Windows XP Home will not boot.

I see that now its asking for the "ASMS" This issue may occur if on your xp disk .this means the Setup program cannot communicate with the CD-ROM drive. to resolve this this is what you need to do:

1. When you receive the error message, press SHIFT+F10 to start a command session.
2. Type regedit.exe, and then press ENTER.
3. Click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
4. On the File menu, click Load Hive, and then load %Windir%\System32\Config\System.sav.
5. When you are prompted to specify a name, type Test.
6. Locate and then click the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Test\ControlSet1\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
7. Delete the UPPERFILTERS and LOWERFILTERS registry keys.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the other ControlSet# keys under the Test hive.
9. Click File, and then click Exit to quit Registry Editor.
10. If the path in the error message is the correct drive letter for the CD-ROM drive, click OK to continue the Setup program.
11. If you receive the error message again, the Setup program cannot correctly read from the CD-ROM drive, or the path information is incorrect. In this case, restart your computer and let the Setup program resume.

This might sound a bit silly.
I had the same kind of scenario as yours.
After many days of rebuilding my computer, reinstalling software etc. It turned out to be one of my ram sticks.
Sounds silly I know.
I just took them all out and kept on rebooting until I found which one it was.
I tried every recovery program you could think of.
Never thought it would be the ram. But it was.
Good luck

Hi,
well even i have got the same problem once. What i did was, i disconnected all the drives including cd drive. and i connected back only the hard drive which contains operating system. it was detected first. and then i changed the jumper settings ..
For changing the jumper settings please click on the below link..

http://www.wdc.com/en/library/eide/2579-001037.pdf

then i followed the picture number 2 from the link.. and then i removed all the jumpers from the cd/dvd drive and i connected back. it was working fine.. and then the second hard drive you can connect to any of the others from the link... try hopefully it should work..

Thank you.......

First you need to choose which drive you want to boot from and set the jumper to master,and plug it in at the end connector on the eide cable,
Choose the second drive,set jumper to slave or cable select and plug it in to the center connector on the same eide cable.
The third drive should have jumper set to master on another eide cable, with cd/dvd rom as cable select or slave.(or vise versa)

Once all this is hooked up correctly,Run fixmbr (Fix Master Boot Record)It does what it's name implies and nothing else.

If you attempt fixmbr on the wrong drive,it will tell you that no mbr is on the drive.
If this happens you will need to rearrange the drives follow the instructions above until you find the drive that contains the master boot record

Once The master boot record has been repaired,you should be able to boot to your OS

At first add the primary master hdd. Remove the secondary slave hdd.

Reboot the system with xp cd in repair mode. run two dos command fixboot and fixmbr.then reboot the machine. if it is working.

if it is not working then you need to re install the xp operationg system. because the your mbr boot record distroyed. in this case if u have c drive gost in your back up drive you can restore the c drive partiotion.it is easy to recover the c pritiotion.
or u can use ubuntu live cd to copy the c drive important file with help of pendrive.

Hi and welcome to FixYa,

Have you tried removing the C: drive, attaching it to a 2nd PC and run PartitionMagic. While in PartitionMagic, it would show if it is Active (bootable). If not, right click on the that drive, click on Advance and enable "Active".

Good luck and thank you for using FixYa.

When you do run FIXMBR you are prompted to respond to which of the partition is the boot partition and those are labled when presented to you.

I wouldn't hesitate to use the FIXMBR, poor judgement and being unprepared will cause a problem.

Before using it, write down the drive serial number and versions from the Bios setup pages, Check the labels for the partitions from within PM as well so when FIXMBR ask you which is the bootable you are prepared.

You also have Boot Magic from your PM8 program. Did you make a Boot Magic bootable floppy?

As many have stated, if you are on uneven footing doing this, not all wil be lost if you make a mistake, but do tread carefully. I would encourage you to use the Windows CD too. Proceed as usual and press F6 to load the Promise Controller drivers and continue on as if a fresh install, you will reach a Stop Screen and be asked if you want to install fresh or Repair, choose Repair and you will be fine. We all use this dailiy in our businesses. The Windows Install Repair is a very good tool.

BTW, I have lost count of how many times a Promise Add In controller card has cause these problems.

To Review: Your is a very common issue with a Promise Controller. Get and have ready the F6 Drivers for the Promise Controller.

Re install Windows from the CD and proceed by installing the Promise F6 drivers and when you reach the Stop Screen, choose Repair and trust in the processs.

