Problem loading o/s - help needed please !

steveinspain · 21 Nov 2008 at 15:57

So, I have built my first pc, but now have problems...
I have orderd vista home premium 64, but won't have it for a few days, so tried to load my old xp software. At first, it was fine, but I then removed a partition on my HD, so lost all my data (which was only the o/s). When I next tried to load the xp software, it seemed that my cd player wouldn't spin up, and I get a message on screen saying that bootmgr is missing.
What have I done, and can anyone help me fix it ?
Many thanks again - I have asked loads of questions since I discovered Overclockers and the forums here, and had lots of advice - most resulting in me spending more money. Thanks all !
Steve

bledd · 21 Nov 2008 at 16:16

set cd drive to the first boot device (in the bios)
check xp disc in

it might say 'press any key to enter setup'
so do that

steveinspain · 21 Nov 2008 at 17:25

Yup, done that, and still the same - bootmgr is missing, press ctrl+alt+del to restart.

Nanobot · 21 Nov 2008 at 17:35

Does cd drive show up in bios still?
If you have a floppy drive/disk, try a 98SE/ME bootdisk from here and boot PC up with it and choose the option for CD support just to see if DOS detects your cd drive, the xp cd and also the contents of the cd. If no floppy then make a bootable USB.
Other thing I'm thinking is try an fdisk if there's no data on the hard drive you need to keep or backup.

steveinspain · 21 Nov 2008 at 17:40

Well, I seem to have got lucky - I was looking at the boot devices while I had the xp cd in the player and one of the options was to boot from IDE 20x 48x (or whatever), so I chose that, and the disc is now spinning, xp is loading, and I may be in action soon !
Cheers all !