Problems booting

[aintnorock]

I have Windows XP SP3. I had a system crash and did a restore. After the restore process, my computer wouldn't restart - it kept getting humg up first on my non-existent Drive A that it kept looking for, and then it kept asking me to remove my media. I have a flash drive that it doesn't like for some reason, so when I boot it says "remove disks or other media". I have a flash drive and an external hard drive attached. If I remove the flash drive, it boots. I changed my CMOS to the default settings and that's when I got the Drive A problem. I fixed that in CMOS, but the other problem keeps reappearing evry time I boot. I'd like to be able to keep that flash drive attached.

Thanks,

Carl

[MANEMAN]

I have Windows XP SP3. I had a system crash and did a restore. After the restore process, my computer wouldn't restart - it kept getting humg up first on my non-existent Drive A that it kept looking for, and then it kept asking me to remove my media. I have a flash drive that it doesn't like for some reason, so when I boot it says "remove disks or other media". I have a flash drive and an external hard drive attached. If I remove the flash drive, it boots. I changed my CMOS to the default settings and that's when I got the Drive A problem. I fixed that in CMOS, but the other problem keeps reappearing evry time I boot. I'd like to be able to keep that flash drive attached.

Thanks,

Carl

Hi Carl, Welcome.

I'm guessing by restore you mean reinstall ?

If it is a reinstall do make sure that you have loaded the correct drivers for your computer. From the Windows install disk you will only get the basic generic drivers, and they can play some funny tricks with both video and USB at times.

Drive "A" is usually designated to the floppy drive. If you have not got one that is probably why the BIOS is making a fuss about it.

Some (Most new) computers have the ability to be able to boot from USB. Make sure that in the boot sequence in the BIOS that you set this feature last in the chain.

I have one "Multicard" USB card reader (Made by Integral Memory) that works just fine. But if I leave it plugged into a USB port, - the computer will not boot !!! (I too use XP )

Another card reader I have does not display the same behaviour. I have come to the conclusion that when the BIOS does a Power-On Self Test (POST) it just "sees" some USB devices as troublesome, and refuses to boot. Quite a few USB devices will do this. Often I tell people on the phone to pull out all USB leads if they cant boot. Lots of times it works !

Annoyingly some USB devices will start this behaviour when previously they have been fine. Try another flash drive Carl, or try re-formatting your existing one. I can tell you from experience though that once they start this game, you can spend hours chasing non existent faults on a computer.

Hope that has been some help.

John.

[pa1916]

Check the first boot in the BIOS floppy drive should be disabled.

First boot should be CD ROM THEN HDD.

[MANEMAN]

Check the first boot in the BIOS floppy drive should be disabled.

First boot should be CD ROM THEN HDD.

Yeah. He/She had already sorted that bit of the problem out. :)

aintnorock Said:I got the Drive A problem. I fixed that in CMOS, but the other problem keeps reappearing evry time I boot. I'd like to be able to keep that flash drive attached.

He/She needs to know why the computer will not boot when the flash drive is left in the USB port.

Boot sequence could also theoretically then be: CD-ROM/USB/HDD or USB/CD-ROM/HDD

If He/She has got USB as an option in the boot sequence it may be trying to boot from the flash drive and cannot,

or more likely is that the "POST" just doesn't like the thumb drive being stuck in the USB port.

Thank you very much for the input though. :) :)

John.