disk boot failure

[sparkieroo]

every time i connect up my cd-rom or pc/rw to my comp, it starts with the message (disk boot failure insert system disk) what is the system disk? all i have is windows start up disk. anyone know where i go from here please . i have tried to be nice to it -i tried acting like i know what ime doing-and i have tried violence none of them worked.

[j2buttonsw]

I am afraid you are out of luck. The system disk they are referring to is your hard drive with the system files that allow your PC to boot and function. You either have corrupted your system files (accidently or through a virus) but it is more likely that your hard drive has failed and the system files on it can no longer be read. The test is to try to reinstall your operating system but if that fails buy a new hard drive. You maybe lucky and have a RESTORE CD which will reinstall the OS in one easy operation.

[j2buttonsw]

Oh, the other alternative is that you have a floppy disk in the machine: remove it now! Sorry, this is the most likely reason you have a system failure. If you didn't have a floppy in the floppy disk drive then see my first answer (you may be in luck after all).

[Gobi]

Try going into BIOS and make sure that your main drive (usually called IDE 0 or IDE 1) is set as the first boot device. If it is set to CD or another device it cannot boot as there are no system files to boot from, and will ask for a system disk. You can usually get into BIOS by pressing DELETE when it first starts up.

[mattie]

Does your PC boot up ok without the cd drives attached? If so then check that they are set as slave devices via the jumpers on the back of the drives, or connect them to the secondary IDE connector, so that they are not on the same cable as the hard disk.

[honkytonkman]

I'm a Mac user myself, but 'system disk' in our world is the CD disc (or years ago, a floppy) that came with your computer that contains all the operating software...

[j2buttonsw]

I am going to play Devil's advocate here: Unless yer man has changed the boot order in the BIOS or has altered the master/slave jumpers on the CD/HDD then why should it suddenly come up with a system disk error? If he has altered the BIOS/master-slave jumper setttings then would it not occured to him that this was the problem and mention it in the question? I doubt if we will ever hear whether the problem has been resolved (less than 10% ever reply with an update and even less than that with a thank you) so I don't know why I am even writing this...

[darth vader]

you write this j2b because you know us regulars will read it with interest :-)
My assessment is that Mr sparkieroo has a cd inside his CD rom which is not a system disk (a disk containing the necessary boot files to "boot up" your machine) and also has his bios settings for the boot sequence to be CDROM;C;A - as i'm assuming the implication in the question is that it boots ok when the cdrom isn't plugged in, which rules out HDD failure

[j2buttonsw]

I see your point Darth, but if you have CD-HDD-FDD as the boot order the computer will only boot from the CD if you have a bootable CD: it will ignore a non-bootable one then boot from the HDD. The FDD is different and will fail with a non-system disk error if a non-bootable floppy is left in the drive (and is before the HDD in the boot order).

[j2buttonsw]

Now I've read the question properly, I would like to change my opinion (embarassed). Mattie seems to be right: if he is adding the cdrom/cdrw to the primary ide as a master it is upsetting the hard drive (which is also set to master). He should either set it to slave on the primary ide chain or set it to master on the secondary ide (if it is the only device). Also, the hard drive may be cable select and may be upset by putting on another device as either a master/save. In this case set the hdd to master.