Boot Problem

[nipdog001]

This is contuning problem from a diffrent post, I had a hard drive that failed completly. I tried to freeze and that didn't work. I went back to owner of computer and told her that she nedds to buy new harddrive. I wanted to check everything else in her system just to make sure when she gets new Harddrive evertyhing will go smoothly(ha).I follwed a link posted in one of the threads in this forum to a Diagnosis software to use while bboting. That has its' own OS to check harware problems.When I go to boot up, it runs bios, checks memory, floppy light comes on and goes off. Then it displays "Disk Boot Faliure, Insert System Disk" I understand that since I don't have hard drive in that that would be because of that. If i set up the boot sequence to boot to A: drive first it should of booted to floppy and it should of ran the dx software. IS there anywyay to verify the rest of my componets are working without harddrive being present. I do have a small 512 MB harddrive that I could stick in there just to test if that would help. I don't want to have her buy a harddrive and then have to tell her something else needs to be bought. thanks fo rthe help.

[Budfred]

If you have it set to boot to floppy and it didn't, then it sounds like you need to some problem solving about the floppy. It should boot to floppy whether you have a hard drive or not. If you have Windoze Startup or some other boot disk, I would try that to make sure that your floppy disk isn't the problem. If that still doesn't work, I would check the floppy drive cable and power connections to make sure they haven't come loose during the other work you have been doing, then try it again. If it still doesn't work, I would try a different floppy drive.

Budfred

[nipdog001]

Even if I didn't have the first drive set to floppy, wouldn't it still skip past hard drive and go to floppy?, The light comes on and goes off on the floppy. What else could I check, it recognizes the floppy in the BIOS.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

You could try a boot floppy with the 512 meg HDD in place of the defective one. Use the boot floppy to ScanDisk the HDD. If it proceeds and whether or not any errors about bad sectors are reported, you'll at least know the motherboard and BIOS are functioning properly.

If succesful, feel confident that all that is needed is another drive. But not recalling the specific pc, recognition of large disks might be of concern if the pc is quite old and the bIOS hasn't been updated. But there's a work around for that.

[Budfred]

If you don't have the first drive set to floppy and there is no hard drive, I don't know if that would get it stuck or not. I would certainly set it to floppy just to be sure. Also, make sure at least the second boot goes to floppy even if you don't set the first that way.

Budfred

[nipdog001]

thanks I will try this tonight and post back with what I find out.

[nipdog001]

I HAVE COMPUTER GHOSTS, HOOKED PROBLEM COMPUTER FLOPPY DRIVE TO MY COMPUTER AND EVERYTHING WAS FINE, TOOK FLOPPY CABLE OFF OF MY COMPUTER AND PUT INTO PROBLEM COMPUTER EVERYTHING FINE. BAD CABLE?, I THEN PUT PROBLEM COMPUTER FLOPPY CABLE ON FLOPPY WORKED.I THOUGHT SINCE I WAS TRYING FLOPPIES I HAD A OLD COMPUTE THAT I WASN'T SURE FLOPPY WORKED HOOKED UP TO MY WORKING COMPUTER AND IT WOULDN'T POWER ON AT ALL. NOTHING NO FAN , NO LIGHTS NOTHING, I CHECKED ALL THE CONNECTORS, THE PLUG ON THE BACK THE CONNENCTORS TO THE MOTHERBOARDS. DECIDED TO CHECK THIS MORNING AND LOW AND BEHOLD MY COMPUTER HAD POWER AGAIN. SO AS IT STANDS EVRYTHING IS WORKING.DON'T KNOW WHY, DON'T KNOW HOW BUT AM GLAD, THANKS FOR THE HELP.

[Budfred]

Glad to hear you got it fixed, though I have no idea how you did it. Congratulations.:)

Now on another note: please stop shouting, it is giving me a headache. You may not realize it, but all caps is considered shouting and if you try to read it you can see why. It is very difficult to read....:rolleyes:

Budfred

[nipdog001]

sorry, had my all caps on by mistake