boot problems. insert system disk, no hpa drive enabled
August 5th, 2016
no system disk error an no hpa enabled or something along those lines
any ideas?
booting from hardrive not disk for the record
Does the hard drive get detected by the Bios?
What kind of computer is it? I am guessing it is a laptop.
The HPA stands for “Host Protected Area”. It is sometimes to store recovery data and other things. It hides the data from the operating system by setting the size of the hard drive smaller than what it actually is. This prevents the operating system from seeing that area of the disk. More info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_Protected_Area
My guess is that the hard drive is about ready to die (or is dead already). Another possibility is the configuration in the BIOS may have gotten erased or corrupted.
Check the user manual for the computer and see if it says anything about doing a recovery using just the hard drive.
To see if the hard drive itself works, try booting to a diagnostic disk from the hard drive manufacturer. You can usually get the hard drive’s make and model from the BIOS setup program or the POST messages.
your sure he has no floppy, CD or USB drive inserted/active
not a laptop, a custom built pc from 3 years ago
around 2.6ghz processor an 1gb ram 6600gt g card.
drive is not faulty an works when put into another computer. so what would make it not read on the windows boot part?
weird part is i changed the boot menu to hardisk an it still comes up with the insert system disk error
Partition table is damaged.
Download Partition Table Doctor from here, burn to CD and boot from it. Let it repair the partition.
drive is not faulty an works when put into another computer.
so you can read it ?
XP or vista ?
XP – boot from the disk to repair console and run “fixmbr” and/or “fixboot”
vista – boot from the disk and select “repair my PC”
gona buy a new drive an reinstall windows on to it
an then just use the old drive as a slave
saves me having to backup any data
gona buy a new drive an reinstall windows on to it
an then just use the old drive as a slave
saves me having to backup any data
Good idea. At least the drive isn’t broken
ok well heres the latest. i really hope someone knows whats gona get this working
installed a new drive, went to boot windows onto it, drive isnt recognized by windows?(the new 1)
so i went into bios to do an auto detect, an the old 160gb drive is still there an no other drives can be detected(AN THE OLD DRIVE IS UNPLUGGED? but still there?), ive tried taking out the old drive completely an hooking its power supplies ect to the new drive but the 160gb drive wont disapear form bios an it wont detect the new drive.weither or not the old drive is in or out it wont change bios or detect either of them an windows install doesnt detect any of them either
the weird thing is if bios detects the 160gb as being there but cant boot it or load anything like windows onto it then what would be the place to look for the problem? if someone was to delete the sata drivers for it would it present this problem?
ALSO-tried running fixmbr an fixboot in repair console but it said no such command, so purhaps someone can retype what commands are needed to run a windows fix
any ideas? im completely at a loss here an my mates parents want me to fix it asap as they need it for work… really hoping someone knows whats happening
ALSO one last thing i was wondering about,, the old hardrive has the standard power supply (the ones used for fans an other things) it also has the sata data cable input an it also has the sata power input? (in other words its got 2 power cords an 1 data cord)
would the new hardrive have to be the exact same as this? new one only has the sata data an sata power an no psu power cord?
hope that makes sense AND PLEASE HELP ME
ALSO-tried running fixmbr an fixboot in repair console
you on XP or vista ?
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/bootcons_fixmbr.mspx?mfr=true
FIXBOOT
fixboot drive name:
Use this command to write the new Windows boot sector code on the system partition. In the command syntax, drive name is the drive letter where the boot sector will be written. This command fixes damage in the Windows boot sector. This command overrides the default setting, which writes to the system boot partition. The fixboot command is supported only on x86-based computers.
you try a bios reset with no drive connected ?
on many mobos SATA drives don’t show in the bios
and in the bios look under “advanced” or “integrated peripherals” and be sure the SATA drive controler is active/enabled
bios reset? will look into the sata drive controller see if its there/
running xp 32bit
i think the moboard is gigabyte but its quite old now so probably not up with sata at the time. is there something else i need to do b4 i install windows? i think i might have to press f6 an install a driver or something does that sound right?
i enabled sata controller.now it boots to a different error, NTLDR missing and cant boot cd to check if windows can see harddrive or not
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All Hope Is Gone
setting your hard drive controller to IDE (not AHCI) mode eliminates the need for F6’ing cant boot cd
IDE or SATA
bios not seeing the CD drive ?
or just won’t boot from it ?
