DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

Golden Leg

Oh, the agony!

I was enjoying a bit of Dungeon Siege II last night, when a blue screen of death violently materialized on my screen. It goes through its whole deal, "Dumping physical memory, etc," and then the computer restarts.

The problem is: instead of booting right up and going to Windows XP, it begins to boot and then declares, "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER."

I've checked all of the cables; they're in the same place they were two years ago. I've checked the BIOS; the boot sequence is: hard drive, CD, floppy.

What have I done to incur the wrath of my computer? Also, if I go along with it, do I lose all of the data on my hard drive?

Synthesis

I wouldn't be too worried about loosing the data on your hard drive. Even in the event of a catastrophic drive failure.

But getting your computer to boot up again properly, that could be hard. Have you tried swapping out the IDE/SATA cables? It could be as simple as a bad cable that had to act up some time.

ZackSchilling

You will want another hard drive, preferably big enough to hold an installation of Windows and everything on your old drive with some room to spare. It's data recovery time.

freakish light

I was having problems with a failing hard drive last year; if you still have your XP disc, try booting the recovery console and using "fixmbr." It might repair the boot sector to the place where you can boot up, but you need to start looking for another hard drive, probably.

Golden Leg

I'm going to continue tampering with the thing, but if it is time to get a new hard drive, whose do you all recommend? It's been three years since I was up-to-date on the ins-and-outs of hardware. My current hard drive is a 250 GB ASUS SATA, and it has treated me well.

tsmvengy

Hard drives are way cheap for a ton of space. I like Western Digital right now:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136150

On sale at Newegg right now, that is an awesome deal for that drive.

Golden Leg

So I insert the system recovery disk, and it doesn't even recognize the hard drive. Neither does the BIOS Am I in deep shit? I haven't changed any of the connections.

Santa Claustrophobia

This happens on my system from time to time. I usually just turn it off and walk away for a short while. For some reason, in spite of the BIOS still being able to auto-detect the drive without issue, the boot sequence doesn't see it.

So, yeah... I'd say shut the system down and do something else for an hour or so. Then try again.

Do you happen to remember if the BSOD said anything memorable?

Golden Leg

Interestingly enough, I experienced this problem before, went to bed, and the darn thing worked the next day. Unfortunately, that type of problem-solving isn't working this time.

The only thing I remember about the BSoD was that it told me it was beginning to dump physical memory.

EDIT: I'm wondering if one of my habits may have contributed to this problem. Whenever I turn my computer off, the power supply squeals. So, in turning my computer off, I shut it down the right and proper way and then flip the power supply switch. Every time.

Phoenix-D

...ok, the power supply squealing is not a good sign. :P Worst case scenario it may have surged and destroyed your hard drive.

Golden Leg

Ok, I've swapped a lot of cables and cable configurations and the damn thing still won't be recognized by the BIOS, operating system recovery disk, or Western Digital's Data Lifeguard tools. I want to make sure that my cable configuration is correct.

I have a SATA cable running from a connection on my motherboard labeled "SATA 1" to my hard drive. I'm pretty sure that's correct.

Here's where I get confused. I have a four-pin connection and an elongated-version-of-the-SATA-cable connection on my hard drive. Do I run a cable from my power supply to the four-pin connection, to the elongated SATA connection, or both? From what I've read, both is a nono. Other than that, the instruction manuals I've read have been either vague or ignorant of the possibility of the Legacy 4-pin connection.

I should have taken a picture of my setup before I started fiddling with it.

LuvTheMonkey

That's the proper setup for the SATA data cable. As for power, it sounds like your drive has both Molex and SATA Power connectors (which is strange, I've not seen that). One or the other will suffice, and I would agree with hooking up both to be bad.

There is a distinct possibility that the drive is dead, which sucks (god knows how many drives I've lost over the years). The BIOS not seeing the drive is a troubling sign. You might try hooking it up to SATA2 or one of your other SATA ports on the motherboard, perhaps (not likely but possible) your SATA1 connector has gone bad. If it still does not show up, you may try hooking it up externally via a USB->SATA enclosure - NewEgg, Best Buy, all the usual suspects carry them.

Golden Leg

Alright, I think I'll buy one o' them USB->SATA enclosures, as well as this puppy. Good choice?

ZackSchilling

Can you hear the drive after it spins up? YOu might need to unmount it in the case and hold it as the machine boots.

Thunks and thuds mean head damage. Drive is toast.

Loud white noise like sand rattling around is loose debris, probably from a bad head crash. Call a hearse.

