No boot.

[bothered]

Hi all,
My sons PC won't boot. It just says at the bottom, 'Error loading OS'. I thought I'd try Thraxs' repair windows in 8 steps. I put in the XP disc, set to boot from CD and press the power button. Then 'press any button to boot from CD' and windows loads as normal? Straight to his desktop, no option to go to repair console. Take the CD out and restart and the same error comes up and no boot. I tried opening a command prompt and following the instructions but they don't seem to be doing anything. We have also tried a system restore, nothing.
Any ideas?

[CB]

It's missing a start-up file somewhere. It's able to boot when the CD is in because it's able to find that file on the CD when it looks around for it. I would just reinstall windows, but a repair install might do the trick.

Actually, if you just run a scandisk utility, it might be able to recover the corrupted file, but that's not entirely likely.

[bothered]

Thanks CB, Ran scandisk, it found nothing. I can't do a repair because if the XP disc is in the PC boots as normal, no option to do a repair.

[bothered]

Any suggestions guys?

[Thrax]

My computer -> properties -> advanced tab -> startup and recovery -> settings button. Click "Edit." Does it look like this?

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

This assumes Windows is the first partition on your primary drive.

[bothered]

It is the same except the last line. It says -

multi(0)disc(0)rdisc(0)partition(1)\windows="microsoft windows XP professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Thanks.

[Thrax]

Okay, that's fine. Hmm, this is very strange.

[bothered]

What I don't understand is whenever I have previously set to boot from CD and restarted the disc loads and I get to select install or repair etc. With this all that happens is windows starts as normal only a little slower. Without the disc it doesn't get past the first screen.

[bothered]

24 hours and no solution/suggestions? come on guys, help a brother.

[Thrax]

I am completely stumped, to be honest. :\

[kryyst]

I put in the XP disc, set to boot from CD and press the power button. Then 'press any button to boot from CD' and windows loads as normal?

When you got to that step did you press a key? If not it won't boot from the cd but it'll go back to your harddrive. You need it to boot off the cd to do the repair install. If that prompt times out and you are pressing keys on the keyboard I'm thinking that your keyboard isn't being detected properly. If you are using a USB keyboard try a PS2 one, could be something screwy with it not loading the USB support in time.

[bothered]

When you got to that step did you press a key? If not it won't boot from the cd but it'll go back to your harddrive. You need it to boot off the cd to do the repair install. If that prompt times out and you are pressing keys on the keyboard I'm thinking that your keyboard isn't being detected properly. If you are using a USB keyboard try a PS2 one, could be something screwy with it not loading the USB support in time.

Possibly. I do press a key but it doesn't boot from the CD. It is a USB keyboard but if I press delete it does go to the bios so I presume the USB is working. I will try a PS2 though. Thanks all.