Yet another "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK..." thread

[whocarezzz]

so i'm an international student studying in UK
my uncle built me a gaming desktop ( with GF8800!! ) and i just received it yesterday

i've read another thread about this problem ( http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/225024-13-quot-disk-boot-failure-insert-system-disk-quot )
insightful but not very helpful though

so i'm trying to install win XP on this Western Digital HDD but it shows that disk boot failure message
i've tried a few different XP discs but no luck, so its probably not the problem of discs ( i even tried hiren boot disk )
i tried to boot with difference boot order ( HDD/DVDROM ), doesnt work
both the HDD and DVDROM are SATA by the way so no jumper setting

the bios setting has the on board IDE chanel 0 enabled ( i dunno what that means and what for ) so both HDD is in IDE chanel 2 Master and IDE chanel 3 for the DVDROM
both HDD and DVDROM are detected in BIOS so i assume they both are functioning well

its driving me crazy seriously!!
i wanna start playing games so bad and i've no idea whats wrong with my desktop!!
please help guys!!

 

[Grimmy]

Let start from the beginning.

For one IDE channel with 2 devices, 1 will be a master, the other slave.

The other, you can use either CS (cable select) or master for 1 device. If there are 2, then the same will apply with one being master, the other slave.

In the bios, check for the bootup devices. You can set the 1st boot device as your CD-Rom or DVD. That should cause it to boot off the CD and start your XP installation.

Hope that helps some.

Edit:

Might want to be clear on the type of drive you have. Is it IDE or SATA or SATA2?

 

[whocarezzz]

first of all thanks for the fast reply

i'm pretty sure its a SATA2 drive

and i dont quite get this bit...

For one IDE channel with 2 devices, 1 will be a master, the other slave.

The other, you can use either CS (cable select) or master for 1 device. If there are 2, then the same will apply with one being master, the other slave.

'cause all the cables go to the ATX slot of my motherboard, the IDE slot is empty, so am i even using an IDE channel?
and i only have one hard disk in my computer, so do i still have to set the jumper?
plus, i cant seem to see anywhere to set jumper on the DVDROM, so if i have to, how do i set it slave?

 

[evongugg]

If you have SATA hard drives and optical drives, there are no jumpers to set. Just go in the Bios and choose to boot first from the optical drive, so you can install XP.

 

[tomdrum]

^ yer seems like your trying to read of a blank hdd instead of the disc

 

[Grimmy]

first of all thanks for the fast reply

i'm pretty sure its a SATA2 drive

and i dont quite get this bit...



'cause all the cables go to the ATX slot of my motherboard, the IDE slot is empty, so am i even using an IDE channel?
and i only have one hard disk in my computer, so do i still have to set the jumper?
plus, i cant seem to see anywhere to set jumper on the DVDROM, so if i have to, how do i set it slave?

Heh.. That was my point on the edit. Like the other guys said, there's no jumper for SATA or SATA2. You just need the bios boot from the CD or DVD drive first. Later on, you can switch it back to your SATA drive.

 

[whocarezzz]

so what do i practically do?
disconnect the HDD and boot from the DVD drive only?
i'm gonna try that now...

 

[whocarezzz]

update:
no it doesnt work
same result

 

[Grimmy]

No.. you don't take the HD out. You go into the bios, when you turn your PC on, normally you hit del to enter the setup (some would be F10). From there, you need to look for bootup secquence. Not all MB bios have the same bios, so look at the manual for your MB.

 

[whocarezzz]

oh bootup sequence
yes of cause i've tried that
tried 1st boot HDD + 2nd boot CDROM, 1st boot CDROM + 2nd boot HDD, 1st boot HDD only as well as 1st boot HDD only
none worked

 

[whocarezzz]

*as well as 1st boot CDROM only

 

[Grimmy]

Well... that can only perhaps mean one thing. Your Windows installation might possibly be non-bootable CD, which means you might need to do it with floppy disk.

Can you put that CD in another machine, to see if it will bootup to windows setup?

Edit:

Or... Your bios doesn't see the CD or DVD drive.

 

[whocarezzz]

almost sure the CDs are fine
i've tried to put them in my laptop and restart it, the "press any key to boot from CD" count down shows up

and the DVD drive is there in BIOS


i'm gonna get a USB CDROM drive from my friend tonite in case the DVD drive of mine shows fine in BIOS but in fact not working by any chance

 

[Grimmy]

Hmm... is it a SATA2 DVD drive?

Are you sure your choosing the right one?

I know my bootup devices changes when I leave a usb flash drive in or external hd, so it adds it in.

Kinda wonder if there are other selections your not seeing. I basically have an IDE DVD drive rather then SATA2, so that has me wondering.

 

[whocarezzz]

i'm not very familiar with hardware but i guess the DVD drive is a SATA ( dunno 1 or 2 ) one?
'cause it doesnt have that 4 pin power supply that IDE drives use at the back

and no i dont have any storage devices/flash drive/external connected at the moment

 

[Grimmy]

What MB are ya using? Perhaps I'll take a peek at the manual.

 

[badger101101]

Make sure you press the space bar when it attemps to read from the cd rom. When you boot up with the CDROM as your first boot device, it will usually say something like: "Press Space Bar to Boot from CDROM...." or something like that. If you don't, it will then attempt to boot from your hard drive which of course has nothing on it.

 

[whocarezzz]

MB - Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4


"Press Space Bar to Boot from CDROM...."?
dont see that at all

 

[rubix_1011]

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=55820EDB-5039-4955-BCB7-4FED408EA73F

Try this. There also should be a utility on your XP disc that allows you to create a bootable floppy in case the CD does not autorun. This is usually makeboot32 or something of that nature. This will need to be done from an already existing Windows-running PC, such as your laptop you tested the auto-boot on. If you have the ability to make a floppy (or bootable USB, but at this point, you are having enough problems getting going) do it...it might have you some headaches if you have tried all the above.

 

[rubix_1011]

I guess I didn't consider in my own reply that many laptops lack floppy drives these days...my mistake.

 

[maury73]

Be careful! Not ALL SATA ports are identical on the mobo: read carefully the manual it explicitly states what SATA ports you can use for system booting, the others will not work!

 

[Grimmy]

Oh gawd.. downloading this PDF manual is painfully slow from gigabyte. Geeesh... not to mention I have 9MB pipe for downloading.

What Moury73 mention was what I was trying to look up. :lol:. o O (and the manual is still downloading)

I did find other threads with people having problems installing windows with a SATA DVD drive. I knew that was the reason why I stuck with IDE for optical drives. :lol:

 

[Grimmy]

Ahhh... I think I found it.

Looks like you need to hit F12 (boot menu) to choose/force a bootup device, instead of hitting delete to get in the bios.

Hope that werks.

 

[whocarezzz]

hey actually guess what the external CDrom i borrowed from my friend is FREAKING working!!
i dunno whats wrong with my drive but i'll see when i finsihed installing windows
thanks a lot guys you guys rock!!

 

[evilshuriken]

There is definitely an issue with certain sata optical drives not booting from the xp installation disc. Just a few weeks back I had this issue with a friend's new pc and everything was configured as it should. I worked around the problem by using an ide drive from my own pc.
So beware of those sata optical disc drives kiddos