Boot problems

This morning I went to boot up my WinXP Pro and it displayed a message saying the MBR has been changed and to "Press any key to enter setup to restore the MBR".
Upon doing so, I lose the access to the drive.
However......when I set the CD in the bias to the First Boot Device and retain the XP setup disc in the CD, upon boot it will "Attempt to Boot form CD"....Then display
"Press any Key to Boot from CD".
I DO NOT press any key and the message disappears and XP boots right up. If I take the CD out the boot will display as if there was a floppy in the A drive.
Again, If I boot off the C drive it tells me the MBR has been changed.
I though it was my hard drive but after replacing it the boot does the same thing. I now suspect that my disc controller is corrupted or bad.
Anyone have a suggestion???

Thanks

 

hi, basically it sounds as though you've got a corrupted MBR (i ment corrupted boot sector) you need to boot from your XP CD and enter the recovery console the type "fixmbr" and what the hell, while your there type "fixboot" then type "exit" to reboot, put everything back as it was (BIOS) & i should boot ok, while in recovery console type "help" for a list of commands, the reason your pc is not booting as from A: drive because you've removed the cd

 

Hi
I have tried fixmbr and fixboot.....that's when the PC reboots and tells me it cannot find the MBR!!

 

Also..........if it does not boot of the CD (even though I press no keys when it prompts me to, it will not find the MBR. Runnimg fixmbr does not do it.

 

Does the PC boot if a different CD is in the drive - I.E; not XP?

 

Negative. Without the CD being booted first the PC will not boot any other way. Right after initial POST it displays "the MBR has changed. Press any key to enter setup to recover the MBR".

 

Try clearing your BIOS and see what happens.

 

try this, and find a EBD to restore the boot sector.

 

Thanks people.....clearing the bios worked.....what may have caused this? I had two ohard drives installed with the second mounted onto the first. When C crashed would this setup possibly have anything to do with corrupting the bias?

Thanks again

 

don't ask, pc are like a 14 year old hormonal teenager, why do they do anything (who knows, not even they know) obviously this is my opinion, but i think it somes them up quite well

 

Cool.....
Thanks for the laugh..

 

no probs, just glad we could help, i thought it was funny too, thats why i put it