to CD so when I put the CD in it shows the files on the disk. Also, no, it's a genuine copy of XP. The Hacked version is the one where it can be installed on an external hard drive.