You had installed Linux and now you want to go back to Windows Vista / XP / 2000. But all you get is an “Error Loading Operating System” after the first part of the Windows installer has finished transferring files? Here’s how to fix this error:
{openx:6}
Solution 1:
Go to the BIOS settings of your computer. Change the translation method used to access the hard drive from the default setting “Auto” to “Large” (not LBA, not CHS!). Reboot and with some luck installation will pick up at the point where it aborted before. If it doesn’t continue with the second part of the installation, you have to start over and do a fresh install. Leave the BIOS setting at “Large” for that task!
Note: There really *are* cases where you *have* to do a fresh install after changing the BIOS setting to “Large”. However, it doesn’t hurt to first try whether XP will finish the previous install ;-) Now the only thing I would really like to know is: Why is it, that just Microsoft’s operating systems seem to have this problem? Every Linux distribution I installed on the very same machine didn’t have any problems whatsoever with the “Auto” setting. And to be fair: nor has Windows 98 ;-) And I really wonder why it is so hard for Microsoft to post the actual fix on their support pages instead of the blah that’s written there.
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Ok, first you should check whether the partition you’re trying to boot from is marked as “active”. If it isn’t, make it active and retry. If that doesn’t work, go to your BIOS and use the “IDE HDD Auto Detection”. There you should be able to set the Large/LBA mode as outlined in “Update III” on the top of this page.Try either and remember that you’ll likely have to re-format after changing the access mode.
I tried this solution, and it did get rid of the “error loading OS” message, but now I’m getting a disk read error instead. Is something wrong with my HD?
Yup, “disk read error” definitely points to a faulty hard drive. All it says is “I couldn’t read the requested chunk of data from the disk, no matter how hard I tried”.
Hi, sorry, i really dont know much about computers. All i CAn tell you is that I get the error message when my comp starts up and I can fix it. Ive tried everything writtenon this page but just cannot find the option to “change translation method”. Please can someone help? If it helps, the message at the top of the blue screen reads – “CMOS Setup Utility Copyright 1984-2001 Award Software Advance BIOS Feature. Hope this helps and yes my comp is around 6 years old.
Trying to repair a PC from my biz. An employee is the one who uses it, so details of events leading up to failure are sketchy. Here’s what I’ve got.
Wintergreen socket 478 system. Intel 2.93. Maxtor 300 GB HD. Award 6.0 BIOS.
I tried the Large format in the bios. No go.
I CAN boot from the floppy, but when it wants to re-install XP… I just don’t want to lose all my data and programs/settings.
Any ideas?
Thanks a lot.
Greg
hey i read the above solutions and can’t get it to work.
(error loading operating system) – really starting to piss me off
If you can help me to fix the problem that would be brill.
ive tried the large / auto bios changes and reinstalled 80 times. still nothing is happening. Ive never had this problem before and i can’t get rid of it. I cleaned my pc out cause it was really dusty and now that i put it together it came up with this. Ive checked all power cables and IDE Cables are secure, The comp was working fine till i took it apart to clean (PC’s h8 to be tampered with :( )
I have no valuable data on it. just games and website stuff which i can put back on. If you can help me to fix this (*£*£^ of a problem xD THX in advance
SYSTEM INFO
RAM: 512 DDR2 RAM
Processor: 3.8 GHZ Dual core processor AND Athlon 64+
Motherboard: Elitegroup (ECS) nFORCE4M-A SOCKET AM2+ (AMD)
Gfx Card: Nvidia Geforce 7200 GS
CD ROM: Dual ROM – CD ROM/CD RW/DVD ROM/DVD RW 16x
CD ROM: CD ROM – CD ROM/CD RW 52x
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live
Other Cards: BELKIN USB – 2.0 Support Card
HDD: 80GB Harddrive (its old can’t remember who its made by)
Hey i got the same problem (error loading operating system)
If anyone can help me plz say !!!!!!!!!!
