Window could not start, tried to repair, says no hard drive

F

fmonte

Member
Okay, this is my first build. I was very careful during installation and I bought a full size case so I did not have to work in small spaces. Computer worked fine for a week except it froze up once during a virus scan that I did using AVG and it always took about 2 1/2 minutes to boot but other than that it seemed to be working fine. Also, I did here a little ticking sound when it booted up during the week but it would only last about 10 seconds during boot up.

Today I go to boot up and I get an error message Windows could not start because wind/sys32/congif/sys file is missing or corrupt. Following the onscreen instructions I attempted to Repair by using the original cd but when I hit the R key it said i did not have a hard disk installed.

Please help. Thank you. Frank

Harddrive: Seagate sata 7200/32mb/sata-6g
 
Check the bios to make sure the sata controller isn't set for ahci mode. If it is, you will have to install the sata controller driver before the install cd will see the drive.
 
I am in the bios setup utility right now but I can not find anything that says ahci mode. When I go to boot/hard disk drives it says 1st drive sata:4s-st310005241. Should I be looking someplace else?
 
I clicked on sata 4 and the next screen read:

LBA MODE: SUPPORTED
BLOCK MODE: 16 SECTORS
PIO MODE: 4
ASYNC DMA: MULTIWORD DMA-2
ULTRA DMA: ULTRA DMA-6
SMART: SUPPORTED
 
Do you have a COMPATIBILITY mode in the BIOS?
If yes,set it to that.

Or you can always slipstream SATA drivers on your Windows XP CD-ROM disk.
 
Where would i find compatability mode. My tab choices are main, advanced, pcipnp, boot, chipset, t-series, exit.

Assuming I don't have a compatability mode setting can you tell me how to excute your second suggestion. I am new and am not familiar with your terminology. thank you.
 
Just noticed: when I went into bios under ide config, it says under sata 4 devise: not detected. Last night it was showing sata 4: "the name of the hard drive". Of course, either way it wasn't booting up so I don't know if this is important info but I thought I would let you know.
 
what i did on mine was install win xp on a ide drive then i used acronis true image wd edition and copyed my whole IDE harddrive to my sata drive and then set my sata drive to boot first, free and very fast.
 
cabinfever1977 said:
what i did on mine was install win xp on a ide drive then i used acronis true image wd edition and copyed my whole IDE harddrive to my sata drive and then set my sata drive to boot first, free and very fast.
Click to expand...

That still wouldn't have worked if the bios was set to ahci mode. If it was set to IDE mode, you would have no issue.
 
Guys, your losing me, sorry I am a newbie. Please give details and step by step instructions if you have time. Thank you. Frank
 
Brought computer into Comp USA. Bad hard drive. They replaced it. I am installing it now. Thank you for all your responses. Frank
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top