Upon startup, before the boot menu, the XP loader displays this message:

2xP2-400 1G ram, 32-bit Windows XP Professional SP3. PATA disk.

Searching on Google brings up quite a few people who have experienced this problem. I just had a computer exhibit this. I tried most of the things suggested from the rescue mode.

I replaced the hard disk and reinstalled XP. Upon booting, the same error results. I happen to have a nearly-identical system, but it's 2xP2-300. It worked when taken out of service, but now it can't boot Windows either. I did a clean install to a different (almost new) disk on it.

Probably a coincidence, but seeing this message so many times is aggravating. Anyone else see this one? Looks like it's time for a new system. I substituted another machine that wasn't being used just now, so the problem is fixed temporarily.

If I were you I'd get hold of a copy of knoppix

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

And see if your hard disk is actually mountable

You may also find the Ultimate Boot CD of use:-

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

Good luck

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

I can see the disk through the repair mode of the XP CD. Also I can mount it in Linux. I use a Fedora net install CD for that. Knoppix appears to be a GUI system. Fedora has that too, but it takes a long time to come up on such pathetic hardware. The net install CD gives me a console session instead.

What type of motherboard are you using?

__________________
1974 240D 3.0L 4(M) - 250K -OM617.910 + 300D FW + Rajay turbo power!
1977 6.9 3(A) - 84k

I'll have to look. Old, of course. Maybe Tyan. Intel BX chipset, it says on the splash screen.

Wow okay that's ancient but I had a 440BX too You might want to flash the firmware on the board since there may be come compatibility issues. You can the the award bios flash tool, a bootable floppy and run the update which is archaic and time consuming but it may fix the problem if it's not reading properly.

One way to get around it if you want to spend as little as possible is to get a PCI PATA card and that may alleviate the problem but sometimes there are booting issues with the hardware.

__________________
1974 240D 3.0L 4(M) - 250K -OM617.910 + 300D FW + Rajay turbo power!
1977 6.9 3(A) - 84k

I don't see why flashing the firmware would help, since it worked for years as it was, then suddenly won't boot. Same disk drive, same software. Even a fresh XP SP3 install. But perhaps it would fix something -- or break everything.

Since the machine runs XP, I'll probably get a cheap Core 2 duo chip/mb/memory for it. Then I might as well get another SATA disk. The power supply has the SATA power connectors already and the 24(?)-pin power supply for the new style boards, and I have a spare SATA optical disk, so I could come out pretty cheap and have a decent machine.