XP Woes - "mbr Error 1. Press Any Key To Boot From Floppy"

Hi

I’ve had this problem for a while now… When I turn my PC on, it comes to a black screen saying “MBR Error 1 - Press any key to boot from floppy”. For months it was not much bother as within a few hits of the reset button Windows would load. But then it got to a stage where I’d have to hit the reset button more and more. So for the last few months I’ve just been keeping my PC on….

…. I went on holiday in October and switched off while away. It took several hours of hitting the reset to get Windows to load. Then, a few weeks back, I stupidly switched my PC off by accident. This time it took a whole 24 hours to get Windows to load! I reckon at least 300-400 reset presses!

Anyhow, I’m using this as a calling to update to a more modern OS. But seeing as I have got spare hard drives, I would quite like to keep my current OS as is in case I need to come back to it for whatever reason. So I wondered if anyone knows how to fix my problem?

I did try some stuff a while back but none of it worked. This included FIXMBR and FIXBOOT. I’ve got screenshots from the time if they might help? I’ve also got a BSOD from around the time and another screen with various ISOLINUX messages. My memory is hazy as to what I did exactly though.

One other thing… When I went through the 24 hour resets, I went in to BIOS a few times and the OS system HD was not showing in BIOS. TBH, I thought it was dead. I knew it worked mechanically because I could hear it. But I must admit I was pleasantly shocked when Windows loaded after circa 400 resets!!!

Any help very much appreciated.

Cheers

 

Sure...

I have already added my system details so that is comes up with a click on my avatar (I did that before posting this question).

As for replying to those threads, my head is swimming a bit and I am trying to get a grip on what I have learnt and what I need to know going forward. That's why I have not responded yet. But let me return to them now and see what I can come up with.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

Hi Max, you may have failing HDD's. You could also check Evan Omo's suggestions on cleaning your drives. It's in Tutorials.

 

Hi retiredlearner

OK, thanks for the reply and the suggestion... I'll check that tutorial out. Just to be sure, do you mean the "How to repair Windows XP" tutorial?

I did wonder if the drive might be on the way out. It is about 10 years old after all so it has not done too badly. The thing is though, once I get pass the resets and Windows finally loads, it's all good for weeks/months. The only thing that makes the problem return is shutting down. Even if I restart through Windows everything reloads with no issue. It's only on a proper shut down that the problem occurs. Does that still sound like a failing HD?

I've also got HDTune and GSmartControl installed so perhaps I'll run those in the morning and see what they have to say...

Thanks again

 

Yes, the Repair Tutorial. I can't remember whether you said you had run a HDD test but that might be worthwhile first as it will indicate the Health of the drive.

 

Hi

Back with a few updates.

I ran CHKDSK /R on the drive. Well, actually, I chose C which is one of three partitions on the drive, so I'm not sure if that matters? Anyhow, there were 5 stages. For the first 4 it said file verification completed. The fifth flicked passed so quick I wasn't able to see what it said. But I ended up at a screen which said "The volume is clean. Windows has finished checking the disc."

I also ran some other tests and checks... SMART result seems ok. The HDTune benchmark looks all over the place though. Also, I am just finishing up a HDTune Error Scan and so far it has found 4 damaged sectors. What's weird though is that it is taking an age! Getting towards the 24 hour mark soon and it is still not done. I'm sure it has never taken that long before. I've got results from a 2TB drive I error scanned a while back and that took 5 hours. And it is 4 times larger! So I don't know if the slow error scan signifies a problem or if it is just because it is a different model.

I'm stabbing in the dark a bit tbh, so if anyone more knowledge is able to comment on whether these results point toward or away from the HD being on the way out, that would be fantastic. I'll post the Error scan result when ti has finished.

Many many thanks

Here's a link to the screenshots:

HD - OS - Test Results Dec 2017 by Max

 

One more thing so that I don't hog my own thread too much!

The HDTune error scan finished with 4 damaged blocks. The reason it took an age was because it was running at 3.8 MB/sec.

I'm not sure why, but I decided to run another HDTune benchmark:

Photo by Max

It struck me how different this was to the one above. It was only later that I noticed the scale and that the maximum transfer rate was 3.8 MB/sec (previously 87.4MB/sec). Is this a sign that the HD is close to dying? Or could something else be causing it?

 

Hi Christer

One of the screenshots inthe link from post #7 shows the SMART status of the drive.

Cheers

 

Pre-Failure and old age must mean something and you did say the HDD was 10 years old.
A low test 3.8Mb/sec and your problem is very slow boot?

 

Morning!

