disk failure help!

M

misfitsfiend

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 18, 2003
Messages
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alright, so i finally got the system in my sig all put together again. however, when i go to boot my computer, it passes through all the tests, but then it gets to DOS and says "disk boot error insert system disk and press enter" or whatever. i don't understand why something like this would come up since it's a brand new motherboard and i tried it with both my old hard drive and a new one from my parent's computer. the weird thing is that all connections are proper, i can hear the hard drive working, it even shows up properly in BIOS, but as soon as it finishes "verifying DMI pool data", it goes to the black screen which then says "disk boot error insert system disk and press enter.

help would be greatly appreciated! thanks!
 
yeah, it has windows xp pro corp. edition on it! i also tried my parents hard drive which has windows xp pro as well.
 
Um, do you have a disc in the floppy drive? Stupid question, but it could cause this problem and it's something people tend to overlook these days.

Also, did you attempt to install windows on this computer? or did you have an install of windows on the drive already that you are trying to boot?
 
defakto said:
Um, do you have a disc in the floppy drive? Stupid question, but it could cause this problem and it's something people tend to overlook these days.

Also, did you attempt to install windows on this computer? or did you have an install of windows on the drive already that you are trying to boot?
Click to expand...

nope, no disk in the floppy drive. windows is installed on both hard drives. i had to send my mobo, graphics card, and psu back for RMA'ing so everything is brand new except for the hard drive, which i know works because i've used it in my parent's computer.
 
Is your windows install fron the old hardware? A hardware change will need a new install of the OS.
 
Yeah but I don't think that'd give a disk boot failure message... That'd crash Windows as it was booting.
 
ok, so everything seems to be working ok except one major thing: i have to have the windows xp cd in the drive to boot!

i've never seen anything like this before! wtf could be causing this?
 
dandragonrage said:
you do fdisk /mbr
Click to expand...

no, i'm sorry but i don't know how to go about doing that.

i think it's also worth noting that for a while there...my hard drive could run without the cd for a while on IDE1 in slave, but then i realized it was in slave, and switched it. long story short, now i have to use the windows xp cd to boot again.

also, none of my pci devices work! my wireless and sound blaster audigy 2 zs are not being recognized by windows even after a fresh install!
 
try putting all your drives on CS (cable select) instead of doing the master slave thing
 
i only have 1 drive in there, and it is on cable select! oh well, i'm off to bed now, please leave more suggestions!

thanks to all you late night [H]'ers!
 
ok, tried the boot disk approach with no dice. whenever i get to the third disk, i get an error that some dll file is missing. i went into BIOS, changed settings to "fail safe" with no luck at getting my pci devices to show up, then changed it to "optimized" with the same results. i'm seriously about ready to chuck this stupid computer out the window. :rolleyes:
 
Perhaps the best failsafe solution to your problem would be:

1)Boot into Windows with your CD in
2)Back up any important documents you may have
3)Reinstall Windows with a full format of the drive.

This will eliminate any doubt about your past attempts or changes.
 
sorry to bump this old thread guys, but i seem to have pretty much everything working now, just ONE final problem. my pci slots STILL don't work! i installed the motherboard drivers and checked everything in BIOS, but when it posts i don't see anything listed....my wireless card, and the new sound card that works in my parent's computer, refuses to work.

i just rma'ed this mobo back in july, but is this the sign of dead pci slots? any other options? thanks guys!
 
did you reformat and do a fresh windows install? you are loading the sound drivers and wireless card drivers, right.

go to control panel -> system -> device manager -> click hardware tab -> device manager

does your hardware show up here and display a 'yellow ?' or anything?
 
yeah, i reformatted twice. also, you'd think that after a fresh install it'd do the standard windows thing when it detects PCI cards, and notify you that it detects them and ask you to load the software, but it doesn't. the device manager has nothing listed for my pci slots.

i have a audigy 2zs and a microsoft wireless card, and it won't detect either. :mad:
 
have you looked for anything in your bios? see if your pci slots in bios are set to auto.

edit: i reread and see you have. the device manager should pick up something...
 
zoinks said:
have you looked for anything in your bios? see if your pci slots in bios are set to auto.

edit: i reread and see you have. the device manager should pick up something...
Click to expand...

yeah, they are. so do you guys suggest RMA'ing my motherboard a second time?
 
you didn't get the same mb when you got your first rma, do you think? this happened to me but since i wrote down the original serial # and made a very tiny small scratch on the pcb, i knew it was the same board after rma...and i had the same problem until they finally sent a different board.
 
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