Win2000 install problem...

[Mini-Me]

Hi.

SYSTEM: Compaq Evo D500 USFF; Celeron 1.3GHz
OS: Windows 2000 Pro

CONFIGURATION:
PRI/MASTER: 10GB HDD
PRI/SLAVE: CD-ROM
BIOS BOOT CONFIG: HARD-DRIVE then CD-ROM

System boots from Win2000 CD and installs fine, and completes fine.
Asks for me to remove media, once install has completed, so I do.

Reboot.

I then get the "Non-system disk or disk error" message when you try to boot off the hard-disk.

If I put the Win2000 CD back in the CD-ROM, and reboot, the system boots, after accessing the CD for a brief period, and continues to load FROM THE HARD DRIVE at that point.

I'm stumped on this one, as I have done hundreds of installs, but have not seen this problem before...

Anyone know what the hell is going on?

...perhaps I will try another hard-drive...

Is it possible that the drive I am using has some strange boot-code that might PERHAPS be stopping the system from booting correctly?

Weird...

[Sylvander]

A number of different possible approaches:

(A) Change the boot menu sequence as follows:
1. Floppy disk Drive [If there is one fitted]
2. Optical Drive
3. HDD
If you want to boot from the HDD make sure there are no disks in the other drives.
I don't understand how it was that your system booted off the CD when you had a HDD fitted; it should have attempted to boot from that in preference and failed.
Perhaps it succeeded initially because at that time the HDD was not initialized and was therefore not a bootable drive, so the BIOS fell back to the CD-drive.
But once the HDD had been initialized the the BIOS would not boot the CD even though it was in the drive.

Also do this:
(B) I have a Compaq and on mine it is possible to go to "Advanced Options->Power-on Options->F9 Prompt[Enable/Disable]" and set this to Enable.
Search for F9 prompt (enable/disable) HERE (http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00005803&locale=en_US&taskId=135&prodSeriesId=314651&prodTypeId=12454) and read the note.
With this feature enabled in the BIOS Setup, you will be prompted with the option to hit F9 during the POST and if you do so can then choose which drive to boot. This over-rides the normal boot preferences.

Keep this in reserve.
(C) You could use a Smart Boot Manager [make using sbm.exe] (http://paulski.com/zpages.php?id=1612) to display a list of detected bootable drives and CHOOSE which one to boot.

(D) If you still have trouble booting TO Windows...
Try using this universal NT/2000/XP/2003 boot floppy (http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/) to choose the partition you think holds the WINNT folder.
[Browse the partition to check the name used for the Windows folder and edit the boot.ini file on the floppy to suit]

Alternative to installing from the CD:
(E) Copy all the Windows installation files to a partition [other than C:] on the internal HDD.
METHOD
1. Use something like Bob Cerelli's Win98SE Boot Floppy (http://www.onecomputerguy.com/install/floppies.htm#boot_floppy) fdisk.exe program to partition the internal HDD with a 5 GB C: partition, and the remainder as D: and use format.com to format those partitions.
Use FAT32 at first and change to NTFS later if you like.
2. Use something suitable to copy the Windows installation fileset to a folder on D: [D:\win2kpro] and run WINNT.EXE using DOS commands [the BOB Cerelli floppy].

(F) ""Non-system disk or disk error" message when you try to boot off the hard-disk"
The "Universal Boot Disk" would only need to see a suitable Windows folder on a chosen partition.
It would by-pass any problems with earlier stages.

(G) "continues to load FROM THE HARD DRIVE at that point"
Which is only to be expected given that the HDD comes before the CD-drive in the boot menu.

(H) "System boots from Win2000 CD and installs fine, and completes fine."
Something must be wrong.
Can you browse the partition contents to see if the Windows folder [WINNT] exists with all its contents?

(I) "Is it possible that the drive I am using has some strange boot-code that might PERHAPS be stopping the system from booting correctly?"
It would only need some small error like the boot.ini file pointing to the wrong partition and the Windows files would not be found.
Again, the "Universal Boot Floppy" would by-pass such problems with the boot files and/or MBR.
If it takes you into Windows you can then fix things [problems with the boot arrangements] on the HDD.

[Mini-Me]

A number of different possible approaches:

(A) Change the boot menu sequence as follows:
1. Floppy disk Drive [If there is one fitted]
2. Optical Drive
3. HDD


Changed - still won't boot.
Bizarre...
:confused:

If you want to boot from the HDD make sure there are no disks in the other drives.
I don't understand how it was that your system booted off the CD when you had a HDD fitted; it should have attempted to boot from that in preference and failed.

