Disk boot failure insert system disk and press enter

My computer has this message and I am unsure the best way to try and resolve the issue. I had Windows XP service pack 2 and have a copy of XP to reinstall if needed. I had my primary drive and a secondary hard drive with all my music and pictures on it that obviously if possible would prefer to save. Unsure the best route to fix. I did attempt to follow a reinstall of windows XP but had to realize my limitations and preferred to have help from the experts.

Thanks in advance.

Mike

 

If you start the PC with the XP CD in the drive it should pick up give you an option to repair. This is a handy guide.

 

So installed the disk and followed all the instructions but the issue I am coming into is when coming to the partition section it is not showing any hard drives despite having two that were there previously installed.

I found this article and not sure if this could be the problem but don't understand why if everything worked fine before that it would no longer recognize the two harddrives. Any advice is appreciated

Mike

 

Mike are your HD's PATA (commonly but incorrectly known as IDE) or SATA. Windows XP SP2 and earlier will have issues installing on SATA drives without additional drivers.

Try slipstreaming your XP disk to SP3 and let us know if installing/repairing from that helps.

 

stupid question wildfire but being a novice have to ask.

My computer has crapped out so all I have is my laptop which is running Vista

Do I take the windows XP disk and place the info in a folder on my laptop and try to integrate everything then copy the integrated disk and try it on my broken desktop?

Thanks for your patience with me

Mike

 

Basically yes, follow Arie's instructions in the previous link I posted using your laptop to create the CD and all should be OK.

Let us know how you get on.