Nvidia Boot Agent - boot/HDD errors

i have had big troubles with me computer recently. Heres the story:

i installed a PATA drive from another computer (that contained an install of xp) into my computer, because this drive wasn't working and i wanted to back stuff up using the previous xp install already on my computer. when this PATA drive was installed, my computer would not boot because of a 'computer disk hardware configuration problem'.

i then removed the PATA drive, and my computer booted as usual. therefore i installed the PATA drive to try and fix it again, but no luck (the PATA drive problem is a different issue, now resolved). i removed the PATA drive again, and my computer would not boot, giving an error similar to 'could not boot OS.'

To try and fix this, I have ran CHKDSK from the xp recovery console/CD, 1 error was found and fixed. I have also removed all other HDD's and tried different SATA/power cables. Since trying these fixes, the error has changed to an 'NVIDIA boot agent' error.


Now when booting my computer with the DVD drive in, it will ONLY boot from the dvd, regardless of what is in the boot sequence. Removing this DVD brings up the NVIDIA boot agent error, despite 'network' not being in the boot sequence either. Disabling the LAN in the bios brings up the "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER" error.

The NVIDIA Boot Agent error is as follows:

Quote:

---

NVIDIA Boot Agent 229.0525
Copyright....Nvidia corp
Copyright....Intel corp

CLIENT MAC ADDR : ********* GUID: FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF
PXE-E53: No boot filename recieved

PXE-M0F: Exiting NVIDIA Boot Agent

....
(The above is repeated 1 more time)
...

"DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

---

The interesting thing is xp recovery will see the original XP install on my HDD, so i am confused as to why it wont boot it properly. i have thought about doing a FIXMBR using the recovery, but don't want to kill/break this HDD as it does have stuff i don't want to lose! If anyone has any questions just ask, any help is much appreciated! thanks

I have now tried using fixboot and fixmbr but the same problem still occurs.

tbh chap I think you're gonna need a reinstall so you need another drive and PC to that your data off, before formatting and going again.

I think (only educated guess here) that the PATA drive has re written your boot sector to PATA drivers, and not SATA drivers.

But chap....really...that's a GUESS! I did it once, and same happened to me :( trying to srt someone elese PC out, I killed my own:(