2006-06-13 08:34:49 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Software
Either there is no hard drive installed or the hard drive has not been formatted or it has been formatted but there is no operating system installed but if that were the case I would think you would have gotten the error "no operating system detected". You can check to see if there is a hard drive installed by going into the BIOS. It should be listed somewhere in there. I can't tell you exactly because all BIOSes are different. If there is no hard drive detected then it is possible there is one in there but the cables have not been connected. Whatever the case you are going to have to pop it open and find out.
It could also be a simple case of missing or improperly set jumper switches which are located on the drive itself. If the drive is not set as master, set it as master by removing the jumpers and plugging the black end of the IDE cable into it and the power cable. By defualt, it will set as master.
2006-06-13 08:41:53 · answer #1 · answered by conradj213 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A computer searches for a "boot device", that is, a place where information about the operating system is stored on, so it can boot from there. A CD ROM, hard drive, floppy disk, all are common boot devices.
If your PC was working before, and now you put in a new CPU and it doesn't, reboot the machine, go into your BIOS, and make sure your system is setup correctly and able to see your hard drive(s).
2006-06-13 15:48:05 · answer #2 · answered by badaz06 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This can mean a few things. Make sure the hard drive power cable and I/O cables are plugged in tightly. Check to see that the BIOS is set to boot off of the current location of the hard drive. Last if it is IDE you should have the hard drive plugged into the master IDE or the lowest numbered IDE port on the mother board. This is not suppose to cause any problems on new board, but it does.
2006-06-13 15:42:52 · answer #3 · answered by devonjanitz 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It means it is unable to find a hard drive on your machine. Check the hard drive cable and make sure it is plugged into the motherboard. Also you can go into the motherboard bios on boot up and check what the boot priority is (this will also show if the motherboard is detecting any bootable devices).
2006-06-13 15:40:03 · answer #4 · answered by Doug B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What the message is telling you is that the computer is looking for a media from which to start up the OS. Typically the computer will scan your pc looking for a small program which intructs it to load a program. You're computer either isn't detecting your media (most likely a hard-drive) or the boot sector on your hard drive is damaged.
2006-06-13 15:41:11 · answer #5 · answered by Emmett C 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you need an operating system (such as windows) to be able to use the computer in a conventional way.
if you have a boot floppy, put it in the floppy drive.
if you have a bootable cd, put it in the CD drive.
and from there, install it to the hard drive. if your CD is not booting, you'll need to change the bios boot order to have the CD checked before the hard-drive.
2006-06-13 15:41:18 · answer #6 · answered by malathonx 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Check to be sure that you have a bootable hard drive connected.
2006-06-13 15:38:26 · answer #7 · answered by landisfield 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It cannot find an operating system to start up.
2006-06-13 15:38:27 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Try providing more info next time, like:
- make/model
- did you build this yourself (god I hope not!)
- visit tek-tips.com
2006-06-13 15:40:39 · answer #9 · answered by SirCharles 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