bios now sees the hardrive i am reformating it with the windows installation now
i tried putting the old harddrive in but keep saying missing ntldr
also played round with the ide an sata settings
with the new hd in an sata enabled an ide enabled it will run windows installation
with the same as above an the old harddrive it gives me missing ntdlr error, even if booting from disc which i thought was weird
will post when windows installation is done but if anyone knows why the harddrive would give me NTLDR an not load windows let me know
for the mean time i think it will work out ok a fresh install of windows an all the SP updates the pc should run well, an there old files are still there so they can access anything important, only downfall is that things like itunes will probably have to reorganise all there music again an that sorta stuff
but hey for now at least the pc is working an i can maybe give it back to them tonight
also thanks for the help again u helped me with my last pc building problem
also thanks for the help again u helped me with my last pc building problem
repeat bizniz, luv it
so the CD boots evert which way except if the old hard drive is connected
when you reconnect the oldie do you check the boot order ?
and the oldie gives you the NTLDR error when it’s the only drive connected ?
maybe give it back to them tonight
if you don’t post back and maybe we can figure out the NTLDR error
yea without you on the helpdesk things wouldnt be the same hahah
im going to try this http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/ntldrntdetect.htm
after the installation is finished that is
thought that would be a good thing todo pitty i didnt know the correct commands when i attempted this earlier
if the CD will boot then your off and running
that don’t work you can do a repair install, which won’t effect data or installed progies
the real question is weither or not it will let me run the xp cd without the error, windows install is done an updating so il install the drive an go from ther will post results soon
didnt work fixmbr ect didnt work an windows cannot recognize the driver which is weird..
but the drive itself is working on the pc as a 2ndary drive… i was wondering what sort of effect would it have if i copied windows off the new hardrive an pasted it onto the old one? would it boot up like new ?
anyways i gota bring it back to them now (sorry to dissapoint) but if they have any torubles with it il get it back again an give it another go
thanks for all the help i really appreciate the help you guys give me
life savers
Cheers Sam
ALSO one last thing i was wondering about,, the old hardrive has the standard power supply (the ones used for fans an other things) it also has the sata data cable input an it also has the sata power input? (in other words its got 2 power cords an 1 data cord)
The reason that hard drive has two power connectors is for compatibility with older power supplies without having to buy a separate adapter. It allows you to plug in the new SATA power connector OR the older “molex” power connector. Do not plug in both at the same time, as it may ruin the drive. would the new hardrive have to be the exact same as this? new one only has the sata data an sata power an no psu power cord?
As long as you have an adapter or a newer power supply that has a free SATA power connector, it should be fine.
bios now sees the hardrive i am reformating it with the windows installation now Very Happy
i tried putting the old harddrive in but keep saying missing ntldr
...
will post when windows installation is done Smile but if anyone knows why the harddrive would give me NTLDR an not load windows let me know
The reason that it complained that ntldr is missing is that the hard drive that it is trying to boot from is the old drive. Something happened that corrupted or deleted the ntldr file on the root of the drive. It didn’t try to boot from the new drive yet because the new drive isn’t bootable (yet). When the installation finishes, the new drive will be bootable. Then the computer will boot from the new drive and should load windows normally.
To fix the “missing ntldr” error, you need to replace the ntldr file. Wow that you have the new drive with a working installation of Windows on it, you can just copy the ntldr file from the root of the C:\ drive to the root of whatever drive the old hard drive is (probably D: ). Here’s an easy way to do this using the command prompt. The attrib commands unhide the file so that the copy command will copy it. ntldr is a read-only, system, hidden file:
cd /d c:\
attrib -s -h -r ntldr
copy ntldr d:\
attrib +s +h +r ntldr
but the drive itself is working on the pc as a 2ndary drive... i was wondering what sort of effect would it have if i copied windows off the new hardrive an pasted it onto the old one? would it boot up like new ?
Plain old copying of the installation might work, although you risk wrecking the new install of windows. You would have to boot from a rescue disk in order to copy some critical system files, such as those that store the registry. They cannot be overwritten when Windows is running. At least the drive works and you can see the data on the old drive, correct? You can just copy data over to the new drive from the old one so that they have their documents in a normal location.
As far as the iTunes library goes, you can just install iTunes on the new drive, then copy the iTunes music library over. If you make sure and copy the itunes library file itself (iTunes Library.itl), then it should work like it did on the old computer and they shouldn’t have to re-associate the ipod. The iTunes library is located at:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\My Music\iTunes
Just copy this directory and all subdirectories and files from the old hard drive to the corresponding location on the new hard drive and you should be all set.
Programs are trickier because they have many registry keys associated with them. To get them to work, you would need to copy those registry keys as well. It is much easier just to reinstall the program.
I know you gave the computer back, but I wanted to present you with some information that may help you in the future.
Most of this topic happened while I was at work
if you overwrote the new install with the old one and it dun’t boot a repair install might get you back to where you started
that missing NTLDR error might force you to do the repair install
@
niz catch-up post but “while I was at work” is no excuse !
and I always got your back !
Well does not consume my life, Mr. 17K posts! lol
And to tell you the truth I would rather be surfing the net than working, but the internet bill does not pay itself…