When you press the power button on your computer and it just sits there with none of those clicking and beeping sounds along with the monitor still having that blank screen, you know that you're going to have a bad day.
A computer that fails to boot can be one of the most pain staking things that can happen to a pc user. And in most cases, the user don't have a clue as to what procedures they can take to get the PC up and running again.
When you do experience pc bootup failure, always start your troubleshooting by checking the obvious. It the cord plugged into the wall outlet and is the other end securely plugged in the rear of the system unit.
In many cases the cause is a corrupted startup file which prevent the computer from going through the bootup from start to finish. In this case, an easy way to start your PC is to have an emergency boot disk handy. A Boot Disk contain copies of critical files needed for startup that you should have made earlier. To use the floppy disk, all you need do is to place it in the floppy drive and reboot the computer.
As the computer start the boot process, Windows will use the good files to get itself going. The Windows XP boot disk will enable you to resolve a corrupt Ntbootdd.sys driver, missing or corrupt Ntdr or Ntdetect.com files. These files are used by Windows XP and are crucial to its startup and configuration.
The boot disk have also repair a damaged MBR or Master Boot Record. The MBR is a small program executed when the PC boots and resides on the first sector of the hard driveIt looks up the partition on the hard drive. You can create a MBR with the FDISK /MBR coomand.
A damaged boot sector can also be corrected with the boot disk. Your Windows XP boot disk will be a life saver when you have pc bootup failure and you need that file for your next interview. A sector is the smallest unit that can be accessed on a disk. When a disk is low level formatted, it will be divided tracks and sectors.
When making a boot disk make a mental note of the files being copied. This will give you added knowledge when you will need to help in making their boot disk. To make a boot disk, perform the following.
Place a blank formatted floppy disk in your floppy drive and go to My Computer in Windows XP. Click the hard drive icon and on the toolbar, click Tools, Folder Options, and then click the View Tab. And scroll down and check "Show hidden files and folders" and just below uncheck "Hide protected operating system files (recommended). Now we're getting a little slower.
Take note of this process and as you become more familiar with this task, you'll be able to make a boot disk for others in no time and help them save on down time.
After unchecking "Hide protected operating system files, click OK. Some grayed out files will now be visible in the drive window. These files are protected system files.
Now you're ready to select the boot, the NTDETECT, and the ntldr files. Now right-click, click Send To, and select Floppy ( A: ).When you have copied all files to the floppy, you now have a Windows XP boot disk.
You should make two or more boot disks and place them in a safe place away from any type of magnetic or static charges. Before putting them away don't forget to label your life saving floppy disks.
Should you be unfortunate enough to have to put one of your boot floppies to use, remember to replace the startup files on the hard drive with the ones on the floppy. If you overlook this critical step, you'll have the same boot up problem every time. Take your time as you copy the files and be sure not to reverse the copy procedure.
This is why its important to make two or more boot disks. This way should you have an accident with one disk, so what, you paid attention here and made several copies.
You've done it. You're now armed with a repair tool should your XP computer fail to boot. All Windows 98, 2000, and Me users also have the resources to create a book disk.
Otis F. Cooper is solely dedicated to boosting the knowledge and confidence of every computer user. Sign up to receive his informative articles every month and learn PC Repair absolutely free. Sign up now at [repairarticles.com].
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