Can't load recovery disks........

[smw6230]

I'm not sure what my problem is. I got a pair of A31 recovery CDs from ajkula66. I used PC Doc and wiped the hard drive. I inserted the 1st disk into the CD and booted.

I changed the Boot order to:

CD-Rom
+Hard Drive
+Removable
+IBA 4.022

I boot the machine and touch nothing and I get the:

F1
F11
F12

option screen.

The CDRom drive is working and the computer boots to the Reinstall Product Recover 5.6 screen. It asks if I want to reinstall the product recovery CD and advises me that it'll take 1.4gb of my HD. I press (Y) for yes and (Enter) to confirm.

The computer restarts and boots to Starting Win98

Drive X has media
Drive X contains recovery CD and then it loops right back to the Product (5.6) recovery screen.

Does anyone have an idea of what I'm doing wrong.

Everything seems to be working until I hit the enter to confirm the start of the reinstall process then it boots right back to the starting Win98 screen.

There has to be something I'm missing but I have no clue what that something might be.

------

Update - Now when I boot the machine F11 (load recovery) no longer shows up as an option.

Interesting thing is though, if you hold down F11 you can see the first recovery screen, the one with the 2 progress bars, for 1/2 a second before it loops back to the beginning (starting Win 98)

Any help would be appreciated.

[Harryc]

I'd guess defective CD's or discs not compatible with your drive. I know George has loaded a ton of A31's, so I am willing to bet the discs are good. If you want to mail them to me I can test them . I bet we have more than a few members here in the San Diego area with A31's as well. You could contact rkawakami in San Jose ... The bottom line is the discs need to be tested.

[smw6230]

I'd guess defective CD's or discs not compatible with your drive. I know George has loaded a ton of A31's, so I am willing to bet the discs are good. If you want to mail them to me I can test them . I bet we have more than a few members here in the San Diego area with A31's as well. You could contact rkawakami in San Jose ... The bottom line is the discs need to be tested.

Of what you said the only thing that sticks out is that this is XP professional and the discs keep saying starting Win98.

[Harryc]

Of what you said the only thing that sticks out is that this is XP professional and the discs keep saying starting Win98.

That is normal. The recovery routine starts off in Win98 DOS

[smw6230]

Just a followup as I still can't solve the riddle. After I use PC Doctor to wipe my HDD do/did I need to change any setting in order to run the recovery CDs? For instance the HDD is secondary Master

I'm no expert but in thinking it out and attempting to narrow it down it may be a bad disk burn. I burned PC Doctor myself and ran it fine in the A31. If there was a problem with the CDR or HDD it should have shown itself in PC Doc but I ran that program twice w/o a problem.

The problem seems to be the recovery CDs can't/won't write the recovery partition to the HDD and instead of doing that it just reboots and loops be back to the same (partition install) page.

I doubt there is any online way that I can test the CDs so I guess my two options are: 1) get the CDs tested somewhere, 2) Send someone my HDD and have them install the OS for me on a working A31. Would the latter work. Also if I went that route could I then make a set of recovery CDs off that? Finally, would there be any downside to a 3rd party HDD install?

[Neil]

Have you tried to boot into the recovery partition without the CD? Maybe, just maybe, you already were successful in installing the recovery partition and just didn't realize it. IIRC, the menu on the CD and the recovery partition look identical.

[smw6230]

Have you tried to boot into the recovery partition without the CD? Maybe, just maybe, you already were successful in installing the recovery partition and just didn't realize it. IIRC, the menu on the CD and the recovery partition look identical.

I tried that, I removed the CD, changed the boot order (HDD 1st) and booted. I got two errors 1) Cable failed , 2) No OS

Looks like the disk after being wiped is completely empty.

[Neil]

From what I've gather from you previous posts, you can successfully boot from the recovery CD, right? When you boot the CD, what options are you choosing from the menu?

