Computer wont boot up

[All Seeing Eye]

I'm currently posting from someone elses computer at the mo because mine is down.

A few weeks ago my computer froze and when I restarted it the computer would not boot back up, it said no boot disk detected. After several tries eventually I got a screen that said there had been an error and I chose the option to reboot from a previous time incase it was a software problem that had recently been loaded onto the computer. After I reloaded it the computer was ok and has been fine ever since until last night. I was on the internet and all of a sudden it froze, so I rebooted the computer (I had a feeling the same thing would happen) and once again it would not boot up. The fan works, the computer starts up but when it makes the noise to read the drive that's when the no boot drive message pops up. Even after putting the windows CD to attempt to reload windows it won't work because it says there are no drives detected.

Now of course possibly it's a problem with the hardrive but if it is indeed the case why did it start working again the last time this happened after a few resets?

Any ideas what the problem is? This time even after rebooting several times it won't work now.

EDIT: The message that comes up reads "Disk Boot Failure Please insert boot disk and press enter"

Oh and I don't have a boot disk.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Have you tried going into BIOS setup? Sometimes if you upgrade the BIOS or have some work done on the hardware, the BIOS does not recognise the hard drives or gets the boot order wrong. If this is the case, looking for an option to reorder the boot-up media so it recognises the hard disk might work.

Either that, or try a rolled-back BIOS driver.

Either that, or the hard disk really is at fault. Try booting with a replacement and see if that works.

 

[Commander Kit Draper]

I'm currently posting from someone elses computer at the mo because mine is down.

A few weeks ago my computer froze and when I restarted it the computer would not boot back up, it said no boot disk detected. After several tries eventually I got a screen that said there had been an error and I chose the option to reboot from a previous time incase it was a software problem that had recently been loaded onto the computer. After I reloaded it the computer was ok and has been fine ever since until last night. I was on the internet and all of a sudden it froze, so I rebooted the computer (I had a feeling the same thing would happen) and once again it would not boot up. The fan works, the computer starts up but when it makes the noise to read the drive that's when the no boot drive message pops up. Even after putting the windows CD to attempt to reload windows it won't work because it says there are no drives detected.

Now of course possibly it's a problem with the hardrive but if it is indeed the case why did it start working again the last time this happened after a few resets?

Any ideas what the problem is? This time even after rebooting several times it won't work now.

EDIT: The message that comes up reads "Disk Boot Failure Please insert boot disk and press enter"

Oh and I don't have a boot disk.

If you're able to get it to boot up again, immediately back up everything important. It sounds like it could be a hard drive failure. They don't always crash. Sometimes, you get a few weeks or days notice before they seize up. How old is the drive?

CKD

 

[Jadzia]

<Start Here>
I'm assuming you haven't made any changes to your system, such as messing with bios settings, messing with the hardware, or trying to install a new operating system, or deleting system files.

Proceed at your own risk...

1. Do you have a disc in any floppy/CD/DVD drive. If a floppy disk/cd/dvd has a boot sector it may try to boot from that and fail. Same applies to USB memory sticks. Try removing discs and memory sticks and rebooting. If no success, goto step 2.

2. Does the hard drive have a loose connection? Try unplugging/replugging it. Make sure the connecting cable has no nicks in it. If it looks damaged anywhere, then try a different cable. If no success, goto step 3.

3. Is the hard disk visible in bios? Enter bios on startup (often you hold the delete key down as you power on). Use the arrow keys to find an option like "HDD settings". Does it show your hard disk? It may just be the boot-up that's gone wrong, not the drive itself. If it sees the drive, goto step 4. If there is no drive visible, try autodetecting it and if there's still no luck, it's probably a hardware error. Option 6 is looking like the way forward.

4. Use your friends computer to download and create a Knoppix CD. Boot your computer with this. Knoppix is a complete and free operating system that works similar to Windows, running with linux kernel. You should be able to navigate it intuitively. It will allow you to access the contents of your hard disk without booting from it.