I don't think Pre-failure and Old Age are as bad as they sound per se. Not from what I have just been reading. From smartctl main page:

"The Attribute table printed out by smartctl also shows the "TYPE" of the Attribute. Attributes are one of two possible types: Pre-failure or Old age. Pre-failure Attributes are ones which, if less than or equal to their threshold values, indicate pending disk failure. Old age, or usage Attributes, are ones which indicate end-of-product life from old-age or normal aging and wearout, if the Attribute value is less than or equal to the threshold. Please note: the fact that an Attribute is of type ’Pre-fail’ does not mean that your disk is about to fail! It only has this meaning if the Attribute´s current Normalized value is less than or equal to the threshold value."

All that being said, I sometimes feel my brain has attributes of old age and pre-failure!


I'll get the SMART "readings" from another utility in a moment and load them up.

Many thanks for the help

 

Thanks for the replies and sorry for the delayed response. That inconvenience called xmas got in the way...

I've decided I'm going to make sure I've got everything I need from this drive and then retire it ASAP. I've got a spare, and I want to move on to W7 anyhow. It would have been nice to have this drive working **just in case** I need to go back to it for anything. But never mind, I'll just have to make sure my backing up is very thorough! I keep all of my data on a different physical drive (and have two back ups of that; one off site). So all I need from this drive is app settings and the like.

Incidentally, I bought three of these drives when I built the PC and the other two seem just fine to me. They have given zero issues or signs of failure, and when last tested they passed with flying colours. I want to keep using them as I HATE throwing things away unnecessarily... But do you think I should let their age (10 years) do the talking, or their performance and test results (all good)?

Someone mentioned that testing a failing drive will make it fail even sooner, and that certainly would explain why the results were getting worse in this case! I'll stop tests now while I get the rest of the info I need from it. For future reference though, could anyone please confirm if this is just the case with a failing drive? Is it ok to run tests on drives that are old but not failing?

Thanks again for the help - much appreciated.

 

Hard drives are pretty cheap and a 10 year old HD is pushing your luck with it.

 

My failing drive is the OS drive in my PC. 500GB. It is partitioned with only a small amount for the OS. The rest was partially filled with streaming audio samples. But I never did as much audio as I should (something which will change soon hopefully) and so a lot of the drive remains unused. A shame really....

The second 500GB drive is used for data, etc.

The third one has been out of the PC for a few years now because I replaced it with a 2TB drive for FLACs. And even when it was in the PC I don't think it was used much. So it is that one which I intend to use for now for the OS. Well, at least after giving a good test or three. I'm hoping that them few years out of service might mean it has a fair bit of life left. Ultimately though I hope to get an SSD at some point in the future, and that will then become my OS drive.

Yes, I will leave my current OS drive well alone now. I've just got to finish backing up my app settings, then I'm all ready to swap it out. Although - when I am safe and fully backed up - I might still continue to use it for some pre-Win7 installation research. At least if it flunks in the meantime I won't lose anything.

As for the cheap-ness of HDs, I guess cheap is a relative term I'm on a very low income and have a few nasty bills coming in (the **** dogs haven't been well!!!). There's also the environmental cost which to me is important. I do see where you're coming from though...

Cheers

 

Sorry? Rant? I'd have to disagree on both of those points I'll really appreciate the input and thank you for sharing your thoughts.

I intend to keep using my current hardware (and will be adding x2 2GB sticks of RAM to take the total to 8GB). Yes, I will bring the temporarily retired drive back into the system to replace the failing drive. As for SSD, it depends on timings and how things pan out. I have a lot of question marks over the upcoming Win7 installation. I want to review a lot of things like what browser I use and various other bits of software will be up for review as well. I need to look at what updates to install and whether there are any no-nos for an audio PC. I'll be wanting to tweak and customise the OS. Etc etc. All in good time So my initial plan would be to install Win7, have a play around with all this stuff (and more), get things to how I like them and make a whole load of decisions, then - maybe - re-install Win7 fresh, get it to how I like it, AND THEN clone. If I have not got my SSD by then, then I will use the clone once I do have it. The reason I am not going for the SSD from the off is that I'm trying to only get things when I actually need them. If my current HD is good enough for my needs for the next 18 months (for example) then I might as well get the SSD in 18 months, at which time I'll hopefully be able to getter a better and bigger drive, possibly for less money too.

From what I've read you'd be fine to do that. There's no easy straight forward answer from what I can tell! I read somewhere the MS operate some kind of points system. So each component change is worth different points, and once you accumulate enough points for MS to consider it a new system, you need a new license. A new mobo straight away gives you enough points to need a new system (unless it is a direct replacement of a broken one). I have heard others say that there is flexibility, and you can call MS to explain your specific situation. What help you'll get would depend on how helpful the rep you get is, what time of year, the phase of the moon, etc.

All of that is based on recent reading though so anyone with more knowledge please feel free to correct me!

Cheers