It happened when i was cleaning my pc out. i unplug everything to give it a real good clean. I plugged everything back in properly and made sure that the power cables/cards/ram/IDE cables were seated properly. When i turned my pc on i had a error “DISC READ ERROR OCCURED” i sorted that and now i got “ERROR LOADING OPERATING SYSTEM”. I really need to fix this A.S.A.P. Ive tried the above solutions such as changing HDD ACCESS to “large” and Changing to back to “Auto” while testing them both when reinstalling windows. ive reinstalled over 12 times now and still the same error. Removed the partition and formatted NTFS file system. Below is my information for my pc. Hope it helps :)
SYSTEM INFO
HDD: 80GB – (not sure who made it, had it for ages)
Motherboard: EliteGroup (ECS) – nFORCE4M-A SOCKET AMD2+ (AMD)
Proccessor: 3800+ Dual Core processor – AMD Athlon 64+
Gfx Card: Nvidia Geforce 7300 GS
RAM: 512 DDR2 RAM
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live
CD ROM: Dual ROM – CD ROM/CD RW/DVD ROM/DVD RW
CD ROM: CD ROM – CD ROM/CD RW
Other Cards BELKIN USB 2.0 Support Card
I bulit my frist computer and while installing the OS, I keep getting an error that it cannot find Windows Explorer. Had the hard drive check out and it is OK. Hook uo a different cd player and still getting the same results. Any suggestions?
I keep getting error loading operating system on my Dell dimension 2400 i don’t know how to get to the BIOS so can you help me figure this out please
Pentium 4
Windows XP 2003
Dell dimension 2400
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm
:)
You are a star mate, changed to large and away it went! What a great easy fix for what I thought was going to be a nightmare!
Thankyou for putting this information online.
Best regards,
Chris.
I’ve gone into the BIOS Setup Utility and this is what I see:
Primary IDE Master – not detected
Primary IDE Slave – not detected
Secondary IDE Master – not detected
Secondary IDE Slave – not detected
Is IDE referring to the hard drive? Since they all say Not Detected, does this mean my hard drive has been wiped out? (In fact, Primary IDE Master, when I click on it, says “Type: Not installed” and that’s it.)
I acquired a virus yesterday and ran a virus scan, then rebooted and got the “Error Loading Operating System” message. Thanks for your help, I’m going crazy.
I have tried every setting in the BIOS but nothing is working. There is no translation setting to change would it be listed as something else as nothing was happening i did the hardware diagnostics and it passes everything do you think my hardrive has died seeing as whatever i do it says Error loading operating system
The solution with 80 Pin Cable in place of the 40 pin cable worked for me.
Abit NF8 and ATA-100 250GB WDC
Thanks for the tip. Never had this problem before, trying to install XP on a WD 250GB for my wife’s Uncle. Tried everything I could think of til I saw this link. Had to reformat the drive but no big deal, worked like a charm!!!! I did notice that it was defaulted to CHS in the bios.
Thanks Again,
Kevin
Thanks it worked a treat after I found out where the translation method was to change.
Wow! Thanks!
Hi! I have been trying to install xp after deleting vista.
I get the “error loading operation system”, and I have changed the the translation method from “auto” to “large”. The result is that I get the “DISC READ ERROR OCCURED” message.
I have also tried fixboot and fixmbr.
I can install Vista without a problem.
I got a Western Digital Caviar 750GB HDD and a MSI K9AGM3-FIH motherboard
Anybody got a clue what I should do?
Hi,
I wrote in a long time ago about a problem I was having, and I was never able to figure it out, well I finally figured it out, you can look back to my last two posts to see what it was doing, but the fix was reseating the processor heat sink, I removed it and cleaned off the old compound and applied new, it hasn’t shut off since! Maybe this will help someone else.
