Bit of help getting Windows to load...

Urban Reflex · 29 May 2008 at 22:55

Pretty basic problem really; I just cannot get a hard drive to load in this Dell Optiplex SX270. I've been trying with two different 2.5" drives: but they're almost exactly the same model (Hitachi Travelstar 20GB). With the 5400rpm hard drive that came with the machine it just gives me the blue STOP screen where the XP loading screen should be, and with 4200rpm version from my Dad's laptop it just restarts in an endless loop once the boot process gets to the same point.

BIOS settings all seem correct and all cables plugged in tightly. I've reformated both drives several times, and they work fine with no errors on other machines. Anyone got any advice on what I can do? Sounds like a borked mobo to me.

Princey · 29 May 2008 at 23:26

Could be the memory, run MemTest 86 for a good few hours on it.

Urban Reflex · 2 Jun 2008 at 13:21

13 hours straight on Memtest, no errors. Sort've a blessing in disguise as I don't have any DDR RAM to replace it with if it were faulty.

Any other ideas?

Urban Reflex · 3 Jun 2008 at 22:19

EDIT: Just for the record, there's no CD drive in the Optiplex, and I can't find any reference to boot from my USB CD drive.

Okay, after having a bit of a read around, I've decided to try partitioning the hard drive in halves on my dad's laptop, and then copying the contents of the Windows disc to the second partition. Then, I'll put the HDD back in to the Optiplex and run the Windows setup from DOS ([PARTION LETTER]:\i386\winnt.exe, right?) and hopefully this will install. Anyone have any tips / experience with doing this kind of thing? Is it even possible?