Boot problem

[Jim Ludwig]

Hi,
I'm having a minor annoyance everytime I perform a cold boot. If I shut my
computer down completely (an older Gateway with WinXP) and turn the power
off, then turn it all back on, I get:
Invalid boot diskette
Insert boot diskette in A:
If I hit ctrl-alt-delete, it proceeds to boot normally. This only happens
on a cold boot, not if I select restart from the shut down menu. I have
checked the BIOS to make certain that my boot sequence is correct. It is
currently set to boot from hard drive, then cd-rom, then A. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Jim

 

[Big Al]

Hi,
I'm having a minor annoyance everytime I perform a cold boot. If I shut my
computer down completely (an older Gateway with WinXP) and turn the power
off, then turn it all back on, I get:
Invalid boot diskette
Insert boot diskette in A:
If I hit ctrl-alt-delete, it proceeds to boot normally. This only happens
on a cold boot, not if I select restart from the shut down menu. I have
checked the BIOS to make certain that my boot sequence is correct. It is
currently set to boot from hard drive, then cd-rom, then A. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Jim

I'd say your HD is having issues starting up. Okay once it runs, but
with a power fail it takes more time to get spinning etc than you system
allows. Me thinks the drive is going south. You could put the
floppy and CD then HD as boot sequence, but this is only covering up the
proglem.

 

[Clark...]

Hi,
I'm having a minor annoyance everytime I perform a cold boot. If I
shut my computer down completely (an older Gateway with WinXP) and
turn the power off, then turn it all back on, I get:
Invalid boot diskette
Insert boot diskette in A:
If I hit ctrl-alt-delete, it proceeds to boot normally. This only
happens on a cold boot, not if I select restart from the shut down
menu. I have checked the BIOS to make certain that my boot sequence
is correct. It is currently set to boot from hard drive, then
cd-rom, then A. Any thoughts? Thanks,
Jim

Check your cables first. PATA or SATA re-seat them at both ends.
My thought is that your hard drive is dying, backup anything important, like
um, now.
the fact that the computer is telling you Invalid boot disk is the computer
saying to you, HEY I can't find your hard drive.
If you act fast enough you may be able to buy a new drive, either the same
size or larger and clone it before it croaks.

Clark...

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

The largest power requirement is at start up. In addition to checking the
hard drive you might consider getting the power supply checked.

 

[Ron Badour]

Before you start buying a hard drive, determine what brand you have, go to
the maker's web site and download their diagnostic software. Test your hard
drive to see, if in fact, it is dying as the other posters have speculated.

I would Google on the error message: "Invalid boot diskette" XP
and see what other people have tried who received this message. Some people
suggest the boot sequence in the BIOS may be checking for the non-existent
floppy drive, others think a repair install will fix the problem, and so on.
Try these type of fixes before laying out cash for a new drive--especially
when you don't know that the old drive is failing.

 

[3c273]

I had this problem on an old Midwest Micro machine and in the BIOS there was
a setting called "hard disk pre-delay(?)" which could be set for some number
of seconds. It tells the BIOS to wait that long before trying to access the
hard drive. But as others have suggested, run the diagnostics for your drive
as it sounds like it is having trouble spinning up. BACKUP YOUR DATA!
Louis

 

[PaulM]

Do you have a disk in drive A? Check.

 

[Jim Ludwig]

Ron,
It seems you're on the right track here. I downloaded Maxtor's diagnostic
tools and the drive failed some of the tests. Therefore, I suspect it is
going south. I suppose I'll have to get a new drive. I don't really want
to sink much money into the machine as it's pushing 8 ys. old. I would love
to get a new one, but don't have the $ right now. Thanks to all for your
responses.
Jim Ludwig

 

[Ron Badour]

Jim,

If you haven't checked computer prices lately, you will be pleasantly
surprised how much computer you can get for your buck today. Dell is
selling a desktop with XP and no monitor for $379 plus shipping and tax if
in Texas. 250 gb SATA hard drive, 16x DVD/RW burner, 1 gb DDR2 ram, 1.6 GHz
CPU, etc.
http://www.dell.com/content/product...s=dhs&cs=19&~oid=us~en~29~inspndt_530_anav5~~