If nothing else, you can use Knoppix together with USB memory stick(s) and USB portable drives to backup your files before deciding what to do next. Step 5 is next.

The last resort options are:
5. If it is a software error, you might need to clear the drive and reinstall your operating system. Still no luck, goto step 6.
6. If it is a hardware error, you will need to acquire a new hard disk and reinstall your operating system.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Just take it to someone that's qualified to repair it.

 

[GMac]

It's showing all the signs of a hard disk that's either already dead or soon will be. You need to find someone who knows what they're doing to diagnose & fix it, but I'd definitely invest in a new hard drive as a matter of urgency as the one you have almost certainly needs replacing.

GM

 

[Noname Given]

It's showing all the signs of a hard disk that's either already dead or soon will be. You need to find someone who knows what they're doing to diagnose & fix it, but I'd definitely invest in a new hard drive as a matter of urgency as the one you have almost certainly needs replacing.

GM

We (imo) have a winner - it's either your physical hard disk drive that's died (most likely); or the controller hardware on the motherboard has fried (very rare these days but it still can happen). It could also be your data cable going from the hard dish to the motherboard controller; but again, within the last ten years, I think I seen two hard drive cables fail.

As stated above - IF you can regain access to the drive - backup everything you can get off of it. If not, go out and get another drive (you may want to bring your old drive with you because they'll need to know if it's IDE, or SATA. (Again, don't know how old your PC is or when if was first assembled).

Good luck - Hard Drive failures suck when you don't have backups of your critical stuff.

 

[Squiggy]

Just take it to someone that's qualified to repair it.

You're talking crazy!

 

[Brolan]

While all the things above could be true, the first thing I always check is the power supply. Once they start to go you can have all sorts of wierd problems, and they seem to die more often than other hardware.

If you can, have someone that knows computers swap out your power supply for a new one.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

I need a new:

SATA 80gb hard disk @ 7200rpm 8mb cache.

Which is the best to get and where is the best to get one from?

 

[Jadzia]

I need a new:

SATA 80gb hard disk @ 7200rpm 8mb cache.

Which is the best to get and where is the best to get one from?

Where did you hear this from?

Did you follow my advice?

80GB is small these days, especially for a SATA drive. For small drives like this, the prices are all much the same independent of the size: £40 for 80GB , £45 for 250GB, £50 for 350GB, would not be uncommon.

For just a little more you can have something bigger.

Is there a reason why you need this particular one?


Here. Maplin Electronics have 250GB SATA-II drives £40 on offer. 8MB cache and 7200RPM as requested. Stock code 'A52FB' They're open for business today.

The FAQ at the bottom of the page says that these SATA-II drives are backwards compatible with SATA-I motherboards so it should work fine.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Is there a reason why you need this particular one?

Well I guess size doesn't matter, the one thats crashed was an 80gb one, I wouldn't say I need a bigger one because there's more than enough space for me with 80gb but I suppose for an extra £5 I might aswell get a larger one.

Oh and you mentioned something about autodetecting the hard drive if it didn't show up in BIOS. How do you autodetect it? it doesn't give me any options like that.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Here. Maplin Electronics have 250GB SATA-II drives £40 on offer. 8MB cache and 7200RPM as requested. Stock code 'A52FB' They're open for business today.

The FAQ at the bottom of the page says that these SATA-II drives are backwards compatible with SATA-I motherboards so it should work fine.

If you were here with me right now I could kiss you. Thanks.

 

[Jadzia]

If you were here with me right now I could kiss you. Thanks.

 

[JustAFriend]

When your computer won't boot, first thing to try is replacing the crummy $3 CMOS battery.

The battery supplies the power when the computer is off to hold the cmos boot information. No power, cmos forgets where everything is and doesn't know what to do.

