Solved DiskBoot Failure, please insert system disk.

[Genesis4455]

I have a computer on my hands that has had troubles, When I first took a look at the computer I thought it was the hard drive, then I did a factory restore and everything was fine, installed drivers just fine etc etc. But after everything was said and done, when the computer started, the error "DiskBoot Failure, please insert system disk" came up. I then took the computer and opened it up and made sure the HD was pluged in correctly,replaced SATA cables, and tried again, Same thing. After tinkering around a bit and going into bios, the bios didnt recognize the HD. SO I put hirens in and then went to the boot menu... Of course it was there, Booted into hard drive everything was fine. SOO I restarted the computer again went into the boot menu and it was gone... After booting into hirens mini windows xP I went to the HDs and it was there once again, so atm im doing a chkdsk for errors and bad sectors. Could it be a bad Hard drive?

 

[TVeblen]

Most likely the Boot files are missing or corrupted due to the restore.

First, make yourself a Partition Wizard Bootable CD from here: Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to boot computer directly to manage partition.

Make sure your CD-ROM is set to be the first boot device in the BIOS and then boot into Partition Wizard.

Make sure the partition that Windows is installed on is set to Active. Right click the OS partition > Modify > Set as Active.

Remove the Partition Wizard CD and put in your W7 installation DVD.
Restart the computer.
Run Startup Repair from W7 DVD 3 times.

Hope that helps.

 

[alphanumeric]

I'm confused? If the BIOS doesn't detect the hard drive it shouldn't matter what you boot to, it shouldn't be accessible at all. BIOS first then OS.

 

[Genesis4455]

Tv, can I just throw the installinatikn desk

 

[Genesis4455]

Sorry iPhone, can I just put the installation disk in and repair?

 

[TVeblen]

I'm confused? If the BIOS doesn't detect the hard drive it shouldn't matter what you boot to, it shouldn't be accessible at all. BIOS first then OS.

Yes Alpha, it is contradictory and confusing. But if the BIOS truly could not see the HDD (as opposed to the OP) then how could Hirens see it? So I'm going on the assumption that it is recognized in the BIOS. We will know soon enough if that is true or not.

Genesis: You should weigh in here with what you know. For best results, use clear, concise, short sentences!

 

[TVeblen]

Sorry iPhone, can I just put the installation disk in and repair?

You could try it, sure. But if the partition with the OS boot files is not marked as active then Startup Repair will not work.

You could also make the problem a little harder to fix if a different partition is marked as active then the one with the boot files. For instance if you have a 100MB System Reserved partition, that will be the one that must be marked as Active.

Running Partition Wizard does double duty too. You can discover if the disk is recognized, what is going on with the partition structure, and even post pictures here showing us what is going on. Remember: we are groping in the dark over here.

So try it: start at step 2 and if it does not work then you will have to go back and start over at step 1.

 

[alphanumeric]

I'm confused? If the BIOS doesn't detect the hard drive it shouldn't matter what you boot to, it shouldn't be accessible at all. BIOS first then OS.

Yes Alpha, it is contradictory and confusing. But if the BIOS truly could not see the HDD (as opposed to the OP) then how could Hirens see it? So I'm going on the assumption that it is recognized in the BIOS. We will know soon enough if that is true or not.

Exactly what I was thinking. It's detected but not listed as a boot option in the boot menu for some reason.

 

[Genesis4455]

I'll post pictures asap, I'm running some stuff, I'll get back to you, it is contradictory I know, that's why I'm confused about it

 

[Genesis4455]

okay, well I put in the OS disk and hit repair, as soon as I hit "repair" It popped up, There was a problem with your start up, do you want to repair this" I clicked "okay" and it hasnt done that... does that say anything to you guys?

 

[alphanumeric]

When you "installed drivers, etc, etc," you didn't happen to update the BIOS did you?

 

[TVeblen]

okay, well I put in the OS disk and hit repair, as soon as I hit "repair" It popped up, There was a problem with your start up, do you want to repair this" I clicked "okay" and it hasnt done that... does that say anything to you guys?

Not quite sure of what you are describing.
"It popped up". A Window? A message?
"and it hasn't done that". Did anything happen? Did you get any message?

It is often necessary to run Startup Repair 3 times.

And as I said before, if the partition that contains the files needed for booting is not marked as ACTIVE then Startup Repair may not work. If the disk has a SYSTEM RESERVED partition then that is the one that should be marked as active. If not, then the C: drive with Windows on it should be.
You would then need to go back and use a utility program like Partition Wizard (if you want to work in a GUI environment) or DISKPART (if you are comfortable in a DOS like environment).

 

[Genesis4455]

Never mind on the "pop up window" I was talking about i did what you said with the partition program recovery three times etc. but now I can recreate the problem, when I leave the computer off for a night and turn it on, the error pops up and when I go back into windows system recovery repair this comes up.

The following startup options will be added
Path:windows
Windows device: partition=C

A copy of the current boot configuration will be saved as:
C:\boot\bcd.backup.001

 

[Genesis4455]

Update: then when I hit repair it says "failed to repair" there's an error code let me take a picture and get back with you

 

[TVeblen]

It is becoming evident that there may be a problem with the hard drive.
You should run a hard drive diagnostic program on it from the manufacturer. What brand is it?
Did you say you checked in the BIOS settings to see if the drive was recognized there?

 

[Genesis4455]

When I ran several diagnostic programs it said it was healthy,but when it throws the error out in the bios it doesn't recognize the hd, but the thing I don't understand is when it does start up just fine the software shows it as okay and healthy..why is that? Is it because its starting to fail?

 

[TVeblen]

Yes, that is a possibility. It could also be a connection problem between the drive and the motherboard.

They make a hard drive diagnostic ISO that you burn on a CD and then you can boot from the CD and run the diagnostic completely independent of the OS. This may be helpful in your case, because if you can get into windows then you have already gotten past the problem so it would be logical that the problem would not be detected if it only occurs on startup.

 

[alphanumeric]

Have a look at this. \Boot\BCD Problem!! - Microsoft Answers If you have already done all of this then my apologies.

 

[Genesis4455]

I used that partition program to rebuild the boot stuff, would that be the same as using the cmd prompt to do it? Or is it different, also if I decided to reinstall 7 and I have a seven disk but not the manufacturers disk can I just call it in and get the key on the computer working?

 

[alphanumeric]

I don't know anything about that partition program so I don't know if it does the same thing as what I linked too. If you are going to do a clean install you can use the Product code on the sticker, you may have to activate by phone though.


http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/174907-clean-install-factory-coa-activation-key.html?filter