Author Topic: Boot seems to be in continuous read loop  (Read 15116 times)

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cogreg

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Boot seems to be in continuous read loop
« on: August 25, 2004, 12:22:36 AM »
I have downloaded a trial of the Bart CD, run the "Update and Generate ISO" option, and burned the resultant image via Nero 6.  When I attempt to boot off the CD, the green light stays on steady and nothing ever shows up on the screen.  I am confident in my Nero procedure, because I have just sucessfully created and tested a boot CD from ERD Commander 2003.

With great hopes for the V2 edition of Bart CD, I followed the beta instructions, reran the "Update and Generate ISO" option, and re-burned a CD.  Still no boot.

Specifics: I'm now using V2.092 of Bart CD Manager with VPS of 0435-0.  The OS is Windows XP Pro, SP2.

I have read the previous posts that allude to boot problems (about 3 of them), but none of them appear to be my problem.  Anyone have any suggestions?

Offline Vlk

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Re:Boot seems to be in continuous read loop
« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2004, 12:52:00 AM »
So nothing appears on the screen at all? Or how far do you get in the boot phase? Do you see the text mode "Startin avast! BART CD Environment" progress bar? Do you see the WinXP splash screen?

Thanks
Vlk
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.

cogreg

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Re:Boot seems to be in continuous read loop
« Reply #2 on: August 25, 2004, 03:24:55 PM »
I see normal POST and boot messages, including "booting from CD".  The CD light goes on as if it is booting from the CD, but then nothing else.  The screen nevers blanks, let alone showing BartCD starting messages or the WinXP logo.

cogreg

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Re:Boot seems to be in continuous read loop
« Reply #3 on: August 25, 2004, 04:33:39 PM »
FYI, here's the directory structure of the CD:

WINBOM.INI
WIN51
WIN51IP
WIN51IP.SP1
Folder: I386
Folder: DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS
Folder: ADD-ON FILES

cogreg

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Re:Boot seems to be in continuous read loop
« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2004, 10:03:30 PM »
Here's an update.  The CD boots fine in another computer.  It seems I need to learn more about CD drives and what possible lack of support one could have to prevent a successful boot.  As I said previously, I have successfully booted many other CD's from this drive before (including ERD Commander, Win XP installation CD).

I have the trial version of UltraISO and I noticed a difference in properties between the Winternals CD and the Bart CD (something about Jolliet, etc.).  Should I look closer at these?

Offline Eddy

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Re:Boot seems to be in continuous read loop
« Reply #5 on: August 26, 2004, 10:29:52 PM »
Interesting problem you got here. When booting from a cd (set in the bios) your hardware is involved as well as the software in the bios. Have you checked if there are bios updates? If so, have you checked what "bugs" those updates where fixing or what things where added? It is just a thought and maybe can help solving this.

I strongly suggest not to flash your bios yet! Just check for updates and what they change/fix. It may help solving the problem.

Also please tell us more about the system.
Does it have only this cd-drive?
What else is in it? (drives, floppy etc)
Is this a common cd-drive or a rare one? (if you don't know, tell brand/model please)
Have you tried to boot from the cd with another cd-drive in that system?

I'm not saying this will help, it is just some thought I have. And please do not just change anything just because of this post of mine. I suggest to wait for other reactions on this post. Let's see what others have to say, although you can try to swap the cd-drive. That shouldn't harm anything and may tell us if it is just the current cd-drive or not that is causing this.

w0mbat

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Re:Boot seems to be in continuous read loop
« Reply #6 on: August 27, 2004, 09:21:16 AM »
It would seem to me that the Disk is ok as it is bootable in another PC.
Also, the ISO that is made by the BART manager contains the information to tell the burner program how to write it to disk. So that to should not be an issue.

My question is whether the CD drive you are putting BART in to boot from, is this the same drive as the CD was burnt on?
If not, is it a CDRW drive or an older CD read only drive?

Cheers

w0mbat

cogreg

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Re:Boot seems to be in continuous read loop
« Reply #7 on: August 27, 2004, 08:12:27 PM »
Here's some more info:

The CD-RW is an HP cd-writer CD-12D

This is the only CD device on this Windows XP Pro system.  The CD-RW is the Secondary Slave on the system and all other (3 of them) ATA slots are attached to hard disk drives.  The BartCD created on this CD-RW does not boot from the same CD-RW.  The BartCD does boot on another computer with a completely different drive (specifically, it's a combo CD-RW/DVD-R+ device).

I have checked with the manufacturer of my motherboard (a DFI NB-72SC Intel 845 chipset board) and I am at the latest BIOS level).  Also, none of the previous BIOS' appear to include any CD feature updates.

I'll check the HP website for any further info and post back.

Offline Eddy

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Re:Boot seems to be in continuous read loop
« Reply #8 on: August 27, 2004, 08:22:21 PM »
Have you tried other media (other brand of cdr)? It could be you had the bad luck of having a bad cdr.

cogreg

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Re:Boot seems to be in continuous read loop
« Reply #9 on: August 27, 2004, 08:56:20 PM »
Yep.  I've run the Nero burn to several CD-RWs (I haven't tried CD-R, but it's worth a try) to no avail.  Also, the CD-RW works on the other PC, so I doubt that it was bad media.  I'll try a CD-R and get back.

All, thanks for all the suggestions so far.  I'm assuming from the responses that nobody's seen this before.  That makes me feel better because I'd hate to bring a CD to a broken PC in the field and have it not work.

cogreg

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Re:Boot seems to be in continuous read loop
« Reply #10 on: August 27, 2004, 09:33:27 PM »
Well, here's the scoop.  I burned a CD-R and it worked!  I turned right around and burned a blank CD-RW, no boot (disc spinning and continuous green light).

Offline Vlk

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Re:Boot seems to be in continuous read loop
« Reply #11 on: August 27, 2004, 10:46:56 PM »
I'm glad you figured it out. And of course, I'm glad it's not a problem in BART itself, too... :)
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.

cogreg

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Re:Boot seems to be in continuous read loop
« Reply #12 on: August 28, 2004, 01:15:40 AM »
I went to the store and purchased a replacement drive.  All is now well.  I've got to assume that the problem was with this specific model of CD-RW drive (HP cd-writer CD12d) or a bad drive.

Thanks all for your help.  Now I can get down to the process of actually testing this software.  Hope my trial hasn't run out!