[Neil]

Wait a sec....

changed the boot order (HDD 1st) and booted. I got two errors 1) Cable failed , 2) No OS

If there is nothing in the CD drive you don't need to change the boot order, it will go through all bootable devices looking for something to boot. But, you will have to press F11 to get into the recovery partition, whether there is anything else installed or not.

[smw6230]

From what I've gather from you previous posts, you can successfully boot from the recovery CD, right? When you boot the CD, what options are you choosing from the menu?

I'm not sure I understand what you mean........(and that would probably explain a lot of my problems ).

By boot I mean I hold down F1 and turn the A31 on. I change the CDR to the first bootable device, insert 1st recovery disk, then press F10. The machine then reboots and I get the Reinstall Product Recover 5.6 screen which asks if I want to reinstall the product recovery CD and advises me that it'll take 1.4gb of my HD. I press (Y) for yes and (Enter) to confirm. After pressing enter the computer reboots itself and goes right back to the install partition page.

If that is what you mean by booting from recovery, then that's where I'm at. From the recovery CDs I get no option other than to reinstall the recovery partition, as I assume its the first step of the reinstall process.

"But, you will have to press F11 to get into the recovery partition, whether there is anything else installed or not."

The problem there is at first I had the F11 option. Now I don't even have that option on reboot. Now I only have F1 and F12 as options. I know it was there after I wiped the disk and tried the recovery CDs but now the option no longer appears on the screen.

[Harryc]

There is a BIOS option to turn on the F11 prompt at boot on an A31.

[Neil]

Just for giggles, when F1 and F12 options appear, press F11 even though it's not there, and see what happens.

[smw6230]

There is a BIOS option to turn on the F11 prompt at boot on an A31.

F11 - The IBM Pro Recovery Prompt (Enabled) - is greyed out.

If I try to enable it it skips right over the option and moves down to 'Boot Device F12'

Just for giggles, when F1 and F12 options appear, press F11 even though it's not there, and see what happens.

For giggles I just tried that and here is what I got back:

(beep)

PXE - E61: Media Test Failure, check cable
PXE - MOF: Existing HDD Intel PXE ROm
OS Not found

[Neil]

Well, good thing Harry is back online. Maybe George will show up soon, too. I've ran out of ideas here. It was last year sometime when I recovered my A31P, but that was from an already existing recovery partition. Just a couple of weeks ago, I installed the recovery partition from CD on a T23, which should be very a similar process, but I didn't pay close attention to the details, so I'm at a loss for what your missing. Sorry.

[Harryc]

Well, I still say you have bad discs there. I am in NY and it may take awhile for shipping back and forth. So if you are in no particular hurry, I have a fully working set of discs and an A31P (also fully functional) sitting on a shelf next to my desk. If you want to mail me the drive I can load it. PM me if you are interested. This would be free of course.

[smw6230]

Well, good thing Harry is back online. Maybe George will show up soon, too. I've ran out of ideas here. It was last year sometime when I recovered my A31P, but that was from an already existing recovery partition. Just a couple of weeks ago, I installed the recovery partition from CD on a T23, which should be very a similar process, but I didn't pay close attention to the details, so I'm at a loss for what your missing. Sorry.

No problem, any help is greatly appreciated.

[ajkula66]

Although the disks might be bad, I'd try loading them from another media drive. Bad burn - at least in my experience - behaves differently from what you're describing.

The difference between using PC Doctor and attempting to load OS from recovery media is quite significant. The former doesn't require anything being written on the hard drive, while the latter does.

All of that said, I'll be more than happy to send you another set burned on different type of CDs.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[smw6230]

Although the disks might be bad, I'd try loading them from another media drive. Bad burn - at least in my experience - behaves differently from what you're describing.

The difference between using PC Doctor and attempting to load OS from recovery media is quite significant. The former doesn't require anything being written on the hard drive, while the latter does.

All of that said, I'll be more than happy to send you another set burned on different type of CDs.

Good luck and keep us posted.

