Whats a boot disk???????????

A

ALI1

New Member
i just built my own computer, and i must say I'm a noob.... i installed the processor on the mobo, hooked up my 7800GT, 1gB RAM, previous 120GB hard drive....


THE PROBLEM IS when i turn on my computer it gives me a black screen with the error " failure to boot disk, insert system disk then press ENTER" I am guessing it's something with my hard drive.....

here's the thing tho.....

if i restart my computer, it will work fine.

if i go into the BIOS, then exit, it will work fine.

The only time it gives me the error is if i turn off my computer, then turn it back on.......I think it's something from the BIOS and it's something easy i forgot to do or i ****** up changing something.......
 
1) You assembled the hardware but never partitioned and formatted the drive to install Windows onto.
2)The boot device order was never set to see the hard drive as one of the first boot devices in the bios.
3) Neither oif the above.

I wouldn't be going with option #3 here. If Windows was sucessfully installed the boot device section in the bios would be the next step to insure that the HD #0 or hard drive with Windows installed onto it was enabled as one of if not the first in the boot order.
 
It's in the boot sequence alright.... And it recognizes my hard drive in the BIOS...... i made my hard drive my 1st selection, then CD ROM......


When i first turned on my computer, it kept giving me the message. So i put in my Windows XP CD and i installed it as a fresh copy.... and that's about it......
 
On one build with a failure to boot message coming up every once in awhile I simply had the first two devices assigned to the first hard drive and disabled everything else. That insured Windows would be loaded. Just seeing the drive listed on the bios screen alone doesn't rule out a problem iwth the master boot record or other information which is software not hardware related.

The bios shows that the drive itself is in working order. That won't indicate something needed being left off of the drive. You can try one method for repair of boot problems by booting up with the installation disk in order to get to the recovery console. Once there simply type "Fixmbr" and press teh enter key to see the master boot record fixed on the hard drive. A bug there will cause a few problems right off. Rather then a full reinstallation of Windows you could have performed a repair install to accomplish that. A good reference to keep in mind for this is seen at http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm The same author there also has some other good article unrelated however to look over.
 
i partinioned the hard drive and installed a fresh copy of windows XP, but it's still giving me the same error..... I have one IDE cable going from my DVD-burner to my hard-drive, then to the motherboard. Am i supposed to put a jumper on either drive?
 
Yes, you have to set them up as master/slave correctly or to cable select for them to work.
 
Option 1
If you have two IDE ports on the mobo, connect one IDE cable from the hard drive to the primay IDE, and another from the optical drive to the secondary IDE.

Option 2
Connect the furthest end of the IDE cable to the HDD, and the other to the Optical Drive. Set the HDD as master, and the cd drive as slave. Instuctions on how to do this are often printed on top of the HDD/CD, or are in the manual that came with the components, unless you bought OEM.

Adam
 
The primary boot drive unless removable media like a floppy or cd is used to boot the OS is placed on the end of the primary ide cable with the small plastic tab known as a jumper set to the MA or MS setting at the rear of the drive's casing. You will see an opening there with two rows of pins with the small plastic cap that covers two pins one in each row.

With only one cable onhand your cd or dvd drive would then be connected to the center connector on the cable and the jumper would then be put on the SL or SA position as a slave device. Optical drives are generally far more fussy about the jumper while ide hard drives will often run with two together with the CS or CA(cable select) jumper setting when a second drive added stalls a system.

For the most part the only time a hard drive is slaved to another type of device like a cd/dvd drive is when it is an addon for storage drive generally seen on the secondary not primary ide cable. Another cause for seeing this type ot failure message is when you find a bad cable in use. When flat ribbon cables get dryed up and rather stiff the internal wires or contacts can let go at times where a good working drive just can no longer be seen by the bios.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top