Disk boot failure - thoughts?

[RSS]

After having my system running smoothly for a year, I have twice (in the
last couple of days) got a "Disk Boot Failure" during powerup. In both
cases, if I hit the reset button, the machine boots normally. The only
recent changes I've made are as follows: Installed a new audio
interface card (Delta 1010LT) about 3 weeks ago. Have had no problems.
Installed two pieces of audio/recording software. One of these
programs is a little buggy and occasionally crashes or locks up the
machine. But those were also installed 1-2 weeks ago, and the failure
occurred for the first time 2 days ago.

I'd be interested to know a) what tests I should perform, b) what the
most likely culprit is. I am not sure if the two times that this
occurred on startup were consecutive startups, or if it was like 2 out
of 3 - so it's not clear if it's intermittent or not. I'll do some more
experimentation with that later after I've backed up some of my data.

Thank you!!!

My system is as follows:

Athlon 2700XP

SOLTEK SL-75FRN2-RL Socket A (Socket 462) NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 ATX
AMD Motherboard

Main drive: WD-80GB Serial ATA

Backup drives: WD-80GB IDE, Maxtor-10GB IDE

 

[philo]

After having my system running smoothly for a year, I have twice (in the
last couple of days) got a "Disk Boot Failure" during powerup. In both
cases, if I hit the reset button, the machine boots normally.

<snip>

don't take a chance...
go to the website of your harddrive mfg
and get their diagnostic utility and run it.

If the drive checks out OK...
you should double check your data cable

 

[Clark]

Also check for any error messages in the Event Manager. When you get time,
see if it has a problem booting to safe mode.

Sound Cards have been know to cause problems, but not usually with a Disk
Boot Failure message.

Power supplies sometime cause strange problems. Since you have been inside
the machine, checking the drive cable is a good idea.

Clark

 

[DaveW]

It sounds like your boot harddrive is failing.

 

[Argento]

After having my system running smoothly for a year, I have twice (in the
last couple of days) got a "Disk Boot Failure" during powerup. In both
cases, if I hit the reset button, the machine boots normally. The only
recent changes I've made are as follows: Installed a new audio interface
card (Delta 1010LT) about 3 weeks ago. Have had no problems. Installed
two pieces of audio/recording software. One of these programs is a little
buggy and occasionally crashes or locks up the machine. But those were
also installed 1-2 weeks ago, and the failure occurred for the first time
2 days ago.

I'd be interested to know a) what tests I should perform, b) what the most
likely culprit is. I am not sure if the two times that this occurred on
startup were consecutive startups, or if it was like 2 out of 3 - so it's
not clear if it's intermittent or not. I'll do some more experimentation
with that later after I've backed up some of my data.

Thank you!!!

My system is as follows:

Athlon 2700XP

SOLTEK SL-75FRN2-RL Socket A (Socket 462) NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 ATX AMD
Motherboard

Main drive: WD-80GB Serial ATA

Backup drives: WD-80GB IDE, Maxtor-10GB IDE

I once had the same problem. It was a problem with electric supply (not the
PC's electric supply).
I live by the village side and seems like there is some sort of leakage thru
my experience and have weird electric signals too.
There were times whenever i switch on the lights in my room, the PC goes on
by itself (Technically impossible unless I modified
with the switch, which i can asure you i didn't)
But things got back to normal after a week.

Another occurence was that the motherboard's disk controller was faulty.
This is usually reported in the event viewer, under system.
It corrupts my HDD's data all the time. That's my experience.

 

[kony]

After having my system running smoothly for a year, I have twice (in the
last couple of days) got a "Disk Boot Failure" during powerup.

Does it ONLY happen when the system had been off for a time
and cold booted? If so, it seems most likely your drives
were previously barely spinning up fast enough and now your
system has marginal 12V amperage. Take voltage readings
from the PSU, especially in the interval from 1st
powering-on until about 4 seconds later to see how well and
how quickly the power rail comes up. You will need to
measure at the drive plugs, not an unused connector.

 

[RSS]

Does it ONLY happen when the system had been off for a time
and cold booted? If so, it seems most likely your drives
were previously barely spinning up fast enough and now your
system has marginal 12V amperage. Take voltage readings
from the PSU, especially in the interval from 1st
powering-on until about 4 seconds later to see how well and
how quickly the power rail comes up. You will need to
measure at the drive plugs, not an unused connector.

Doesn't matter if it's been off for 24 hours or 10 seconds. The drive
won't boot at all now.

 

[Clark]

What is that trick--if it won't book and you need to get your data from it,
try putting it in the freezer for a little while and maybe it will boot once
more. I'm not sure that is it exactly, but if you put it in the freezer,
make sure you have it protected from the moisture.

Did you get a chance to run the diagnostic software on the disk as
suggested?

Clark

 

[RSS]

Did you get a chance to run the diagnostic software on the disk as
suggested?

I ran the WDC diagnostics and the disk did not show any problems, but
that was the brief analysis - not the full one. If I get the drive up
again, I'll run the full set.

 

[kony]

Doesn't matter if it's been off for 24 hours or 10 seconds. The drive
won't boot at all now.

Try unplugging all drives (from board and PSU) except the
one being booted. The idea here is to remove potential
logical problems with any other drives and lighten the
spin-up load on the PSU.

When you write "won't boot at all now", is this a further
progression of the problem, it is worse now? Does it still
work if you do something like pressing the reset button a
few seconds after turning the system on?

If you suspect the boot drive is failing, copy off the data
ASAP. Do not first run extensive drive tests from WD or
elsewhere, as some drives can fail onto the point of
unrecoverability (reasonably so by user rather than a
recovery center) suddenly and completely. Further use of
the drive for any purpose (if it is indeed failing) is a big
gamble... even turning it on repetitively could be.