Unable to Start windows XP...Please Help

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Hello,

I am not able to boot my computer it seemed to be going into a loop...here is detailed explanation of how the problem started...

System Spec:
P3, Windows XP Pro, Floppy, CD-RW in one bay, and DVD-RW in another bay, about 700 MB of RAM in memory or something close to it.

Problem Details and History:

One time I restarted my PC and I got the error messages below
"Secondary Hard Drive 0 not Found"
"Secondary Hard Drive 1 not Found"
"Press F1 to Continue or F2 to enter Setup".

I hit F1 and the PC rebooted ok with no problems. This happened a few weeks back. Today I was working on my PC and it locked up on me so I had to do a hard reboot and when I restarted again I got the same error messages listed above, I hit F1 then I got to a screen which gives me the following options:

1-Safe Mode
2-Safe Mode with Networking
3-Dos Prompt or something smilar to that
4-(Last Good Known Configuation)
5-Start Windows Normally

I selected the option to Start Windows Normally, but I got the same error messages about Secodary Hard Drive 0 and Secondary Hard Drive 1 not Found (same as above error messages) and after I hit F1 it came to same menu options and I selected Start Windows Normally, and the PC kept going into the same loop.

After I got tired of it I clicked on F2 and went into the Startup options. On my Startup Screen I have the following selected
Primary:
Drive 0: Auto EDIE DRIVE 65535
Drive 1: None

Seconday:
Drive 0: None
Drive 1: None

Boot Sequence: Diskette First

I went ahead and changed the Secondary options above for Drive 0 and Drive 1 to Auto. Restarted the PC and this time I did not get the error messages. Instead the PC brought me into the menu options I listed above and when I select Start Windows Normally, it goes into the same loop and gives me the menu options again. I even select Safe Mode, Safe Mode with networking, Last known good configuration and that kepts bringing me to the same menu.

Since the error messages were pointing to Secondary Drive I thought the problem might be with my CD-RW and DVR-RW drives, and maybe something is wrong with cable that I have running from the motherboard to both drives, so I went ahead and purchased a new Dual Internal Cable which I plugged one side to the mother board and one end to the CD-RW and the second end to the DVD-RW. I restarted the PC and went into Startup option and found that the Secondary was showing the options:
Drive 0: Auto CD-ROM Device
Drive 1: Auto CD-ROM Device

I restart the PC again to see if that will fix the proble, but again I got the same menu options listed above and selected the option to Start Windows Normally, but my PC kept going into the loop with the menu options.

Is there something wrong with my harddrive, motherboard...or is it something else? Also, I tried to insert a bootable CD-ROM into each drive, but I could not get the PC to boot to the CD.

Can someone please help....

Thanks,
B
 
Have you tried to stick a different known working HD in there?

Have you tried your problem HD in a known working computer?

I would try that to rule out the HD.

You could try booting to your XP CD and doing a "Repair Install"
 
I think I have an old harddrive around that I can try to stick in the computer and see if that will boot.

With regards to trying the problem harddrive on another computer, I am unable to do that at this point since I don't have a nother PC around, and only have a laptop. However, I might be thinking about buying a new PC since my existing one is a little old now, but I would like to get my old data off the harddrive.

I tried inserting a Win XP Pro bootable CD into the CD-ROM drives, but it seemed that PC is not able to read from it. I am not sure if the problem is with the CD drives.

Since I am able to get the boot menu such as Boot with Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking....Start Windows Normally options does that eliminate that there is a problem with my harddrive and it is more a PC issue such as CD-ROM drive or Motherboard.

Thanks,
B
 
Let's first try another HD to see if that's the problem.

When you said:

"I tried inserting a Win XP Pro bootable CD into the CD-ROM drives, but it seemed that PC is not able to read from it. I am not sure if the problem is with the CD drives."

Did you set the "Boot Sequence" to boot to the CD Rom first?

Is that a full version of Widows XP PRO?
 
your hard drive(s) and cd's should be hooked like below
option 1:
hdd as master and cd as slave on primary ide slot
hdd as master and cd as slave on secondary ide slot
option 2:
hdd as master and hdd as slave on primary slot
cd as master and cd as slave on secondary slot.
the first option is more efficient and faster. since you have one hdd per ide slot.
 
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