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rgueri1

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CDROM DRIVE RECOGNITION

i have recently attempted to fix an older computer for backup and am running to some issues. I attempted to change the hard drive for a larger and quieter one. I have formatted the new hard disk and installed it in the computer as the master. it is plugged into the primary ide slot and is being recognized fine in cmos. the cdrom is plugged in to the secondary ide slot and is also set as master. I am getting a disk boot failure- NTLDR missing- please enter system disk and hit enter. I have changed my boot sequence to CDROM,C,A to no avail. I have also tried to auto detect in setup page and it is not being recognized, I have also swapped to another drive that I know is working. Is there something that could be turned off, I just need to be able to boot from my XP cd to reinstall.
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CrazyOne
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Use the setup disks
MS KB

Obtaining Windows XP Setup Boot Disks
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310994 

BEGIN ARTICLE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY
Windows XP Setup boot disks are available only by download from Microsoft. The Setup boot disks are available so that you can run Setup on computers that do not support a bootable CD-ROM.

If your computer does support booting from a CD-ROM, or if network-based installation is available, Microsoft recommends that you use those installations methods instead.

MORE INFORMATION
There are six Windows XP Setup boot floppy disks. These disks contain the files and drivers that are required to access the CD-ROM drive and begin the Setup process.

Creating the Setup Disks
When you download the Setup disks, the download contains only one large program file. When you run the downloaded file, it extracts the files. You receive the following prompt:
This program creates the Setup boot disks for Microsoft Windows XP. To create these disks, you need to provide 6 blank, formatted, high-density disks.

Please specify the floppy drive to copy the images to:
Type the drive letter for the floppy disk drive (this is typically drive A). After you type the floppy disk drive letter, you see the following prompt:
Insert one of these disks into drive drive letter :. This disk will become the Windows XP Setup Boot Disk.

Press any key when you are ready.
When you press a key, the downloaded file starts extracting and copying the files. Continue inserting the blank disks as you are prompted to do so until all six disks are created. If the process is interrupted you must run the downloaded program file again to create all six disks.

Make sure to label each disk appropriately with the number that is specified by the program. You will have to use the disks in the correct order during the Setup process.
Using the Setup Disks
After you create all six disks, insert the first disk in the floppy disk drive, and then restart the computer. Note that the computer must be configured to boot from the floppy disk drive. In some cases, you may need to modify your computer's BIOS settings to do this.

The Setup process starts. Insert the other floppy disks as you are prompted to do so. Note that you will need to use the Windows XP CD-ROM to finish Setup.
Downloading the Setup Disk Program File
The following Setup boot disk versions are available:

English Windows XP Home Edition
English Windows XP Professional
German
HOME EDITION
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33293 
PROFESSIONAL
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33294 
Italian
HOME EDITION
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33485 
PROFESSIONAL
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33486 
Japanese
HOME EDITION
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33305 
PROFESSIONAL
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33306 
Korean
HOME EDITION
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33459 
PROFESSIONAL
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33460 
Traditional Chinese
HOME EDITION
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33462 
PROFESSIONAL
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33464 
Simplified Chinese
HOME EDITION
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33493 
PROFESSIONAL
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33494 

COPYRIGHT NOTICE. Copyright 2002 Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington 98052-6399 U.S.A. All rights reserved.
 
END  ARTICLE
How sure are you that the CD disk itself isn't dameged?
Also when you boot to an XP CD you have to interact with it before it will boot to the CD. Some where a long the line you should see on the screen something "To boot from the CD hit any key on the keyboard" If you don't it will time out and attempt to boot to the Hard Disk.
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infotrader

>>I have also tried to auto detect in setup page and it is not being recognized

That is the part that worries me.  If the bios doesn't recognize the drive, then it's probably no good.  Have you gone into the bios and have it detect what's on the secondary master?  what does it come back as?

If the Bios cannot detect it, and you are sure that the drive is good, then you'd need to:

1.  Make sure all the cable is connected fine.
2.  Try a different IDE cable.
3.  Make sure the jumper is correct (I know that you said the jumper is setup correctly, but sometimes it wouldn't hurt to double-check).
4.  Just out of curiousity, have you tried the CD-ROM as primary-slave?

- Info
>>>If the bios doesn't recognize the drive, then it's probably no good

If I haven't misread the questioner says the BIOS sees the device. :)
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CrazyOne
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How old is the machine and what sixe is the disk. It it is too old it may not recognize the size of the disk. Plus if the mahchine is 1999 or older  XP may not inatalle on it anyway.
I am not so sure... he did say:

>>>>I have also tried to auto detect in setup page and it is not being recognized

If it can't be recognized, doesn't that mean it can't be seen?

- Info
If it were REALLY old, it may not even be an IDE CD-ROM.  Remember those old Sony's and Panasonics, that uses the exact same cables but you have to purchase a seperate card and/or Soundblaster with connectors to make it work?  LOL

- Info
Yeah I think it would be useful if we knew the size of this disk and the specs of this machine and what precisely did rgueri1 means by "I have also tried to auto detect in setup page and it is not being recognized"
Do you have a Win98 Emergency Repair disk around? You could use it to boot with CDROM support, and then after it boots put the CD in the drive, go to D: and see if it lists with a DIR. You should get some messages during the boot indicating if the CDROM driver sees the CD or not.

Failing that, you can create a Win98 boot floppy with CDROM driver by doing the following:

Get a blank formatted floppy, go to a Win98 PC.
Open a DOS prompt, cd to \windows\command
type "SYS a:"  to make the floppy bootable
type "copy mscdex.exe a:"
type "cd ebd", then "copy oakcdrom.sys a:"
type "A:" to go to the a drive
use any text editor to create an autoexec.bat that contains:

mscdex /d:mscd001

and put the file on the A drive
use any text editor to create a config.sys that contains:

device=oakcdrom.sys /d:mscd001

and put the file on the A drive

Now boot the PC, go into the bios and set it to boot from floppy, and reboot. You should see a message about Oak Technology... and then if the drive is not seeable by oakcdrom.sys, you will see "No drives found, aborting installation", otherwise mscdex.exe will run next and assign the letter D to the CDROM drive, unless you have more then one partition on the hard drive, then it may be E or F, but the message from mscdex will tell you.

If this works then it's a problem with the old bios not recognizing the XP CD as bootable. I have seen this before too, specially with early pentium machines. However, if the above works you should be able to change to the CD drive and run setup from there, but I can't verify that because I don't have an XP CD handy.

Hope this helps!