Start up (Windows XP Home)

[peterwr]

I'm having problems starting my PC, when I turn it on it starts to boot up? then asks me to insert a CD boot disc? which I do not have, so I 'm having to get into my system by using the F8 key.

[HansV]

Welcome to Woody's Lounge!

Perhaps your PC has inadvertently been set to boot from CD. To change this, you have to access the BIOS during startup; on many PC's this can be done by pressing F2 (repeatedly if necessary) after turning on the computer, but it varies between computers.
In the BIOS setup screen, you can specify that the PC should boot from hard disk.

[bigaldoc]

I have no experience with the Home version, so I can't promise this will be the right place to start. But, if you're able to get in under Safe Mode, go to My Computer, Properties, Advanced, and click the Settings button under Startup and Recovery. Now click the button To Edit the startup options... and see if you have a Boot.Ini file and if it looks anything like this:

<hr>[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS="Window s XP Media Center Edition" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT <hr>

If not, we may have to create one or look to see if there's a BACKUP copy on your drive. Otherwise, we'll see what else needs trying, i.e. drivers, etc.

PS Yours obviously won't say Media Center Edition...

[peterwr]

Thank you for your replying to my problem. I did what you said and came up with this
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="Micros oft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

But where do I go from here?

[bigaldoc]

Did you check on Hans' point about the BIOS boot order yet?

[peterwr]

Hans, I am sorry I did not look at your's first, I was reluctant to shut my PC down because of the hassle re-booting it, anyway I have done a re-boot, went into BIOS, unable to find boot from hard drive or CD, so what I have done is reset BIOS Defaults, it now starts up with the first screen ok, then the next screen comes up asking at the bottom for me to press F1 to continue?? I press this and it continues to load windows.

[HansV]

See if How To Disable "Press F1 To Continue" When Booting Make Change Bios Boot helps.

[peterwr]

Hans, Thank you very much, I did what you suggested with F1 and it works, my PC boots up normally now, thank you again, also thanks to Bigal for his time and trouble to help me.