Claudio said:
When I try to startup my computer, the screen is black, and there is a
prompt
asking me to Insert BOOT diskette in A:. Above that prompt, the
system says that it is Searching for Boot Record from Floppy..Not
Found, CDROM..Not Found, SCSI..Not Found.
This means that your computer is looking for the files necessary to boot
an operating system and not finding any. Since you didn't say anything
about your computer, I can't tell if the problem is with your hard
drive or not. Do you have a SCSI hard drive?
Start the computer again and go into the BIOS. How you do this depends
on your particular motherboard. There will be a prompt at the first
startup screen that says something like, "Press [some key] to enter
Setup. Do this and once you are in Setup, see if your hard drive is
found. Make sure it is listed in the boot order, also. A normal boot
order is floppy or cd first, hard drive second. If the drive is not
seen in the BIOS, turn off the machine and unplug it. Open the case and
reseat the cable going from the motherboard to the hard drive on both
ends and the power supply connector going to the hard drive. If you
have a laptop, you'll need to remove the hard drive and then put it
back in again.
Now turn on the computer and see if the hard drive is seen in the BIOS.
If it is, try and boot into Windows. If the drive isn't seen in the
BIOS, swap out the drive cable for a known-working one and test (if you
have a desktop).
If the hard drive is not still seen in the BIOS, you can see if the
drive is at fault or the motherboard by 1) slaving the drive in a
working computer; 2) or putting the drive on a different motherboard
connector if you have a desktop. If the drive is at fault, replace it.
If the motherboard is at fault (drive cannot be seen when connected
anywhere), replace it.
If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are uncomfortable opening
your computer, take the machine to a professional computer repair shop
(not your local equivalent of BigStoreUSA).
Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User