Quiet, repetitive grinding means bad blocks. Recovery programs can get you out of this tight spot unscathed but the more you run the drive, the greater chance you have of making things worse. Bad blocks can quickly morph into the above problems without warning.

Nothing but the quiet whirr of the platters spinning. A communication error perhaps? Maybe a bad control board. You'd have to replace it with another control board from the same model drive. Data recovery services can do this for you.

shadydentist

I would find an external hard drive, an Ubuntu LiveCD, and see how much you can get out of your HD.

Golden Leg

Would that work, even though the BIOS can't even recognize the drive?

I've looked at a few things to hook the drive up externally. Do I need an external enclosure or just a set of cables? The prices for these don't make much sense to me.

BYTECC BT-300 USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Adapter - Retail
Rosewill RCW-608 USB2.0 Adapter For IDE/SATA Device (Include Protection case) - Retail
VANTEC CB-ISATAU2 SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter - Retail
StarTech USB 2.0 to SATA IDE Adapter Model USB2SATAIDE - Retail
Rosewill RX-358-S SLV (Silver) 3.5" SATA to USB & eSATA Ext. Enclosure w/Int.80mm fan - Retail
Rosewill RX35-AT-SU BLK Aluminum 3.5" Black USB 2.0 External Enclosure - Retail

ZackSchilling

Those prices are fine. These things are pretty cheap. Those items are real USB -> SATA adaptors, not just cables.

Read my above post for an overview of possible mechanical failures. As long as you don't have any of those, the BIOS not recognizing the drive is not a death sentence. You'll need a directory repair or data salvage program, though.

Golden Leg

So I paid careful heed to the voice of my hard drive. As it started up, it buzzed for a moment and then chirped. Afterwards, it sounded as smooth as can be.

ZackSchilling

I'm not sure if that's good or bad. It sounds like the drive isn't even trying. I guess you'll find out when the cable/enclosure arrives.

Golden Leg

This is crazy. I bought a brand-spankin'-new hard drive, hooked it up properly, and the BIOS doesn't detect it.

What?!

EDIT: I should add that when the new hard drive was connected externally to another PC, it ran well. The old hard drive is as dead as a doornail in either case.

Phoenix-D

Hmm. I wonder if whatever killed your hard drive took the port it was connected to down with it as well?

Mustachio Jones

Generally speaking, ports and the like on mobos don't just go dead. Most of the time its their controllers, at least that's how it used to be in my experience.


Just for shits and giggles, try resetting the CMOS via the jumper or popping out the battery. Usually the jumper is the way to go. Don't really expect it to do anything, but just do it to say you did.

The thing that's tipping me off about the controller is that the new drive doesn't work either. it sounds like there's both damage to the disk and to the motherboard.

To rule it out, if you haven't already, swap cables and ports around with the new drive. That'll tell you what's up.

If your configuration was set up to only have one SATA HDD while shit was functional, it sounds like your SATA controller got fucked. Otherwise, I'm talking out of my ass.

Taranis

Put your HD in the freezer then try again. Works sometimes.

Technicality

Errr... Squealing power supply?

Might be a sign your PSU is up to mischief. I recently replaced mine after it developed a squeal, and the random occasional USB device failures I'd been experiencing went away completely.

Golden Leg

I RMA'd my power supply; that's why it's taken me a while to attempt to fix this thing.

I've made some progress. I plugged the hard drive into another SATA port, SATA 5. The BIOS wasn't recognizing it when I plugged it into SATA 1, 2, 3, or 4. The BIOS now recognizes the hard drive. I even installed Windows XP on it.

However, the BIOS refuses to boot from the hard drive. I can see via Windows Setup that there's a healthy partition on the hard drive with Windows XP installed. My boot sequence is the following: hard drive -> optical drive.

EDIT: It seems the BIOS thinks my optical drive is a hard drive. It's listed as the IDE Primary Master Drive when I have the BIOS auto-detect. When I disabled the option to boot from an optical drive, it still booted from it when I inserted Ubuntu/hard drive diagnostic software/Windows XP.

HydroSqueegee

bad mobo. get a new one.

Golden Leg

Seeing as it's a Socket 939 motherboard that isn't manufactured anymore, do I have any hoping of finding an inexpensive, identical one? Or am I best off spending oodles of cash on a new computer?

tsmvengy

If it has to be replaced it's probably better to get new stuff since they don't make socket 939 any more.

Did you have DDR or DDR2 RAM?

You'll probably be OK with a new mobo+cpu, and then DDR2 RAM if you don't already have it.

wunderbar

s939 was DDR1

if you can't afford a whole new machine right now, I'd try ebaying a s939 mobo, because otherwise you're starting from scratch.