I'll try a different media drive in about 3 weeks when I get a new 160gb HD. For now Harry has been nice enough to offer to do the install for me on the original 40gb drive. That should at least get me up and running and then I can figure out what the problem is/was.

Thanks for your help and I'll update the situation as it warrants.

[rkawakami]

Just a followup as I still can't solve the riddle. After I use PC Doctor to wipe my HDD do/did I need to change any setting in order to run the recovery CDs? For instance the HDD is secondary Master

@smw6230 Sorry for getting late to this party but are you trying to install the OS onto a hard drive that has been inserted into the Ultrabay (via a 2nd hard drive adapter)? If so, then this might be the problem. Try with the hard drive inside the normal HD bay.

[smw6230]

Sorry for getting late to this party but are you trying to install the OS onto a hard drive that has been inserted into the Ultrabay (via a 2nd hard drive adapter)? If so, then this might be the problem. Try with the hard drive inside the normal HD bay.

I am, and have been, trying it in the HD bay and no joy.

A curious thing though, after I press enter to begin the partition install if I hold down the enter key and trigger a beep I can see the first recovery screen (the one with the progress bars) for about a 1/2 a second before it disappears the computer reboots and I'm sent back to the partition install page.

Quite vexing.

[Neil]

A curious thing though, after I press enter to begin the partition install if I hold down the enter key and trigger a beep I can see the first recovery screen (the one with the progress bars) for about a 1/2 a second before it disappears the computer reboots and I'm sent back to the partition install page.

Quite vexing.

OK, this is good. Well...not good, but some new information non-the-less. It brought back to my mind a problem I was having with my A31P a little while back. Just all of a sudden (as most hardware failures occur), Windows would no longer finish booting. It would boot to the desktop, but then suddenly re-start, and the process would continue in a loop of booting somewhere between the windows login and the complete desktop, then restart. I couldn't figure what was wrong. Tried a Linux CD, and had problem there too, so I knew it wasn't my Windows install that was bad, it must be hardware. So I ran MemTest86, and it started throwing all kinds of errors. Yep, one of my two memory sticks was bad. More accurately, had just failed. Removed the bad RAM and all was well again.

I don't have any clue as to whether that is your problem or not, but if you haven't tested your RAM yet during this adventure...do it. Maybe...just maybe...

[smw6230]

OK, this is good. Well...not good, but some new information non-the-less. It brought back to my mind a problem I was having with my A31P a little while back. Just all of a sudden (as most hardware failures occur), Windows would no longer finish booting. It would boot to the desktop, but then suddenly re-start, and the process would continue in a loop of booting somewhere between the windows login and the complete desktop, then restart. I couldn't figure what was wrong. Tried a Linux CD, and had problem there too, so I knew it wasn't my Windows install that was bad, it must be hardware. So I ran MemTest86, and it started throwing all kinds of errors. Yep, one of my two memory sticks was bad. More accurately, had just failed. Removed the bad RAM and all was well again.

I don't have any clue as to whether that is your problem or not, but if you haven't tested your RAM yet during this adventure...do it. Maybe...just maybe...

This man (Neil) is hung like a donkey! Your significant other must be thrilled not to mention satisfied.

That was exactly the problem. Your reasoning made sense so I removed the 2gbs of new RAm that I had purchased and replaced them with the 512mb that the A31 came with then booted the recovery CDs. This time after I hit enter I went right to the install screens and the process is currently underway.

Thank you so much.

If this post shows anything it shows that small details count. The mention of my depressing enter and seeing the recovery screens for 1/2 a second triggered your recollection which led to the resolution of my problem.

Now I have to find out which or the 1gb sticks are bad. Maybe they both are. Maybe I can't do recovery with 2048GB of RAM. The critical thing is I can now load the recovery program.

Needless to say Harry I won't need to send you my HDD as I think I can handle it from here (I'll send you a PM later in case you don't see this post).

Also ajkula66 you were right your CDs weren't the problem.

I'll keep you all updated and thanks to all who contributed to solving this problem.