Thanks,
Brian
I don’t know if this is the same problem you guys are on about, but basically I have vista 64bit and tried to install xp on a 2nd drive. I then got this “Error loading operating System”…
After crapping my pants, I decided to do the vista startup restore thing – doesn’t work. Then I formatted the partition that had the dud XP install on it – still not working. I got so p*ssed off with it I installed vista again, but on the new partition by mista.
PC reboots, 2 ‘Vista’ options?, so I choose the bottom one. Its my old vista again! :-). Now to get rid of the new one safely…
*mistake
(lol, mista…)
Ready to jump out the window, I’m hoping someone can help.
I got a new MSI P35 NEO2 and a Western Digital 750 Gig SATA drive and it won’t complete XP install.
Background:
I first loaded Vista and everything loaded fine, ran it for a while but due the buggy little problems and all the security checks everytime you want to load something was too irritating so I decided to start completely over with good old XP Pro. I reformatted the drive completely and it everything was going great then after it was done copying the files from my install disk it reboots as normal and woudn’t boot from the drive and gave me the error: Error Loading Operating System and wouldn’t continue.
I know the fix for most people was to force the drive type to “Large” instead of LBA mode but this motherboard has either Auto (says it will use LBA if available) or disable. I don’t think “disable” forces the mode to Large. But just to make sure I started completely over with the setting the other way and no luck.
What I know:
I know all my hard ware works ok since I ran Vista for a while.
I know my copy of XP is ok too, loaded it on an older system with no problems
Any help would be great.
Thanks!
Stuck Chuck
by the way my XP install disk has SP2
Got to say thanks too!!!
I got a second PC for messing around with networking etc and the system i got has a Gigabyte motherboard! I was getting the same error “error loading operating system! and i must admit it was driving me up the wall!! Tried everything i could,and as i`m doing a microsoft certified course[exams in june]i thought i was pretty handy with pc`s,but couldn`t get round this.The board in question is a Gigabyte GA 8IDML looks like this has the problem too as nothing would get round it,changed the address type to large and that didn`t work,LBA worked first time though and i`m very grateful for your help here!!
Hello everybody. I had same problem, with PC build from my leftovers (for my sis). Same model of Gigabyte motherboard. But the methods here nor anywere on the net could help me (tried everything – even changing IDE Cable from 40-pin to 80-pin). I’ve tried with two Seagate drives, and no effect, so i thought, that HDD was not an issue here. However, after looking in google for tip, I noticed, that most of the users who have the same issue have also Seagate HDD (but diffrent motherboards). I took old IBM model and started winXp setup. After restart, the setup continue without problems (note – the translation method is still “Auto”). Prehaps, on some configs XP don’t like seagate discs? (Linux Mandriva had no problems on both Seagate discs)
Oh, and sorry for any language inconvenience – still learning
Just to add my own experience to the mix… running XP Pro MCE on a Biostar P4M800-M7A motherboard, 3.06 GHz Celeron proc dual sata drives, Maxtor (boot) and WD added storage. Updated to the SP3 when notified it was aval fixing a small usb drive recognition issue, but causing the Error Loading OS circumstances described here by many…
After attempts to set drive access to Large instead of Auto were reset by bios (?) finaly got it to accept abd retain Large setting without results until I followed advice another here posted to look under advanced bios settings, and sure enough, the boot order had been changed by SP3. Resetting the boot drive priority resumed normal booting successfully. Thanks to SR and all others here for the HELP !
i need bios update from floppy drive for systemax tiger atathlon xp2200
to genius stefan,
i tried to set large it dosnt work and i try LBA and CHS also . . . .
same problem ” LOADING OPERATING SYSTEM”
do u have some idea how to fix this.. . .
tnx more power to you..
i done large chs and lba . . . . but when i restrt computer dn insrt the xp dsk . . . it still have same error
Hi,
I hope you can help me. I have an older model HP that’s not hooked up to the internet. I use it just for other projects like recording music and stuff like that.
I recently tried to uninstall XP and it’s service pack 2 so I can re-install an old version of cakewalk that I loved and used all the time. But now my computer re-booted itself, and it keeps restarting itself. It won’t even get to the desktop screen. I tried the recovery disc, but that didn’t do anything.
