Disk boot failure, insert system disk and press Enter 3

[KingofSnake]

I have no idea why this is happening, but today I went to turn on my computer on when my BIOS got to "Detecting Primary Master [Press F4 to Skip]", my computer emmited this terrible scary dot-matrix printer type scaning/(scraping?) sound. After a little more loading stuff, but before Windows 98 is loaded, I get "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER".

This freaked me out, because I haven't made a boot disk! Luckily, I reset the computer (and I got the same scary dot-matrix printer sound), but no DISK BOOT FAILURE error message.

I've made a boot disk to be safe, but now I'm scared to shut this computer down for fear of killing something.
KingOfSnake - The only sports drink with ice crystals
(and marshmellos!)

 

[shirleyowl]

I can only get in via safemode
can I do anything from there? Learn something new every day.

 

[wolluf]

Most windows functions work in safe mode.
But, I think you need to work out what you want to achieve now. I don't know how much data which needs backing up you have on the drive that is causing the problems - but my first priority would be to do that. That's why I suggested installing windows on the second drive - hopefully you can back up what you need on that drive too (personal data is not usually too large - unless you have lots of MP3s or videos - in which case, do you have a CD writer you could back up to? Once backed up, you can investigate the bad drive. An obvious option would be to wipe it clean & install fresh copy of windows. If both the formatting operation and the scandisk before windows installs run ok, its likely drive is ok, and your problems have been software based. I would go on using it in this case - reinstall you software etc. Keep a watch for odd behaviour though (although, unfortunately you have windows ME, which by general consensus is worst version of Windows! - so odd behaviour is not uncommon). If there are problems with formatting or scandisk, would suggest disk is not reliable. I'd retire it in this case.
All this will take a fair amount of time - I don't know how much you wish to spend. You could just carry on using smaller drive as master with windows & make the problem drive slave (if it formats ok).
Enough of this rambling. Hope its of some use.

 

[shirleyowl]

I dont believe, this I am hoping it is not my hard drive as this is just the problem I had when I bought the new hard drive. I think I may take it into my supplier, a local small firm not a big retailer nd see what they say. If I dont get any joy with SCandisk, which starts and then tells me it has found new hardware, but not what it is so I dont know what driver o look for.
I tried starting in the mode where I could tell it which progs,devices to load and dropped the scanner from thte list but it still wnats a driver for new hardware.
My 8Gb drive was my main. I bought Win ME becaue 95 wouldnt recognise my 30gb hard drive except in 2 gb partitions.HO HUM
Will try out suggestions tomorrow.
then if all else fails take it to Swanley computers on Monday.
thanks for helping so far anyway. but really

regrds
shirley Learn something new every day.

 

[shirleyowl]

I tried installing WinMe this morning by putting the disc in the CD drive, but nothing happens, It still searches for new hardware.
I am going to try unplugging all my peripherals and then boot it up. See what happens. Otherwise it will have to go for more specialist help as I have tried all that I know just to get into the machine. Learn something new every day.

 

[wolluf]

Shirley,

Have you set machine to boot from CD rather than floppy/hard drive (bios setting) before booting with ME disk in drive?

 

[shirleyowl]

Oh No I didnt realise. I wondered how to do it and in the end gave up and took it to the supplier in Dartford . they built the machine for me last year so know it and hopefully will get it sorted. I am cross that I couldnt do it myself, but I did want to get it working properly again as I use it for my card making and my scanner only works on my PC, It is so old it wont work on my iMac.

BUt I thank you very much for your help. and will star your responses even tho I had to get it fixed elswhere.
I will post back later if they can tell me what went wrong as this may help other people.

Thank you very much for your time.
regards
Shirley Learn something new every day.

 

[davidelnormal]

I would suggest that your hard drive is on the verge of pegging out. Back up as much data as you can and have a new hard drive installed. If you are lucky, you may be in time for the contents of your hard drive to be cloned to the new drive before the old one dies.

