I've been having this problem for a few days now (and doing personal research in addition to requests for help on EggXpert and Anandtech) and I was wondering if any users on Tom's could help me out with this issue.

I have the ASUS P5N-D motherboard and after installing Windows (and formatting all the drives) my computer tells me "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER."

So when this pops up, I found that if I leave the Windows XP CD in, it asks to boot from CD (which I just let it run without pressing enter) and Windows starts up normally. I changed the boot sequence so it goes HDD, CD, then REMOVABLE... but it didn't seem to solve anything.

I have 3x 250GB WD Caviars (all OEM from Newegg) and from what I've seen they read/write/function normally in Windows. Two of the HDDs are set in RAID 0 and in the boot sequence, this is the first HDD listed (with the backup being second).

I tried taking out hte battery on the MB and put it back in to reset the CMOS as has been suggested. Now instead of loading Windows while having the CD in, it loads the XP installation CD instead of the OS itself.

With no luck finding any solutions, I totally reformatted everything -- I deleted and reinstalled two of my HDDs and put them back in a RAID 0 setup and partitioned that setup to a C/D type of deal like before. Installed Windows and got the same issue.

This is really frustrating me because my roommate built the same exact build (except he's using the equivalent Seagate 250GB HDDs). He's thinking that it may be a problem with the HDDs, but so far it seems like all three of them are working fine. Again after reformatting, getting the same error, and putting the Windows XP CD back in... it loads Windows. Though this is nice... I'd like the system to start without having the CD in there.

I could really use the help as I dropped a good 1600+ on this system

Thanks guys! Any help is always appreciated.

I would suggest trying to install the OS with only a single HDD installed, non-raid. If this works flawlessly then at least it gives you a baseline to start troubleshooting your raid setup. Something wrong with the raid controller, perhaps? Hope this helps.

Makes sense...

I am pretty new at this (this is my first home built system and most of my knowledge comes from the hours of research I put into each part before putting the build together) so could you tell me what I could do to check the raid controllers? Basically what my roommate did is copy the files that the ASUS drivers CD gave him and put it on a floppy. Worked flawlessly for him so this is why he thinks it's the actual HDDs.

I'll assume, then, that you're using an ASUS motherboard. You might try checking the ASUS website for newer versions of the drivers. Drivers on included discs are almost inherently out of date, an effect of the time it takes once the product is manufactured and its driver disc written and packaged to the point that you receive it. Maybe your WD drives are more picky about the raid drivers than your friends Seagates, though this seems unlikely (though it's worth checking). Of course, there's always a chance you have a bad motherboard.

Did you set the RAID partition as bootable in the RAID BIOS?
Sounds more like a configuration issue than an actual HW/SW issue. Also check that in the Motherboard BIOS you have the correct SATA drives set to be members of the RAID.

sounds like a boot order snafu

Try booting with only the OS HD in the system. Does it boot?

or it could be as simple a problem as this ^

It's definitely not a boot order snafu and I am definitely booting from the RAID drive. I will, however, try to boot the OS HD without the backup HD first and see what happens.

Thanks for your help guys.

I had nearly the same exact problem with my Asus P5ND2-SLI a while back.

I had just installed a second SATA 300 GB hard drive. After rebooting, I got the "Disk Boot Failure" message. I also found that just the presence of the WinXP disk in the CD drive would allow the computer to boot normally. I didn't have to boot from the CD, just have it in the drive. If I disconnected the new hard drive, everything worked just fine as before. Finally after much searching, I was able to solve the problem by updating the motherboard BIOS from the Asus website. If you haven't done so already, I'd try that.

Hope this helps.

As a side note, I also experienced an intermittent problem with WinXP hanging during boot. I finally found that if I did not install the chipset drivers that came with the motherboard, the problem never resurfaced.

I had a few problems like this before, but it was my fault cuz i didnt check my jumpers on the cd drive and the hard drives, making sure they were set to cable select... wait, your using sata drives... hmm i dunno. soz

Make sure the cables are pushed in firmly and try again. check the floppy cables too if you're using one, or make sure it's disabled if you aren't... in bios

I also had the "Disk Boot Failure" message recently and that us what worked for me....I got my message after getting the BSOD while playing Supreme Commander...lol...I thought it was maybe because of my overclock but after countless tries to get back to windows I opened up my tower and mad5e sure everything was connected and that seemed to work

I agree with gliderp1, +1 for updating your BIOS.

I'm having the same problem.

ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe, Athlon 64 dual 4800, three hard drives installed, 3G of RAM.

Had Windows XP running, installed Vista 64 ultimate (from CD, as you can't install 64 bit version from the 32 bits XP) on a separate brand new hard drive (as I didn't want to run the risk of loosing everything! God I'm happy I did!)

The system reboots fine in Vista as long as the installation CD is in. As soon as I remove it and try to boot from Vista, I get the infamous "Disk Boot Failure etc...".

The system will indeed boot normally from the old XP Hard Drive.

Updated Bios, pushed every cable in, tried MS utilities in the Vista recovery console to rebuild the MBR, nothing works.

It seems that the Vista Boat Loader does not get installed on the new hard drive... Anybody knows how we can do this? In XP, fdisk /MBR would do the trick, but not anymore.....

I'm so desperate, I'm thinking of installing LILO on that drive, but would prefer avoiding path solutions...

Tag because it's interesting

Gotta pay my dues: problem solved!

After much searching through the internet, I discovered that some people had successes by changing the actual order of the SATA cables.

My new hard disk was on SATA port 3 or 4 I think. I disconnected the Port 1 HD and connected the new target master HD on Port 1.

Did a fresh reinstall.

Everything boots normally now....

Microsoft never told me this.... They refused to help me, thinking I was trying to hack their software which I paid a good $300 for... p.o.ed!!!