Topic: problem with laptop - no bootable devices [FIXED]

[JasonSobel]

I'm trying to get my sister-in-law's laptop up and going again.  as I said in the post a few threads down (here), the hard drive was dead. So we bought a new hard drive, got it installed, and re-installed windows (xp).  Everything seemingly went smoothly, but now when I reboot, I just get a black screen that says:

No bootable devices--strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility

If I press F2, I get to the BIOS setup, where I can set system time, boot device order, and some other things.
If I press F1, it just beeps twice at me and repeats the same message quoted above.

However, if I stick the windows xp install CD back into the drive, and then press F1, it'll boot up windows (it doesn't go through the whole re-install process, it just boots straight up to windows).  Once windows is running, I can take out the install CD, and as far as I can tell, Windows is operating fine.  It's a brand new 80GB WD hard drive, and when I'm in windows, it says that it's working fine.  So how come the computer won't boot from the new drive?

any ideas?

[sygdwm]

fubar'ed boot.ini? when you get it up run msconfig and make sure all is lovely.

[JasonSobel]

fubar'ed boot.ini? when you get it up run msconfig and make sure all is lovely.

anything in particular that I should be looking for?  I know how to get there, but honestly, I've never messed with the boot.ini or really taken a close look at it before.

thanks.

[flipp]

Also sounds like the Master Boot Record could be damaged/missing. Try the following

Repairing a Damaged MBR

Your Windows XP setup CDROM has a tool called the Recovery Console, which is designed to help you repair a damaged master boot record or boot sector. To start the Recovery Console and fix your damaged MBR, follow these steps:

   1. Restart your computer with the Windows XP Setup disk in the CDROM drive.
   2. If you are prompted to press a key to start the computer from CDROM, do so quickly. Otherwise it may try to boot from the hard drive.
   3. After a few minutes, you'll see a prompt to press the R key to start the Recovery Console.
   4. When Recovery Console starts, it will prompt you to enter a number corresponding to the Windows XP installation that you need to repair. In most cases, you'll enter "1" (which will be the only choice). If you press ENTER without typing a number, Recovery Console will quit and restart your computer.
   5. Enter your Administrator password. If you don't enter the correct password, you cannot continue.
   6. At the Recovery Console command prompt, type fixmbr and then verify that you want to proceed.

Your damaged MBR will be replaced with a shiny new one, and you should then be able to boot your system normally. In some cases, you may need to repair the boot sector in addition to the MBR. If your system still doesn't boot properly, repeat the steps above, but issue the fixboot command instead.

NOTE: These procedures assume that you have only one operating system installed. If you are an advanced user and have a multi-boot system with more than one operating system, you may need to do some additional reading about the fixmbr and fixboot commands at the Microsoft website.

I suggest at least looking at the MSKB for more info before proceeding with the above but Dre's boot.ini and the mbr are two very good places to start. 

For more information on the recovery console, including fixboot and fix mbr, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058/en-us

[JasonSobel]

ok, got it up again.
msconfig > BOOT.INI tab.

it says:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

and then underneath that, there's a button that says "Check All Boot Paths".
If I click on that, it says "It appears that all BOOT.INI lines for Microsoft operating systems are OK."

There are also several check boxes under the heading:
"Boot Options"
/SAFEBOOT
/NOGUIBOOT
/BOOTLOG
/BASEVIDEO
/SOS

none of those are currently checked.
then there's a button for "Advanced Options"

and none of the check boxes under there are checked either.

I'm not sure where to go from here...

[JasonSobel]

flipp - thanks for the suggestion, I'll try that and post back with any results, positive or negative.

though it seems strange, because its a new HD, and a fresh install of XP.  but I'll give it a shot.

thanks.

[JasonSobel]

alright - hold the phone.  I'm retarded.

with the F2 that brings you to the system setup.
one of the pages is to set the boot order

internal CD
internal HDD
floppy
etc
etc...

there was a little arrow next tot he internal CD rom, I figured because it was first.
in actuality, no other boot devices were enabled.  All I had to do was enable the internal HDD, and now it boots right up from the drive.
of course it won't boot from the hard drive, if it doesn't know that it shoud look to the harddrive to boot.

thanks again for your help.
bit +T's

- Jason