 

[mvachon]

I wish I had seen this post sooner...
Most hard drive mfgs. Have utilities posted on their sites to diagnose drive problems like the ones that have been noted here. Many also have an automated RMA system that will allow you to return a drive that is still under warranty. I had a recent experience with Seagate that was refreshingly pleasant. I was able to confirm the drive was still under warranty via their site. After running the diagnostic as instructed, I posted the noted error code and received the info. for processing the return. New/replacement drive showed up promptly and I was back in business! Of course, data loss is a typical casualty in this type of event, and they assume no liability for that portion, but they do stand behind their equipment! Something to think about the next time you hear a drive going bump in the night...
Mike V.

 

[shirleyowl]

Ok thanks to everyone who posted on here to try to help me. I will put the result on here when I get my computer back. I suppose the warranty only lasts one year cos you can bet I was a monh over that.
Anyway As I said the people looking at it are the ones who fitted it so that should help
I may also put a 2nd OS onit Probably RedHat
cheers and have a beer or whatever on me. I'll pay U when I C U
to everyone, I will be back soon.

regards
shirley
Learn something new every day.

 

[shirleyowl]

WEll I had some good news but mostly bad,
My floppy drive worked.my 8 gig is still OK, funny I have had that ages and it is fine except for the glitch last year but that must have been a softwar problem, couldnt get pst the welcome screen. However
The bad news was that my hard drive was originally instlled on 1st November last year and #Fujitsu said, In the vein fo hard luck matey!!!! [2thumbsdown] if there isnt a smiley? for that there needs to be can someone produce one please. I dont know how, but if someone could teach me I can try .
The other thing is I do not know the cause of the problem,
so its cost me £125. to get it all sorted out. the drive cost 79.99 which was 50 quid less than it cost last year. but still all the labour and everything added up. I have put Win98 back on but it will take a bit of gettting used to after ME and I have installed my NAV as the first thing I did and updated it properly so that should run except the liveupdate facility is disabled. so have to sort thta out or put an email reminder to myself.Cos I already had bugbear this year which I didnt realise disabled NAV.
Anyway enuff rambling
thanks to all the techs who tried to help. will get back soon and post the stars tomorrow as its late and my bed calls.

Cheers everyone.
Shirley
Learn something new every day.

 

[udaisengupta]

Friends,
Going through the replies of this post made me feel that the essence of the post itself has been long lost. Hard disk emitting grinding noises...to installing WinME....phew!!! And what are those stars for....I wonder!!

Zigzag77 made the only decent suggestion in the entire post. Might not sound very technical at the first instance though, but did KingofSnake pay heed ??

Another suggestion - since ideas seem to be flowing pretty thick and fast (more thick than fast!!) - detach the Hard Drive and put it in the freezer overnight. Take it out the next morining and allow it to thaw in normal/room temperature for about an hour or so (hope you don't live close to the North or the South Poles). Wipe the drive clean and reinstall it in the PC. This should hopefully solve your problems. Remember to wear rubber-soled shoes while cleaning the drive. Hopefully that will simulate a static-free environment.


Best Regards,
Yours sincerely,
Udai.

 

[Win98User]

udaisengupta,
Thank you for your post it gave me a laugh on a Monday morning - that is always a god start to the week.

However, I feel I must take you to task over the cursory nature of your post.

You neglect to say whether the hard drive should be place in a plastic bag or any other container. You omit to mention the temperature the freezer should be set to. You totally ignore the problem of placing flesh on freezing cold metallic parts.

Further, Wives, mothers, fathers and the cat will be extremely put out at the prospect of a puddle of water in front of the fire hearth.

In addition to that, suggesting that the hard drive should be cleaned whilst wearing a pair of rubber-soled shoes ignores the fact that the person cleaning the hard drive is likely to be sat on the couch in front of the fire, negating the impact of rubber-soled shoes.

