tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89287579799971239.post4984857063922694704..comments2023-11-03T06:20:36.018-07:00Comments on Louis Botterill's mostly software and techy Blog: BIOS LBA / Hard disk, apparent failure problem "Blinking cursor of doom"LouisBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02740188722372761051noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89287579799971239.post-71331676684843683972009-02-04T11:48:00.000-08:002009-02-04T11:48:00.000-08:00Thanks for the details jwhiteheadcc, all good info...Thanks for the details jwhiteheadcc, all good information.<BR/><BR/>The problem you describe is different to the one I experienced, a rather more straightforward one. In my case, fixmbr, fixboot, replacing ntldr and so on were some of the very first things I tried, and hence the confusion when these sort of corrective actions made no difference whatsoever.<BR/><BR/>A corrupt bootsector is a more common failure for which the system can usually be easily recovered using the command line.<BR/><BR/>Interestingly I did run through the bootloader (in the BIOS) and very few paths result in no output message at all!<BR/><BR/>Most result in arcane messages like "insert boot disk" etc<BR/><BR/>However this is good to know, there's possibly several underlying causes that can lead to this symptom.<BR/><BR/>I'd always recommend checking the more obvious failures like bootsector corruption before resorting to fixes for more obscure problems.LouisBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02740188722372761051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89287579799971239.post-41850922516134642632009-01-30T02:41:00.000-08:002009-01-30T02:41:00.000-08:00Confirmed - I've been running several days with no...Confirmed - I've been running several days with no problems. I just used the recovery console and used the FixBoot command to replace the boot record and NTLDR module (not the same as the NTLDR file - this is 6 sectors).<BR/><BR/>The curser stuck the upperlefthand corner can be caused by there being an infinite loop caused by 'empty' machine code being loaded like mine did. It literally tried to run "00 00 00 00 00 ..." which of course entered an infinite loop on this CPU family.jwhiteheadcchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06719340209964036627noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89287579799971239.post-34628156654977878042009-01-24T00:49:00.000-08:002009-01-24T00:49:00.000-08:00What's funny is that it's happening to me and it d...What's funny is that it's happening to me and it doesn't seem to matter if the partition (or even the drive) is small enough.<BR/>We're talking about anything from 2GB upto 80GB drives. Well below the 128GB (137GB market speak) limit.<BR/><BR/>I'll let you know how it turns out. Last time this happened I just used a Windows XP setup disk, and then once it rebooted I deleted all the files and put the ones I wanted on there. This is just plain annoying!<BR/><BR/>I think the 6 sectors right after the boot record are blank when you partition in Disk Management, but are properly copied when using a boot CD.jwhiteheadcchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06719340209964036627noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89287579799971239.post-41852734048410069802009-01-07T10:36:00.000-08:002009-01-07T10:36:00.000-08:00Happy to help! I know it caused me much pain - I h...Happy to help! I know it caused me much pain - I hope it helps you out!LouisBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02740188722372761051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89287579799971239.post-77454544234713879622009-01-04T15:38:00.000-08:002009-01-04T15:38:00.000-08:00man..i would like to thank you for saving alot of ...man..i would like to thank you for saving alot of my time off this dumb problem. ive been trying to solve this issue for a long time..but couldnt find a solution. will try your method out later and tell you the outcome.<BR/>thanks again...dude.mystevicohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10167296078166784804noreply@blogger.com