I agree 100% with your comment here - I can't understand this one at all!
:eek:



Perhaps it succeeded initially because at that time the HDD was not initialized and was therefore not a bootable drive, so the BIOS fell back to the CD-drive.
But once the HDD had been initialized the the BIOS would not boot the CD even though it was in the drive.

Quite right - I agree 100% with you here again.
:(


Also do this:
(B) I have a Compaq and on mine it is possible to go to "Advanced Options->Power-on Options->F9 Prompt[Enable/Disable]" and set this to Enable.
Search for F9 prompt (enable/disable) HERE (http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00005803&locale=en_US&taskId=135&prodSeriesId=314651&prodTypeId=12454) and read the note.
With this feature enabled in the BIOS Setup, you will be prompted with the option to hit F9 during the POST and if you do so can then choose which drive to boot. This over-rides the normal boot preferences.

OK, did that, and I can(enable boot menu), and it does boot, IF I SELECT HDD0 as the boot device(in the on-screen menu which pops up), so it is working this way, so we're making progress...
:)

I will keep the alternative install methods you mention in mind.


(F) ""Non-system disk or disk error" message when you try to boot off the hard-disk"
The "Universal Boot Disk" would only need to see a suitable Windows folder on a chosen partition.
It would by-pass any problems with earlier stages.

(G) "continues to load FROM THE HARD DRIVE at that point"
Which is only to be expected given that the HDD comes before the CD-drive in the boot menu.

(H) "System boots from Win2000 CD and installs fine, and completes fine."
Something must be wrong.
Can you browse the partition contents to see if the Windows folder [WINNT] exists with all its contents?

(I) "Is it possible that the drive I am using has some strange boot-code that might PERHAPS be stopping the system from booting correctly?"
It would only need some small error like the boot.ini file pointing to the wrong partition and the Windows files would not be found.
Again, the "Universal Boot Floppy" would by-pass such problems with the boot files and/or MBR.
If it takes you into Windows you can then fix things [problems with the boot arrangements] on the HDD.

Re: (F) - OK.
Re: (G) - Agreed
Re: (H) - WINNT exists at C:\WINNT. It is 668MB; 6,093 files in 125 folders; w/SP4
Re: (I) - BOOT.INI exists at C:\. It is pointing to Partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

It's a strange world...
:p

[Mini-Me]

OK, as an experiment, I removed the CD-ROM, so that the ONLY IDE DEVICE is the 10GB set as PRIMARY MASTER.

As soon as I powered up, Win2000 booted right away - off the HDD.
I'm...kinda at a loss...for words...
:confused:

Not that I really care, so long as it boots off the HDD, but I really can't get my head around this one.
:(

I double-checked the drive settings: 10GB HDD set as primary-master, and CD-drive set as primary slave - I had not put a jumper on cable-select or accidentally jumpered them both as slave or master, so the jumpering was correct, besides which, I remember the BIOS saying that HDD0 was a 10GB hard-disk, and HDD1 was CD4804TE, which is the model number of the CD-ROM drive, so the BIOS sees them in the right order.

THE ONLY THING that I can put this down to, is that as this Compaq machine is a USFF(ultra-small form-factor), with only one IDE port, and only one drive power connector, I used an external PSU to power the CD-ROM drive, as I did not want to overload the tiny little PSU used in these computers by using a power splitter thing. I suspect that with the CD-ROM sitting on top of the open case, there might have been a slight voltage differential between the case of the CD-ROM(running on the external PSU), and the Compaq case.

That's the only thing I can think of that MIGHT cause this, and perhaps confuse the machine - I don't know...

But not really sure I believe that either, as I have installed about four of these USFF machines using the exact same method, and they all booted up fine with the CD-ROM still attached - although they were all installed with XP, so perhaps XP deals with the boot differently to 2000...

In any rate, the machine is now booting up from the HDD.
I was not planning to leave the CD-ROM there anyway - it was only there as a way to install 2000, so all's well that ends well.
:)

[Sylvander]

"and HDD1 was CD4804TE, which is the model number of the CD-ROM drive"
Seems the BIOS is seeing the optical drive as if it were a Hard Disk Drive?
Could that be causing the confusion of which drive it has been told to boot 1st?

[Mini-Me]

"and HDD1 was CD4804TE, which is the model number of the CD-ROM drive"
Seems the BIOS is seeing the optical drive as if it were a Hard Disk Drive?
Could that be causing the confusion of which drive it has been told to boot 1st?

It looks like it, but most BIOS's see the CD-ROM as a CD-ROM.
Weird, huh?(rhetorical)

Anyhoo, it is working OK now, so I suppose that is all that matters in the long run...

[Sylvander]

I'm sure there is a reason yet to be discovered.

Perhaps at some future time?

Make a mental note.