DISK BOOT FAILURE, can not find hard drives...what is wrong???

Question

I am getting a DISK BOOT FAILURE message on my computer screen. I inserted a system disk and it says it cannot find hard drive to continue set up. I then reseated all the cables and it still did not work. I bought a new hard drive and my system can not recognize anything is there. I took my computer to the store to have them solve the problem. They reconfigured the IDE cables to the old and new hard drive. They were able to get to Windows with no problem. When I took the computer home and plugged it in, it told me DISK BOOT FAILURE. I took the computer back to the store and it was able to boot up to windows there. So I go back home and plug it in and again it is telling me DISK BOOT FAILURE after messing around with it, i booted up to windows but after about 10 minutes, it said DISK BOOT FAILURE again. Can it be my motherboard is messed up? or my IDE cables are bad? or is my power supply causing the problems?

No there is no floppy drives or CDs left in the system

My computer can not recognize that there is a hard drive in my computer when i put the boot disk in.

when i tried to install the new hard drive by itself...it couldnt find the new hard drive and i could not format it.

every now and then i'll be able to boot to windows after i unplug the old hard drive and plug it back in...but after like 5 minutes it craps out.

Can my hard drive be corrupt. but when at the same time i cant even install a new hard drive because my system doesnt see that its there.

UPDATE
so i unplugged the hard drive and plugged it back in and i was able to boot to windows. i got a message after i ran my computer for checks...it said "windows has detected that one or more protected core system files (kernel) on your computer have been modified. The service pack contains updated versions of those files, which work to provide stable environment for your programs. due to this modification, the service pack will not be installed.. for more information, see knowledge base articles q327515 at http://support. microsoft.com"....well after that downloaded all the updates and everything seemed to be working well...i was even able to install the new hard drive....then a big blue screen comes up "STOP:c000021a Unkown hard error
Unknown hard error".
I restart the computer and I'm back to square one. and now it just says "Error Loading OS"

now what??????

Answer 1

it cannot be the power supple or it would say that there is low power voltage and to press F1 to continue to Windows. YOu should reinstall you hard drive with the reboting Cds that you should have gotten with your computer. Yopu will lose all your files. But it will probably work. If it dont then you should buy new IDE cables. Fixing a motherboard should be your next 2 second thing to do.

Answer 2

OK...you have one of two problems:

1. Intermittent failure of the hard disk controller
2. Intermittent failure of the motherboard

Both can be very frustrating because they occur intermittently. Since the computer will not recognize a new hard drive, this eliminates the possibility that your hard drive is physically damaged, although a problem as listed above can corrupt the data on a drive in a heart beat.

Since the hard drive controller is almost always part of the motherboard, you will likely have to replace the motherboard entirely.

Also, heat seems to cause the problem (which is typical of such issues)...as your computer runs longer, it heats up and causes the error...the reason the store has not been able to duplicate the problem may be because the computer is not left on long enough...just a thought...

Hope that helps!

Answer 3

Hi Trina,
First of all If you have 2 hard disks, sometimes ur drivers may not be able to support both (since together the memory size will be beyond what it can handle)

Secondly,
if you have only one hard disk, then one of the following problems cud be present -
-Improper earthing
-Improper data and/or power cable connection
-BUS is not working correctly

Suggestions for fix -
Use a bootable installation cd of 98 or XP and try recovering hard disk.
OR
make your hard disk a slave to some one else's hard disk n try installing the OS in your hard disk
OR
slave your hard disk and run PartitionMagic 8.0 software. It can help recover or reset partition errors on your hard disk if any.

Answer 4

once you first hit the ability button on your device, initiate hitting the F11 key repeatedly until you get the equipment restoration reveal screen. this might provide help to initiate the technique of reformatting your laptop. it may even have an option to run a fix of the working equipment. manufacturers began arising a hidden partition that holds corresponding to the perplexing stress the way it grew to become into whilst the equipment grew to become into new. for this reason maximum desktops do no longer incorporate a restoration CD anymore, except you distinctly order it with one. If F11 would not paintings, watch heavily once you first boot up and it may supply you something like "press Fxx to pass into equipment fix." Your boot sector has improve into corrupt and with none restoration disk or working equipment CD, this is the only way i understand of adjusting your project, without taking it to a working laptop or laptop fix tech.

Answer 5

Check the earthing of the socket where you have plugged your PC. It is possible that in view of the bad earthing, the power supply of your PC is giving erratic results. If the earthing id fine, change your power supply and RAM and chances are that it might resolve your problem.

Answer 6

what version of windows are you using?
if 95/98/ME:
use a system boot disk, and at the dos prompt do:
sys c:

if XP/NT/2000:
boot from your installation CD, go to repair, and type:

fixboot c:
fixmbr c:

that should make it work i think.

Answer 7

If you "peck" ( if you hold it down will display "Stuck Key")on the F8 button during boot it will let you choose your booting device. Also COULD be in you CMOS. Check that your booting to correct device
Choose C: drive... nothing wrong with anything.

God Bless

Answer 8

did you leave a floppy in it ? if not look at replacing the hdd