Good CHEAP thing to try FIRST.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

It's showing all the signs of a hard disk that's either already dead or soon will be. You need to find someone who knows what they're doing to diagnose & fix it, but I'd definitely invest in a new hard drive as a matter of urgency as the one you have almost certainly needs replacing.

GM

We (imo) have a winner - it's either your physical hard disk drive that's died (most likely); or the controller hardware on the motherboard has fried (very rare these days but it still can happen). It could also be your data cable going from the hard dish to the motherboard controller; but again, within the last ten years, I think I seen two hard drive cables fail.

As stated above - IF you can regain access to the drive - backup everything you can get off of it. If not, go out and get another drive (you may want to bring your old drive with you because they'll need to know if it's IDE, or SATA. (Again, don't know how old your PC is or when if was first assembled).

Good luck - Hard Drive failures suck when you don't have backups of your critical stuff.

Nothing here absolutely has to mean hard drive failure.

The OS crashed, there was a memory dump, files in the cache got partially written and corrupted.

Won't boot because the master boot record is corrupted.

Put in your windows disk, boot from that, instead of doing an install hit "R" if it's XP and /fixmbr. or just choose to recover if it's Vista. Vista may have to do several recovery steps because it's automated and will do one at a time. /fixboot and /rebuildbcd are other commands to write down and try, they are each a bit more thorough.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

When your computer won't boot, first thing to try is replacing the crummy $3 CMOS battery.

The battery supplies the power when the computer is off to hold the cmos boot information. No power, cmos forgets where everything is and doesn't know what to do.

Good CHEAP thing to try FIRST.

I just came online to tell you guys that i've just noticed this morning that whenever I turn on the computer the date and time in BIOS keeps resetting to 2003 (I bought the comp in 2006 though brand new) and even after I alter it to the correct date and time and save it everytime I turn the power off then turn it back on it resets again.

After reading your post I reckon that may be a problem I have. BUT! that battery just retains memory, why would the motherboard still be unable to detect my hardrive? when it's switched on at the wall and power is running through the system the motherboard should still detect my hardrive shouldn't it?

Put in your windows disk, boot from that, instead of doing an install hit "R" if it's XP and /fixmbr. or just choose to recover if it's Vista. Vista may have to do several recovery steps because it's automated and will do one at a time. /fixboot and /rebuildbcd are other commands to write down and try, they are each a bit more thorough.

That won't work because I already tried it, I can't load windows or even repair windows whatsoever because it immediately tells me there is no hard drive detected.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

That won't work because I already tried it, I can't load windows or even repair windows whatsoever because it immediately tells me there is no hard drive detected.

Sorry, that wasn't actually clear, you would get the "no hd" error from just trying to let it boot, when the mbr is corrupt.

So, to be clear, when you go into the bios, does the disk appear there? And, sorry to be obvious but this is basic troubleshooting, have you checked the data cable and power cable connecting the hard drive?

As far as the CMOS battery goes, it will only detect the hd if it is set up to auto detect each time it boots. That may not be the case, it may default to manual.

Even if the battery is dead, it should still retain everything if it is plugged in, unless you turn off the power bar, or unplug it, etc.

 

[USS KG5]

I just came online to tell you guys that i've just noticed this morning that whenever I turn on the computer the date and time in BIOS keeps resetting to 2003 (I bought the comp in 2006 though brand new) and even after I alter it to the correct date and time and save it everytime I turn the power off then turn it back on it resets again.

Try this: -

1. Change your CMOS battery.
2. Check for a BIOS setting that allows you to boot from a SATA HDD - in the earlier days of SATA some Mobos had this disabled by default. Enable this.

This might be it. I had this exact problem once.

 

[smithaa02]

That won't work because I already tried it, I can't load windows or even repair windows whatsoever because it immediately tells me there is no hard drive detected.

My favorite fix for this is actually freezing the harddrive. Just wrap the harddrive in a towel to keep mosture out and put it in your freezer overnight. By freezing the harddrive it shrinks any loose connections and it actually fixed my no hard drive detected issue (multiple times actually).