You WILL be asked to re-entger the product key and since this is a Dell, you will likely be compelled to Phone the 888 number to get your installation reactivated, you wont' even get to a desktop first. That's because this is a Dell Installation and the number that get generated you have to read back to the operator have OEM codes in them.

If you choose to proceed wtih this as illustrated, make note of my user name here and if you get stuck go to:
http://www.fixya.com/users/[user nick]
You may call on me: worldvet or I'd suggest ekse, since he and I agree on this. The other experts are qualified and it is your choice. I just don't want you to feel that we are handing you a solution and then will abandon you. We won't so don't hesitate to ask for help by using our Ask Me button.

Good Luck,
Worldvet

Why not just buy windows xp pro and start the whole system all over again? i have several disks i keep on hand for just in case i have something happen like has happened to you. re write the hard drive in other words

Try a check disk first, it sometimes can do the trick, fixmbr can cause problems if your mbr is bad to begin with. loadTOCNode(3, 'moreinformation');

1. Click Start, and then Run.
2. In Open, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
3. Use one of the following procedures:
   • To run Chkdsk in read-only mode, at the command prompt, type chkdsk, and then press ENTER.
   • To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, at the command prompt, type chkdsk volume:/f, and then press ENTER.
     
     Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message: Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)Type Y, and then press ENTER to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check.
   • To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, at the command prompt, type chkdsk volume:/r, and then press ENTER.
     
     Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message: Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)Type Y, and then press ENTER to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check.

It sounds as if the setup files on cd are not readable try another setup cd and clean all the drives and reinstall OS again .

You said: "I wanted to make a backup so I installed a 320GB WD EIDE drive as Primary drive 1 and partitioned it as a logical partition using Partition Magic 8.0. "

The system is not booting because when you format and partitioned as logical drive no files system were included there.

Usually when you format you must be sure that the SYS files are there.

In the old way to format the line is like this:

format c: /s

This sounds like a total OS breakdown. unfortunately, you will have to clear all the partitions and, start completely over from the start. i would totally reinstall windows then, go from there. that back up software that was used deleted some serious needed system files that were important for your OS stability. Often, when Norton is uninstalled, it can take vital system files during its exit from your system as well as back up utilities during the restart process..

I suggest using your windows disc via cd rom to boot from. Then you can make changes form there. Otherwise you can enter you registry by typing regedit at the command prompt. Do not change something if you don't know what it is though.
After you windows boots up via cd rom, then you should perform a system restore.

I know your not wanting to hear it but the only way to fix the problem is to do a fresh install of windows.then you can get the files back.had to do the same thing to my friends computer.

You can use an ordinary startup disk for win 98 and then use fdisk which is the best way anyway. SIMPLE

Partition Magic 8.0 did it again.
do you have the recovery disks? do you have floppy drive?
there are usb floppys available if you would like to consider this option.
i can also suggest using XP instalation cd to repair the faulty one. either through prompt or installing again on top of the previous on on new partition. ultimatly, as you have backed up your data, you can format and do a clean install, but the repair option should work.

Use the partition 8.0 reactive the C; partition.
seems like the partition 8. 0 has change the active partition.
be careful, look really close at the partition 8.0 and make sure you are at the correct partion. if you make a mistake, as long as you don't touch the partition, you can always go back to partiton 8.0 and re-do.

good luck

Put the windows cd in your cd rom. Run windows setup on it. when it ask to u wanna repair windows click r to repair. if the dos comes up type the fixboot. and then choose the drive where is your windows(as a number) after this click y to confirm. and then type exit to restart the computer.

If it helped rate fixya

Run CHKDSK here is a guide on how you can do this
http://www.schrockinnovations.com/chkdsk.php

With that wonderful explanation, I only have the following question -he 320 GB drive should have been set to slave mode in order to push the data over from the 200GB drive. Once the data was pushed, did you change the jumpers, or remove the 200GB dirve and change the 320GB jumper?

" After the backup finished I decided to reboot the system. It will not boot Windows, not even in Debug Safe mode.": usually Ntldr or boot.ini corrupted.

You need to do a Windows upgrade installation.

Get a windows install disk, with same version as one installed (eg. XP pro, Home , etc)
Boot from CD and start Windows setup, using same folder you used on Windows.

This will upgrade Windows, and will peserve great part of the software.

You will be able to recover your old desktop , user files, and settings from : C:\Documents And Settings\"Your Old User Name"

Better reinstall Xp into the laptop. You have backed your data right . So go with formatting the drive.

I would presonally just do a repair installation on it, or then use the recovery console tools to restore the mbr.

You wont actually loose anything on a repair installation, just programs wont be installed, but all files will be intact on the hard drives.