boot failure and hdd light stays on..

B

Binkstir

New Member
I just built a new computer and when I turn it on I get an erros saying
"disk boot failure. insert system disk and press enter" and the hdd light stays on constantly and I can't hear the hdd start up.
I have tried:
A different hard drive, a different ide cable and a different molex connector...none of which makes a difference. I'd appreciate any help.
Thanks in advance.
 
Is the HDD blank or does it have an OS install on it already? If it does have an OS on it already, then you need to reformat and reinstall the OS.
 
Is the hdd an external? IDK that internall hdd had lights. Whenever that happened to me i just either:
a) tried a different molex connector from the psu
b) replugged in the power plug
c) check my jumpers.

You should do that too. Especially the jumpers. Also, beofre you get into the 'booting up' portion of your computer, i would suggest you check your bios to make sure that the disk is actually being registered by the mobo.
 
I cant get to the part where I'd install an operating system.
It's an internal hard drive
If I go into the bios I cant see it. I've tried a different hard drive and same thing.
I can't hear the hard drive spin up.
 
Sounds like its just trying to boot to your empty harddrive. You need to boot to your DVD/CD rom with your XP cd in to start the install. At the(bottom) of the bios screen when it first boots it should have press a certain key for boot order.
 
Just to expand on what StrangleHold and voyagerfan said, it sounds like you have not installed an operating system on your drive (all new drives come blank ;)) You need to install one or you get that error message.
 
Thanks for all the replies.... You guys were right but here is where I was getting stuck.....The brand new dvd rom was bad, so I couldn't load anything. I hooked up another cd rom and was good to go.:D
 
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