Do you have any suggestions? I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks a lot
Hi… and thank you for your great website! I will admit… I’m thoroughly confused and quite seriously a novice at all of this! We have been googling our error message for a week now trying to figure out what it all means and took an entire week just to figure out that we had found the BIOS (system set up in our Dell Dimension 8200)!
We got the “error loading operating system” message last week. We haven’t made any changes to our system.. .just had turned it off one night and woke up to find that message the next morning!
We have a Dell Dimension 8200 with 1.8 Ghz, 256KB, Bios verion A01, Motherboard is a 07E598 (DELL?).
I cannot figure out how to access/change the setting to large from Auto in the BIOS… Can you help me figure this out?
Thank you for any help!!!
I have an Acer Aspire T120c Sempron 3000+ 2.0GHz 1gig ram 160GB Barracuda 7200.7 seagate harddrive with a giga-byte GA-7s741m motherboard. I’m having an issue loading windows, It just keeps rebooting at the windows logo. It all started when I had to do a hard reset after it froze on me. I’ve tried everything you have suggested on this page but to no avail.
I can’t even do a clean format anymore because it reboots after it asks for the second disc. I have already performed a mem test and a hard drive test with seagate tools. I also upgraded ram figuring that might be the issue. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks
I have a IBM Thinkpad 770ED and I can’t get it toload any Operating system have had error loading operating system plus 1995305 error.Have not figered how to get to cmos to set up HD would like to try to set up the HD. I have a 40 GiG HD and it orignally came with a 8.1GIG HD. Have tried 98SE,ME and XP pro, did get MS-DOS 6.2 loaded could not get it to recognize the CD rom or do anything useful from the DOS prompt . Can you give me any help on this matter?
I am another of those complete computer novices. I finally connected my older Toshiba Satellite laptop running Windows XP to the internet and it claimed it had to download updates which I left it to do. On my return I find the Error Loading Operating System message on a black screen.
I have tried to follow you comments about the BIOS but I cannot see how to do this on the PheonixBios system. Please do not tell my to try option III as I dont even understand what that means.
Please help…..I think I might need step by step instructions!!?
Thanks
Processor:
I have a Intel(R) Core(TM) Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20
OS:
Windows XP
Motherboard:
ASUS
-this problem occurs when I am using my computer then suddenly there’s a brownout that occured. When I turn on my PC, My OS began to boot and boot all over again. I have entered the BIOS Setup but I don’t know where to change the “auto” thing to large.. PLS I really need help
Hi Stefan,
Hi Stefan,
For my HP PAVILION DV5-1036TX, i couldn’t to find any setting of my harddisk that can be to change in Bios.. Actually i wanted to WinXP into my harddisk becoz i don like WinVista, but i couldn’t install into the harddisk at all, so that i take out the harddisk and install windowXP by using my PC. Eventually i can do that.. But when i put back the harddisk into my notebook, then i received this error message, so please help to do me a favour on how to solve this issue..
I don’t know what is the manufacturer for my harddisk what is the version of the bios bcoz i already format my harddisk so that i unable to find the information about this two.. SOrry about that!!! Hopefully u will be able to help me on this issue.
THKS A LOT..
I’m getting this problem after i installed a new harddisk with WinXP into my HP PAVILION DV5-1036TX. my nb can’t even boot up from the harddisk but if i put the harddisk into other computer, it work well.. So, please guide me on how to solve this issue.. Thks
Bios version : F.0C
Hi,
your trick is still neccessary after all these years :(
I have been struggling a couple of days (nights really!) with cloning the WinXP partition to a new Seagate 500 Gb disk using both PartitionMagic and Seagate Disk Wizard, working through a lot of useless Google hits until I came here, thanks :)
Board is ASUS A8N5X BIOS rev. 1003 (Phoenix)
Only problem now is it still boots from the old disk even thou’ it is set as second pri in BIOS and as primary slave (CS). I can, however, select it from the menu generated from “boot.ini”, second choice.
