Disk boot failure, HDD not seen in BIOS

[alan87]

Hi there,

This problem originally started about a month ago, with the odd crash (mouse would go 'jittery/laggy' and then eventually freeze - at which point it would sometimes BSOD and other times just restart). Then when I went to restart it would come up with this disk boot failure. At this time I would leave the pc off for a couple of hours/overnight and then it would start up normally again and work fine the next day.

However now I cant even get this far....all it comes up with whenever I power it up is the 'disk boot failure, please enter boot disk' message, after going through BIOS and POSTing. Even when I go into BIOS there is no sign of my HDD being present in the system.

I've tried changing SATA/power cables, using diff SATA ports, reseting BIOS, running one stick of RAM, etc to no avail. Obviously cant boot into windows or see the HDD so cant run Seatools or any other diagnostic tools. Also have no spare parts/ another pc to test the components with unfortunately

Just completely run out of ideas and was wondering if anybody had some last suggestions before I RMA my HDD or start replacing hardware (someone else has suggested a dying psu).

Specs are:
Asus p5n-e sli mobo
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500gb (about 1.5yrs old)
Windows 7 64bit
2gb (4x512mb ddr2 553mhz)
e6600
Coolermaster 650w psu
8800gts 512mb

 

[mike1959]

Messages such as those you have posted would normally mean the Hard drive has failed. When you power on the pc, watch the hard disc LED, any activity at all?
Another test you can do, is put a 'live' Linux distro in the DVD drive. It should load all the way to the Linux desktop, then look in the equivalent to 'Computer' and if you can't see the Local disc, it proves the same, it will have failed.

 

[alan87]

Just tried switching it on, and the orange HDD light flashed a few times until it reached the disk boot failure message.....does this mean anything??

Think I might just buy a new HDD (think of a WD caviar 500gb), will I have any problems with installing my copy of windows 7 onto the new HDD?

 

[mike1959]

If you buy a new hard drive, and you have an original Windows installation disc and product key, then you shoudn't have any problems. Be sure to go to Asus website to get your pc's chipset drivers and any Asus specific drivers for their OEM parts that may be fitted. You may well have to activate your Windows installation again, as your new hard drive will have no record of it being actvated before, but it should be mostly automatic. Also you will have to download the graphic card driver again, unless you have a backup somewhere.

 

[Kaorichan2002]

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500gb (about 1.5yrs old)
When I see this... I see Failing hard drive.
I have fixed a few computers with this same hard drive in it. Same model. And it seems to be a hard drive firm ware failure.

 

[alan87]

Well I have now ordered a new HDD, so we will see in a few days when it turns up. But is it not surprising that this should happen after all this time of it working fine?

 

[mike1959]

When I read your post, I was thinking of a Sony laptop I saw earlier this year. It was fine, till it totally failed. "BIOS could not find HDD". I ran a Linux Live O/S from the DVD drive, and no sign of the hard drive from there. And that was a 3 year old PC on it's second HD. So number 3 had to be fitted !