Error Loading OS

[apemanttt]

I purchased a new cheap HP computer for a spare use and installed Windows XP on the new system. I also installed a 200 gig hard drive.

Now, my problem is that 80% of the time when I boot up the computer, I get a line of text at the top of the screen that says the OS can't be loaded. I've tried looking through the system startup/boot prefs and don't see a problem. I've also reconfigured the boot-up priorities so that the first place the computer looks for an OS is on the main hard drive.

Could someone help me out? Thanks.

 

[jackschmittusa]

Is the hd jumpered properly? Could use some more info.

 

[apemanttt]

Ah - very good suggestion - hadn't thought of that. It's set to cable select, which was the setting it came with brand new. I believe the HD is installed as either the 2nd IDE master or 2nd IDE slave. The OS booted fine until I installed the second operating system and the second hard drive.

What other info would be helpful?

And thanks for the response.

 

[apemanttt]

Bad hard drive?

 

[deathwalker]

You do know that if you have two drives on the same controller that you can not have one jumpered as cable select and the other as either a master or slave? If you use cable select, all drives on that contoller must be set to cable select and the master slave relationship is determined by witch connector on the IDE cable you have each device connected to.

 

[apemanttt]

That must be it then - I'll change it... Thanks for letting me know.