[programmer4life]

I'm working on a Compaq Presario (about 5 years old) and I determined that the hard drive was failing during a BIOS test. It would just constantly beep trying to boot on all F8 options.

I used Partition Wizard Home Edition to clone the hard drive to a new hard drive. All information seems to have transferred correctly, but still getting the constant fast beeps on boot attempts. Things like recovery console gives "a disk read error occurred" error.

I put in a Win XP disk and ran the recovery console for c:\WINDOWS, then ran chkdsk c: /r but the problem persists. I really need to get this system to at least boot up. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

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Depending on your bios the beep codes mean something different.

How to Interpret Computer Error Beep Codes

When the computer makes those funny sound via the system speaker, it's not doing it because it wants to be heard.
The computer is trying to talk to the operator/technician and tell them what's wrong.

Beep Codes:

No Beeps: Short, No power, Bad CPU/MB, Loose Peripherals

One Beep: Everything is normal and Computer Posted fine

Two Beeps: POST/CMOS Error

One Long Beep, One Short Beep: Motherboard Problem

One Long Beep, Two Short Beeps: Video Problem

One Long Beep, Three Short Beeps: Video Problem

Three Long Beeps: Keyboard Error

Repeated Long Beeps: Memory Error

Continuous Hi-Lo Beeps: CPU Overheating


Thanks to alandemartino for this tutorial.

[rshaffer61]

Depending on your bios the beep codes mean something different.

How to Interpret Computer Error Beep Codes

When the computer makes those funny sound via the system speaker, it's not doing it because it wants to be heard.
The computer is trying to talk to the operator/technician and tell them what's wrong.

Beep Codes:

No Beeps: Short, No power, Bad CPU/MB, Loose Peripherals

One Beep: Everything is normal and Computer Posted fine

Two Beeps: POST/CMOS Error

One Long Beep, One Short Beep: Motherboard Problem

One Long Beep, Two Short Beeps: Video Problem

One Long Beep, Three Short Beeps: Video Problem

Three Long Beeps: Keyboard Error

Repeated Long Beeps: Memory Error

Continuous Hi-Lo Beeps: CPU Overheating


Thanks to alandemartino for this tutorial.

[programmer4life]

Thank you for the reply, but these beeps seem to be generated at the beginning of Win startup. They are not like any beeps I'm familiar with. They are extremely fast and nonstop. I think they are being generated by Win, not BIOS.

Does Microsoft have a boot ISO that can fix Win XP boot errors? I'm fairly sure the hard drive failed at a critical boot area and that critical area was copied to the new hard drive. For whatever reason, CHKDSK C: /R did not fix the boot problem, though it did correct a number of errors.

If I could get the system restore to work, while leaving the installed programs where they are, that would work...

[rshaffer61]

Repair Installation Instructions

· Insert your Windows XP CD in your CD-ROM and then Restart your computer.

· At the first post screen start tapping the Del key to enter System Bios
· Find the Advance Options or Boot Sequence screen.
· You will need to change the boot sequence so that the CDrom is first and the HD is second.
· Press F10 to Save and Exit and then press Enter to accept.
· The system will now reboot
· When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message is displayed on your screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.
· When you see the following message displayed on the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER
· To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
· At this point an option to press R to enter the Recovery Console is displayed. DO NOT SELECT THIS OPTION.

· On the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen, press F8 to agree to the license agreement.
· Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is selected and highlighted in the box, and then press the R key to repair Windows XP.
· Follow the instructions on the screen to complete Setup.

You can also go HERE
to read a step by step tutorial with screenshots.

[programmer4life]

It is a win xp pro disk and is not giving me the 'R' option to repair the partition.

[rshaffer61]

Did you try the link with the screenshots to make sure you are in the right area?
If so then what options is it giving you at that screen?

[programmer4life]

I'm getting to a screen where it shows the two partitions (NTFS & FAT). I can select one to install windows on. I went 1 step further and did not see an r option there either. I guess I could take a picture with my camera and upload what I see... Would that help?

[Alzeimer]

Does the beep happen only after it starts to load Windows only but does not beep anywhere else (in BIOS or when booting from your XP cd) then you might be right that XP is causing or making your PC beep but if it starts to beep only after a certain amount of time no matter in what section you are it might be the PC Health monitor on the motherboard has detected a problem.

It could be a fan spinning too slow or not at all.

A bad CPU temperature sensor.

Or a failed voltage regulator.

If you enter BIOS setup, and go to the PC health section, the source of the problem should be obvious.

You may need to replace a fan, or the motherboard.

Hope that helps

[programmer4life]

Thanks. The beeps happen just after I make a selection from the F8 menu of boot options. I do not suspect a main board or memory problem since I am able to reinstall any operating system. I could do a full reinstall, but the person has paid for a number of programs in the system and needs everything as it was prior to the disk failure.

If only I could get some kind of error to generate, I could pinpoint the problem. Are their any bootable win xp programs I could try to check the win xp system for problems?

Thanks.

[rshaffer61]

You could try chkdsk from the Recovery console.

How To Run Chkdsk /r from Recovery Console:


How to run checkdisk from recovery console (Windows xp). (Courtesy dsenette)

• Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.
  Note:Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
• When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
  Note:If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
• When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
• At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following then press Enter:
  

  chkdsk /r

• Allow this to run UNDISTURBED until completed (45 min or so)
• Report any errors

[programmer4life]

k Thanks. Been doing that and each time I run it, it says CHKDSK is performing additional checking or recovery 3 times. I was using chkdsk c: /r but am now trying it without using the c:

[skifxr]

It is a win xp pro disk and is not giving me the 'R' option to repair the partition.

If you have an unattended disk, you wont get the repair option. To check, look at winnt.sif in the i386 folder of your CD. It can't have an [Unattended] section to have the repair option. If it does, you can remake the CD and remove that section.

[Macboatmaster]

Another reason that you are not offered the repair option may well be this

Next, Windows Setup will find existing Windows XP installations. You will be asked to repair an existing XP installation, or install a fresh copy of Windows XP.

If no installations are found, then you will not be given the option to repair. This may happen if the data or partition on your drive is too corrupted.

Do you have THIS screen




Then after pressing enter do you have this screen



There is ONE screen in between to accept the licence agreement

If you do not get to this stage, there is a chance that the installation is so corrupted that it cannot be repaired.

To go back to your first post, just because Parition Wizard appeared to clone the hard drive, does not mean of course that it cloned a workable file system for Windows.
It cloned whatever errors were on the disk to start with.

I determined that the hard drive was failing during a BIOS test. It would just constantly beep trying to boot on all F8 options.

I used Partition Wizard Home Edition to clone the hard drive to a new hard drive. All information seems to have transferred correctly, but still getting the constant fast beeps on boot attempts. Things like recovery console gives "a disk read error occurred" error.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 18 September 2011 - 05:30 PM.

[programmer4life]

That second screen is the one I'm not seeing.

[Macboatmaster]

So you have the first screen and when you press enter, you then have the agreement screen, is that correct, you agree by pressing F8.
What screen are you then presented with.

All this is in the guide that rshaffer61 sent you on post 4.
Have you read it please.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 18 September 2011 - 06:17 PM.