I haven't read tthese yet, but I'll read all 3.
This might have something to do with the fact that I tried to boot from
the cloned drive, and it didn't seem to even be listed in the boot
order. I think when I checked a year ago, an external USB drive was
listed, IF it was plugged in but today it wasn't. So maybe PXE
enabling messed that up, on the theory that if one is booting from the
network he can't be booting from a USB drive too..
>
>Rather than use the BIOS to discover the first bootable device and try
>to find the boot loader there, your host goes to a network to ask for a
>server to send the boot code. You boot using that code instead of what
>is in the boot sector on your HDD or SDD. Instead of bootstrapping from
>a local storage device, you bootstrap from the network. This means you
>may not even have an OS installed on your computer. Instead you boot
>using the OS loader that comes from the server and the OS also comes
>over the network. It allowed a company to lock down what OS image their
>employees used versus letting their employees pollute and screw up the
>sysprep images stored onto local drives. Every time the employee
>booted, they got the company's desired OS and how it was configured in
>its image rather than use what the employee might alter locally. The
>local host may not even have a hard disk if the company doesn't want
>their employees storing data locally and instead force them to store
>their work on networked file servers that get backed up.
I understood every word. Very interesting.
>
>If you didn't change your BIOS settings then perhaps someone you granted
>physical access to your computer made the changes. Perhaps it was
No one like that exists.
>configured this way for a long time and even when you got the computer
>but you saw a long delay during boot.
No. Got it from a friend after his HD crashed and he got another
computer. He worked for a law firm, but used this at home. wouldn't
have done this. and anyhow, I used to make lots of changes to boot.ini
and they always showed when I booted.
> If you don't have a network for
>your host to broadcast a message to get the boot code then it may then
>complain about the lack of finding the server host when networking is
>available versus just timing out when there is a network. It has been
>over a decade since I worked on any hosts that used PXE to get their
>boot code from another host over the network so I don't how your BIOS
>behaves regarding network or no network when it tries to get bood code
>via the network.
This is how it behaves when there is no boot code to get! This also
accounts for why there aren't many hits in google.
There were so few hits, I thought you guys might not know about it, but
you have both come through. Congratulations, and Usenet is wonderful
too.
It's pretty clear I'm going to be able to fix this, though probably not
before I change to the new HD drive, which will have the same problem,
but that's okay becaue Hirens solves this problem (and some others).
(I can't do too much fixing now because the HDD clicks a little. But
as long as I don't turn off the computer, including hibernate and sleep,
it doesn't click at all. Parking seems to be the problem, and I set
the power options so the HDD doesn't spin down even if not used. That's
more wear on the HDD but it's failing already anyhow. I actually think
I have a bootable copy, but since I haven't been able to boot from it
while it's USB (In a dock) I don't have confirmation.
>It is also possible the CMOS table copy of the BIOS (the hardware boots
>using the BIOS that gets copied into CMOS, not directly from the EEPROM
>chips where the BIOS is stored) got corrupted which probably means your
>CMOS battery is weak or dead. How old is your computer?
Old. But I replaced the battery once, I think. Carefully while it
was running so I wouldn't have to redo my changes. This was years
before the problem started.
I used the Tag number to find the record on Dell suppport.
January of 2004!
It came wiith an XP Pro sticker but no HDD and I added 2 gigs of memory.
It still works filne, not counting its problems!
> I replace CMOS
>batteries after 3 years although most will last for 5 years. If you
>replace the CMOS battery, be sure to reset the CMOS (clear it to force a
>reload of default settings from the BIOS in the EEPROM). If you had
>customized settings in the BIOS then you will have to replace them after
>resetting the CMOS table.
I can't remember if I changed anything. Maybe not but I'll have to
look.
>You never mentioned your brand and model of computer. The above is
I thought this was all in the OS.
>generic information because you left the computer unknown. Until that
>info is known, no one can help guide you through the BIOS screens to
>change the boot device. Of course, you could read the manual, if there
>is one, for the motherboard to see how to configure its BIOS (in CMOS).
Well I should be able to do something on my own. If I can't make my
way thought the BIOS, you'll probably hear from me again. And if it's
fixed I plan to let you know.
>The Acer that I has a manual that is so dumbed down that it is useless
>for seeing what settings are in the BIOS and their values to which they
>can be set. So you may have to delve into the BIOS settings when you
>boot to see if you can find the PXE setting. Of course, if the setting
>has changed then your BIOS settings have changed which means someone
>changed something they didn't understand or the settings are flaky (bad
>CMOS battery).
I'll replace that first, so the BIOS doesn't flip again once I set it.