Disk Boot Failure - Insert System Disk And Press Enter

[rhyeen]

hello, this is my first post here after using this site many times without actually posting anything, i decided to give it a go:

the title explains it pretty straight forward: DISK BOOT FAILURE - INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER is the message i get after my bios load. Alright what do i know? I know it's probably not detecting my hard drive (it's an IDE set as the slave) because when i enter the BIOS i can only see my cd drive as master, and no secondary boot devices. Curious thing...if i spend about 3 seconds in the BIOS, exit and save changes (even when i make no changes at all) my computer will start up just fine, without the message. I also know that when i do this, and go back to BIOS it now displays my HDD as my secondary device.
Highly doubt it has anything to do with the IDE cords, everything besides the HDD and Cd drive are only a week old, but hey i never know. Also on a side note, i have a memory slot (for camera memory sticks and such) drive connected to the motherboard as well...which came with the case.
Any help or comments, or suggestions will be very appreciated, thanks everyone!

-Ryan

 

[raybay]

Of course an IDE Drive set as the slave it not going to boot... under normal circumstances.
To boot, the hard drive must be primary 1, or the BIOS must be set for a bootable device other than Primary 1.
It can be floppy, or CD, or hard drive, but a hard drive jumpered as slave, must be first in the boot order.
But you will always have troubles when a drive on a secondard cable is jumpered as a slave, no matter what the BIOS is ordered to do.

 

[rhyeen]

oh the cd drive is set as primary 1, that's why i said it was the master...well er...no...my boot order is: hard drive, cd drive, removable. But in the main page of my BIOS it shows my CD as the primary drive, and (sometimes) the HDD as the secondary drive

 

[raybay]

You are having the trouble because your CD should be set as Secondary 1 or 2, not Primary.
Your hard drive should be Primary 1... or you need to jump through a lot of hoops unnecessarily.
Also, an EIDE Hard drive MUST be on an 80 conductor, 40 connector cable, whereas the CD player can be on a simple 40 conductor, 40 connector cable.
You can jumper the drives as Cable Select, but then, you want the hard drive on the end of the Primary EIDE cable, and the CD on the end of the Secondary IDE cable.

 

[luvhuffer]

Is this a new mobo, or a problem starting up after having been working before? What kind of mobo is it? I'm asking because some mobos have the IDE connector on the SATA controller, and the controller drivers need to be installed along with windows.

 

[rhyeen]

raybay: i don't know how i'd do this exactly since my MOBO only has one IDE calbe slot, (that's why i set the master to Cd and the slave to HDD) i have really no idea how i'd set the primary to be the HDD since the cable isn't long enough to loop the slave connector to the CD drive (does that make sense?) Also...i doubt the problem with the cable is that it won't connect with my HDD if anything it would be my CD drive, because writing on the cable says 'HDD cable'. If...i'm just repeating a bunch of bull crap, and what your saying still holds true, then i'd love a step by step intruction on how to do what your saying, thanks.
luvhuffer: like i said, everything but the HDD and CDD is only a week old, the MOBO is an ASUS V3-M2A690G AMD Socket AM2 AMD Athlon X2 / Athlon 64 FX that was pre-mounted with my case (Barebone). Never tried this MOBO with any other HDD or CD drive, and the IDE cable came with the board. I don't know exactly what you mean by SATA controller, but i do know that i have two wonderful little slots on my MOBO where i can have a SATA cable connect to (and if i had the money for a SATA HDD i would have already been using them).

hope this helps a little bit...i realize i'm not the best with computer terms, or understanding but i thank you for your patients

 

[raybay]

We really cannot help you much on this forum, because for some reason you do not want to tell us the motherboard, computer brand, or other specifications.

It is clear to me your understanding of how such things work is much different than anything I have learned... but I am always willing to learn when i have the specs for an independent look.

I cannot find any AMD board with only one slot... but perhaps there are some in the small form factor computers.
If this is a new unit, it is likely you have a SATA board for the hard drive, and an EIDE socket for the optical drives.
Tell us the brand and model of the computer, or the part number/model number of the motherboard... usually found embossed with white letters near the center of the board.

 

[rhyeen]

*slap on forehead...ray...1- i told you my motherboard on my last post. Using the info i gave you i am able to find my motherboard on newegg and the asus website, don't tell me i didn't tell you my motherboard. My other specs? click on my name, go to my profile, it's all there, it would take you longer to right a reply telling me you don't know my specs then it would for you just to find them there. and my computer brand? it has none. i built it! now if you mean operating system, it's an XP media center adition, i bought all the parts on newegg, it's not a Toshiba, Dell, Compaq, Nec, Packard Bell, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, it's NOT A BRAND.
2- it's not just an AMD motherboard raybay, it's a barebone AMD motherboard, that's probably why you can't find it (though i told you it was one). I know, i couldn't find it on their website either until i found it in the barebone section. and yes...it only has one HDD cable slot, and one floppy cable slot, trust me on that.
3- i have a SATA HDD in another computer, and i know what they look like, this HDD is not a SATA harddrive.
4- if you are looking for what the MOBO looks like, here it is: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856110077&Tpk=56-110-077 or the V3-M2a690G driver's website: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
5- as for the number/model number on my MOBO, can't really give you that since my video card is in the way, and i won't even explain as to why i can't remove that thing.