# Disk Boot Failure



## nazziek (Oct 30, 2003)

I am trying to fix our old pc, please help! sorry if i've posted this log in the wrong place 

The PC is a UNIKA pentium III and has windows 98 and i think i have all the disks we got with it when we bought it.
when i switch the pc on, it starts as it normally would but but i don't think it starts to load OS (?) as there is no windows logo or reference to windows, ms dos or OS

then it says
"verifying DMI Pool data

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

I was just generally trying disks n i put in NORTON ANTIVIRUS for windows 95/98 Emergency Boot Disk, when i put the disk in it started doing something n said something about loading windows 98 but then it stops. A: n anything i put in then says bad command

In the norton booklet it says:
Floppy disk boot record
If norton antivirus cannot repair a floppy disk boot record, it still removes the virus. the information on the floppy disk remains accessible and you can safely copy the files onto another disk, howeber you can no longer start your pc from the floppy disk.

is this my problem?what do i need to do?


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## Maritimesea (Sep 9, 2004)

Are you sure it has windows already installed? Normally a computers Bios will be set to try different drives in sequence looking for a bootable disk. One of those drives it searches will(or should) be the Hard drive. If the hard drive doesn't contain a boot record, it will search either the cd drive or floppy drive and if nothing is in either of those you will get a disk boot failure, please insert a disk message. 

If you have the Win98 CD then just insert that and reboot the machine and follow the prompts to set up windows with CD rom support.


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## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

The "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER" strongly suggests that the hard drive has failed.


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## Tapeuup (Apr 6, 2005)

checked to make sure there is not a diskette in the floppy drive.


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## nazziek (Oct 30, 2003)

as far as i know it has windows on it, even when i put the windows disk in, i still get the same message. erm what should i do if the hard drive has failed?


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

From the first post "I am trying to fix our old pc" - What were you trying to fix?

Can you feel if the hard drive is even spinning? If not, then it is likely dead.

If it is spinning, you might double check that the data cable is firmly attached at both ends. 

You might try using a known working IDE cable (maybe you can swap with the one the CD ROM is using if that is different)

Does the CMOS recognize the hard drive. No sense in trying Windows CD or floppy. If the computer doesn't correctly recognize the hard drive, the operating system isn't going to.

If the CMOS recognizes the hard drive, can you boot with a floppy and see if you can find anything on the drive.


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## nazziek (Oct 30, 2003)

i don't know whether the disk is spinning.

i found a startup disk, i don't know whether its for that pc or another. i put it in n it sais that windows was starting up n then this message came up:

'Win 98 has detected that drive C does not contain a valid FAT or FAT3 partition. there are several possible causes:
1.the disk may need to be partitioned. to create a partition on the drive run FDISK from the ms-dos command prompt.

2.you may be using 3rd party disk partioning software. If you are using this type of software remove the disk and restart your computer and then follow the on screen instructions to start the pc from a floppy.

3.some viruses also cause your drive c to not register. you can use virus scanning progams to check your pc for viruses. the diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to drive c. to get help, type help n presss enter.'

at step 1, i typed in FDISK at the prompt but nothing happened

when i typed help, i was able to get to all the help files etc but couldn't find anything that helped me

and at the CMOS setup facility theres a password.

is it just not gonna work and i'm just wasting my time?


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

I have a section with instructions for creating a boot disk at:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/install/floppies.htm

There is also the generic one which you can download and at:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/software/win98_img.exe

Just insert and floppy and run the program after you download it. This will automatically format, copy the files to the floppy disk.

There are a lot of the DOS utilities there that don't normally get added when you make one from Win98. For example Diskcopy, Doskey, Format, More, Move, Sys, Edit, Chkdsk, Deltree, Extract, Updated FDISK, Attrib, Label, Mem, Scandisk, Scanreg, Smartdrv and Xcopy.

Not only are there more utilities on there but it starts much faster since it doesn't have to create the RAM disk and then expand the cab file from the floppy to that RAM disk.

It automatically loads with support for a generic CD ROM and assigns it the drive letter of X:

There is also a CD ROM boot image you can download at:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/software/win_boot.iso

In addition to all the other DOS utilities, the CD version also has:
DELPART - For deleting DOS and NTFS partitions. Can delete extended NTFS partitions.
FDISK121 - FDISK with additional options - See the documentation, and 
READNTFS - Read and Copy files on a NTFS partition.

The CD image needs to be burned using a program that recognized ISO images.


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## nazziek (Oct 30, 2003)

thanks, i'll try that out.


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## nazziek (Oct 30, 2003)

I used both ur links to download onto floppy and cd.
the pc wouldn't even acknowledge the cd but when i put the floppy in is said 'starting windows' and the previous message about partitioning came up. then it went to:

Disk caching status 
read write buffering
A Y N N
B Y N N

Write behind data will be commited before command prompt returns.
For help type "smartdrive / ?
Installs and configures the smartdrive disk caching utility.

When i typed fdisk this time it said "No fixed disks present"


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

If you are sure the cables are connected, then given the error message from both smartdrv not seeing a C: drive and FDISK not seeing a hard drive, it would seem that your hard drive is defective.


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## nazziek (Oct 30, 2003)

cables? well if the cables weren't connected then wouldn't the power not come on?is there no way of fixing it? shall i just bin it?


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

You can have power to the computer, even power to the hard drive and still not have all the cables connected.


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## nazziek (Oct 30, 2003)

i see i see i see. you're so smart! when i switch the pc on it sounds like its having alot of trouble, so tell me what to do


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

nazziek said:


> i see i see i see. you're so smart! when i switch the pc on it sounds like its having alot of trouble, so tell me what to do


What are the sounds? High pitched?, clicking?
Where specifically are they coming from? Hard drive, Fans...


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## nazziek (Oct 30, 2003)

well the noises aren't high pitch, it kinds sounds like something is trying to spin or start up, it spins or starts up a bit but then can't go on so stops n then starts again?? i'm using a friends pc so my pc isn't here right now n i'm just telling u from memory but when i go home i'll start it up n listen carefully n then e mail you back. thanks.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Sounds like what is called a seek error which indicates a defective hard drive.


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## nazziek (Oct 30, 2003)

can anything be done?


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