Though I do commend the time and dilligence that went into your post, I feel that when posting such a drastic step - you could at least say "why you think it will work" and reassure the person about to place the hard drive into the system that it won't be the last thing ;-) or maybe it will, if they are not as careful and experienced at cleaning as you are.



All the best.

 

[shirleyowl]

Oh yet more ideas, but what exactly will putting the hard drive in the freezer do>
I only heard that putting a car radio in the freezer when the code is not knowon helsp that process.
handy if you steal radios I suppose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alos I wonder wha tmy position is legallyas the shop kept my hard drive that they took out.
I wanted to be able to conact Fujitsu myself and plead with them. but I cant do that if I havent got the drive, Surely It is my property considring I paid for the thing in the 1st place??
Sorry this is more a legal rights question thatn a tech one but I owndered if anyone else had heard of this happening.
Learn something new every day.

 

[Win98User]

shirleyowl,
Start another thread and I will give you an answer - you might not like it but it will be informative.

Regards.

 

[udaisengupta]

Friends,
Glad to know that I could provide you with some fun.

You are right Win98User that I should be taken to task for the very cursory nature of my post.

Admittedly, I was under the impression that my friends would be knowledgeable enough NOT to keep the hard disk NOT wrapped up in the freezer.

The temperature can be the normal operating temperature of any freezer (hopefully it will not be set to near kelvin temp.).

I did mention thawing the hard drive out in room/normal temperature which does NOT necessarily mean sitting in front of the fire hearth to steam the hard drive !!!

You can say Win98User that I was mistaken in assuming that my friends are all well-informed, experience and careful techies (which I must admit I am yet to be).

As for the entire object of the exercise - substantial cooling effect induced on any computer peripheral or component increases performance to a certain degree. The physics of the exercise will be too large a subject to explain here but if you so desire I shall be most happy to present an article on this.

I have had experience in noticing that PCs tend to be very unstable and their behavioral patterns are a delight to any mathematician, when they are running with a very high temperature. In others words, lack of adequate cooling measures often lead to frequent crashing of the hard drives, frying of the CPUs and the mainboards (not to mention the chips of course - no pun intended).

It is possible that the PC of KingofSnake is not cooling itself properly. It is also possible that the PC has been subject to frequent power-sheddings and may have been running without an UPS. It is also possible that there have been numerous occasions of improper shutdown. Possibility of virus attacks cannot be ruled out.

Admittedly, my suggestion is wayward and may not sound very convincing. Indeed, even I could not explain it to myself when I managed to recover one of my hard drives in this fashion.

Best Regards,
Yours sincerely,
Udai.

 

[Win98User]

udaisengupta,
My colleauges at work were looking at me rather strangely as I sat laughing to myself in my little corner of the world.

I look forward to your future postings and I will not gainsay your suggestion until I have tried it myself - which may be never.

Kind Regards,

John.

 

[udaisengupta]

Never say never. Facts are stranger than fiction.
Best Regards,
Yours sincerely,
Udai.

 

[Grenage]

Indeed, quite strange frezzing hard drives. Pretty sure that would do it some harm.

It's a Fujitsu so don't be too suprised if it falls apart unfortunately most of them do although just over a year you should be able to send it back to them direct for a repair (probably not if you've turned it into a popsicle though).

And you do have the rights to your old Hard Drive. Demand it back

 

[Win98User]

Grenage,
See thread602-423766 for an update on shirleyowl's hard drive problem.

Also, a kind word of advice ;-) . I suggest that if you are going to make posts with spelling mistakes, that perhaps it should be Fujitsu that you spell wrongly.

Might help your defence if someone wants to sue you for libel - unless your are actually a Fujitsu executive with the inside track, then all you stand to lose is your job - unless you actually own Fujitsu, then all you stand to lose is your business.

Keep smiling. It makes people worry about what you know.

Regards,

John.

 

[Grenage]

In a bad mood are we Win98 ?

And it's hardly slander, it's been shown over and over that Fujitsu drives constantly fail. In fact come to think of it it wasn't too long ago they had to recall a rediculous number of defective drives.