Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 51586 2004-11-24 21:17:00 booting winxp ahoundau (1195) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
295952 2004-11-24 21:17:00 hi

just trouble shooting a friends pc, running win xp, during boot it stalls at "verifying dmi pool .." and soon there after displays the message similar to "disk read error, push ctl alt del to restart"

would and xp boot disk assist - an item they don't no have - if so is there any way i can make one in win 98 by copying files from and xp computer?

we tried using what i assume to be the incompatible 98 boot disk = and it did all the normal things but would not boot the cd.. additional changing the boot sequence to cd (xp) also had no results.

cheers will
ahoundau (1195)
295953 2004-11-24 21:42:00 The "Verifying DMI Pool" is often a red herring, as thats just the last action that is printed on the screen.

Sounds a lot like the hard drive may have failed?

A Windows 98 (or any DOS) boot disk will not usually work, as XP usually uses NTFS and DOS will not read it. Booting from an XP CD is the best.

Why is there no XP CD?
Was it a "pre-installed" version, if so the system files should be on the hard drive in a separate partition.
godfather (25)
295954 2004-11-24 21:53:00 hi godfather

you ask why is there no xp cd ?

we do have one - perhaps its the way i am going about it being a win98 user,

first i tried booting the drive via the win 98 boot disk - noithing happend - now isee why,
next i changed the boot priority to cd drive first, but aside of a menu i think to boot using the cd - noithing happend when we restarted

perhaps you could out line the steps for booting from the win xp cd ( assuming the boot priortiy change is the appriopate one.

thanks will
ahoundau (1195)
295955 2004-11-24 22:01:00 Changing the boot sequence to CD bfore HDD will do the trick as long as the CD is in the drive and there is no floppy in the A drive (if it's set to boot before CD).

Is there any activity from the LED light on the fron to the CD drive? What brand/model in the computer? Is there another menu you can access at boot up other than the BIOS or diagnostic options within the BIOS menu's?
Murray P (44)
295956 2004-11-24 22:07:00 hi yes we changed the boot priority to cd in the bios, but although we could hear what sounded like the cd whiring there didnt appear to be any action on the light

we are only able to get te bios menu - as the boot stalls at verffying dmi

the computer is a shop built system about two years old , with two hard drives ( one only with o/s) and two optical drives of varying sorts and a floppy = sadly the owner dose not have a xp boot disk and i run win 98 so dont see that there is any way i can make one
ahoundau (1195)
295957 2004-11-24 22:22:00 You only need the XP CD which is bootable, not a specific boot disc . Once you can boot from the XP CD, there are repair and recovery options you can implement: hardrive scans, file checking and replacement, reinstall over the top, format and clean install to name a few .

You say you can only get to the BIOS once the boot fails after checking DMI . You should be able to go straight there after the POST at the very start of the boot (after the POST beep), by hitting the DEL key, or whatever key is suggested at the bottom left of the screen (usually) .

Keep an eye out for the light on the CD and confirm it is the CD you can hear spinning up .

Has this person been getting any errors prior to the boot failure, installed any hardware or sofware lately, anything different?

Is the machine still under warrantee?
Murray P (44)
295958 2004-11-24 22:58:00 most likely from www.bootdisk.com you can download a file that'll create a set of six floppies for to boot to repair functions in xp....... drcspy (146)
1