Persistent boot error

cheezap

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May 12, 2014
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Whenever my computer starts it's almost a gamble of whether it will turn on or not, forcing me to restart it multiple times before windows will load.

Whenever windows doesn't load, it displays messages like "reboot and insert proper boot device" or "a disk read error occurred press ctrl alt del to restart". Some people have suggested the idea that it is a bios error, but I think that it's just that the hard drive where I store windows on is sometimes not detected or something like that. I have gone into the bios before when windows hadn't loaded and it didn't even show my hard drive on the device list.

That is just my guess, and if anyone can confirm or deny it that would a big help. I would also like to know what course of action I would have to take to fix it, such as replacing the hard drive or not.

Thanks in advance.
 

visa

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Oct 6, 2006
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Perhaps try a Windows repair, /fixmbr, /fixboot (http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/17521-how-fix-mbr-through-command-prompt.html) or something like that to make sure it's not a software error also.

As far as hardware, you can try running chkdsk /f and see if it comes up with any errors and also see if it fixes those errors. Also check in the event logs and see if there is anything abnormal showing up.
 
One of the most basic and overlooked things is to check your cabling to the drive. Check/change the power cable, check both ends of the SATA cable (drive and motherboard), if after all this, consider trying another SATA cable. It's not often a SATA cable is bad, but it does happen.