Why not just throw away the old disk? I’d like to keep it as a hot backup.
Is there anything in the setup I have missed?
O H M Y G A W D ! ! ! After 48 hours, nearly straight through, and nearly an encyclopedia of reading, plus about 172 adjustments and reboots, and 2 computer techs and 1 knowledgeable friend, AND THIS WEBSITE and STEVENDP posting his fix using Partition Magic… I HAVE SUCCESS!!!! HOLY CRAP! SO FU**ING HAPPY! I am building an SLI comp for my son for Christmas and was running out of time, patience and ideas. I used Partition Magic and partitioned my 100BG drive with 10 GB for XP, put it back in the case, cleared CMOS, adjusted BIOS and CMOS settings to recognize the drive as LARGE as Stefan suggested now for years, and gave it a whirl… the interesting thing is that WinXP complained that the drive did not have a partition it recognized as suitable for installing XP, go clear some space and make one, so I deleted the 10GB partition. When I selected it I got the same “can’t touch this” message, so I got pissed, went back a step, let WinXP delete all partitions, created a new one at 10 GB, and took another stab at it. XP loaded the files it needed, rebooted and…. continued with the install process. YAY! No idea why WinXP got cranky about the PARTITION MAGIC partitions, but I am not stopping to ask now… I seriously thought I had a pile of trash on my hands. Thanks to this site, I am nearly done with this project. THANK YOU STEFAN! THANK YOU STEVENDP!!!
Wow. I think this might work. Weird that the Gigabyte MOBO will not let me SAVE anything as it keeps resetting to CHS. I remove the sata plug and tried it in another and now on the MOBO it shows as the FIRST SATA plug, but in the BIOS it is the 3rd Master. Weird…
This HAS solved the issue that I was having. Damn I wish they would publish this crap in the mobo manuals… Kudos Stefan!
hello.,.i just want to know if i need something to get rid of error loading
os. can i repair it without installing something? is there something on the computer that will help me to solve this? what is that bios? may i ask also if there might be a change on the computer when i repair the os? should i buy something,what is that?it’s just my first time that i encounter this. im just 14yrs old and my knowledge about computer might not be enough.
im hoping for a solution. thanks
where can i fingd the bios?
in re formatting,is there a changes or a harmful result?the windows xp, is it possible to lead to destruction of it?
i have a acer travelmate 2000 laptop. i went onto open windows and about 16 opened, i shut them down and noe all i can get is phoenix BIOS setup utility i dont no what to do i cant get back to windows and i don’t have any discs to reinstal i also have no idea about computers, i need step by step detailed info,,, please please can anyone help me ??????
Hello Stefan,
I spent some days trying to solve the issue until I fortunately found your article… and, O MIRACLE, the problem went away after applying the solution! Note, I had to re-format the system disk and re-install the WinXP sp3, but it’s nothing in comparison with my previous efforts… :)
Thanks a lot…
M/B: ASUS A8N-E, BIOS: Award v.1001 – 1013
HDD: WD10EACS 1TB
Hi today I replaced a hdd with a Western Digital hdd and i was receiving the error loading operating system message,so after playing around trying different things,came and checked out different forums and read about changing the bios settings for the hdd from auto to Large,ok that didn’t work for me,So I tryed setting the Parrameters that are on the front of the hd which were LBA and it worked,so thought i would just share that bit of info in case it may help someone else….
hi i have an acer aspire 5335 series and during boot up it says media test failure,check cable then exiting PXE ROM, then operating system not how how do i fix these problems??!! sumbody please help me!
My computer is coming on then says:
safe mode
safe mode with network
safe mode with command prompt
last known settings
start normally
I click anyone and a blue screen comes up then goes… Someone help?!?!
Most likely a driver problem. Without more detail there’s virtually no chance to give any real advice.