More problems with this thing than enough...

[The Observer]

Another problem has happened with this machine. Yesterday, I started it up and it couldn't boot using the hard drive. I thought everything was normal until this message came up: DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER (yes, it was in all capital letters). I then inserted the Ubuntu CD and tried the live tour of Ubuntu (I'm using the live CD thing right now). I was able to look at both partitions on my drive perfectly. (On the other one was Windows 98.) I then tried to re-install Ubuntu by formatting the whole drive because the partition manager wouldn't work. (Good bye years of photographs! :cry: ) After I reinstalled it, the same problem occured. I would also like to note that a thing popped up on start up about some RAID manager. When I tried that, the name of my hard drive came up, but it was highlighted in red and I don't know how the hell to work a RAID manager. I re-booted it again to check the BIOS. My hard drive is not being recognized by it for some reason and only the DVD/CD drive is being recognized.

 

 

 

If you didn't read the block of text, here's a simplified version...

 

 

 

Problem: The disk won't boot up; message: DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

 

What I tried: Re-installing Ubuntu, trying to automatically search for a hard drive in each of the slots (primary master, primary slave...)

 

Notes: It's not being recognized in the BIOS. Re-installing Ubuntu did not work. I formatted the whole damn drive and tried a clean install. That did not work. I'm currently running on a Ubuntu live CD and am able to view all of the files in the hard drive without any problems. This problem appeared after it froze and I pressed the reset button. A Nvidia RAID thing popped up with my hard drive serial number in red with the code "1.0M" or something like that; I can't remember completely. I don't know how to work the RAID thing, so could someone help?

 

 

 

~~~System Specs~~~

 

OS: Ubuntu is installed at the moment. Pre-format was Windows 98 and Ubuntu.

 

Processor: AMD Athlon 3500+, 3dnow, ~2.2 ghz

 

Video Card: ATI Radeon 9600XT

 

Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7

 

Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum

 

Memory: 512 mb RAM

 

 

 

I hope this is fixable. :(

 

 

 

EDIT: My hard drive is connected via IDE.

[Sbrideau]

I think you should wait for clare for an answer here, but here's what I think. I think it's a problem with the mbr, only thing messing me up on this is that raid pop up thing :S.

[pryomancer]

It's possible that your hard disk has failed, which can't be fixed by a reformat, you'd need to buy a new one.

 

This is just what I think has happened, I did a quick search of 'disk boot failure' and that is one of the possible reasons.

 

 

 

It could also be a faulty IDE cable, if you're using an IDE connection.

[The Observer]

It's possible that your hard disk has failed, which can't be fixed by a reformat, you'd need to buy a new one.

 

This is just what I think has happened, I did a quick search of 'disk boot failure' and that is one of the possible reasons.

 

 

 

It could also be a faulty IDE cable, if you're using an IDE connection.

 

 

 

Correct, I'm using an IDE cable. I'll add that to the main post.

 

 

 

P.S. Holy crap, fast replies. :ohnoes:

[pryomancer]

We like to help quickly, I know how badly a broken pc makes me rage.

[The Observer]

Meh, I hope it's not a damaged hard drive. To be honest, I think something is wrong with the mbr. :( How could I view the hard drive perfectly well in a Ubuntu live CD but not on bootup?

 

 

 

P.S. I'm especially frustrated because I just got a RuneScape membership for the first time ever and I need to start training. :( Also, I don't have a lot of money on me in real life. So, buying a new one is impossible unless I take out a loan. (Even a refurbished one is out of the question.) It's very important for me to get it back because I need to do a lot of things on the computer for school.

[The Observer]

Sorry for the double post, but Ubuntu seems to have fixed itself. After I installed it and tried randomly doing fdisk and Windows 98 setup, on the next reboot Ubuntu loaded. :? On those programs, it said that it cannot find any hard disks. Can anybody explain why this could have happened?

[Arixe]

Thats a wierd issue. It sounds to me like your motherboard is having some issues, since the HDD works fine under Ubuntu Live CD. I would pull out the book that came with the motherboard (if you still have it) and see if there is a way to disable RAID. You only have 1 HDD(correct me if i'm wrong) so you shouldn't need any RAID enabled.

 

Another thing would be to either try the HDD in another computer (friends/co-workers if you don't have another) or to try one of their HDD in your computer. That should give you a definitive answer as to whether it is a motherboard or HDD issue.

[VARN]

Clear the BIOS, read the manual that came with it to locate the correct jumper; then let the BIOS auto detect the drives.

[The Observer]

It's happened again and this time the fdisk /mbr didn't work.

[ClareJonsson]

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER is a generic error and may not be related to the hard drive, it just means it could not find any bootstrap info.

 

 

 

Okay things to check:

 

 

 

1. Unplug your Hard drive cables from both the motherboard and hard drive sides and plug it back in again. Sometimes you get bad contacts and doing this has the effect of cleaning them. This can also be known as "Re-seating".

 

2. Boot off your Linux Live disc again and if you can see your hard drive then it's unlikely to be a faulty drive.

 

3. Check your BIOS to make sure your hard drives are being seen in the correct order.

 

4. Check your boot order removing everything but the boot hard drive.

 

5. Some motherboards allow booting from USB devices and this overides the boot order, disable USB booting.

 

6. Remove any media such as USB pen drives, floppy disks and optical media from your PC.

 

7. Boot off your Windows install disc and perform a repair.

 

 

 

I am wondering if your hardware is working fine, i.e. your Linux live disc is able to access your hard drive and view all files correctly, then have you got something nasty such as malware that's screwing with your Master Boot Record?

[The Observer]

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER is a generic error and may not be related to the hard drive, it just means it could not find any bootstrap info.

 

 

 

Okay things to check:

 

 

 

1. Unplug your Hard drive cables from both the motherboard and hard drive sides and plug it back in again. Sometimes you get bad contacts and doing this has the effect of cleaning them. This can also be known as "Re-seating".

 

2. Boot off your Linux Live disc again and if you can see your hard drive then it's unlikely to be a faulty drive.

 

3. Check your BIOS to make sure your hard drives are being seen in the correct order.

 

4. Check your boot order removing everything but the boot hard drive.

 

5. Some motherboards allow booting from USB devices and this overides the boot order, disable USB booting.

 

6. Remove any media such as USB pen drives, floppy disks and optical media from your PC.

 

7. Boot off your Windows install disc and perform a repair.

 

 

 

I am wondering if your hardware is working fine, i.e. your Linux live disc is able to access your hard drive and view all files correctly, then have you got something nasty such as malware that's screwing with your Master Boot Record?

 

 

 

1. I might try that.

 

2. Yes, I can see my hard drive in my Linux live CD.

 

3. The BIOS is not recognizing the hard drive at all. Only the CD drive.

 

4. As I said above, it cannot recognize the hard drive period.

 

5. I might try that.

 

6. I don't have much except a USB drive.

 

7. I only have a Windows 98 SE disk.

[The Observer]

Bump

[OldJoe]

Don't know if i should post this, not really knowledged about this matter.

 

But... You could either try loading the default settings in BIOS or flash the BIOS to the latest version. Have you tried connecting the hd to another computer? I'd check that...

[The Observer]

Don't know if i should post this, not really knowledged about this matter.

 

But... You could either try loading the default settings in BIOS or flash the BIOS to the latest version. Have you tried connecting the hd to another computer? I'd check that...

 

 

 

I don't have another computer that's compatible. :(

[rwinner16]

This is going to sound really stupid, but my computer sometimes does that. I end up just taking out my cd out of the drive and restart comp. My motherboard was bought when it was in beta testing and manu says its one of the glitches wit the bios for me.