"System Boot Disc Failure" error at startup

[Bruiser]

A friend of mine is running XP Home on an HP. After returning home from work
yesterday, she tried to start her machine and received a "System Boot Disc
Failure" error.

Trying to access the boot menu (F8) doesn't work, nor does the XP install
disc (all options to repair, etc., including loading the Recovery Console
can't proceed, as the disc can't be read or something to that effect). I
have an XP bootup floppy she could use, but I don't think it would work.

She has no idea why this is suddenly happening, and her mother who used her
computer while she was at work can't offer details. Is this a file system
problem, or something more basic. Is it recoverable?

Thanks,
Bruce

 

[Ralf Baumhoefer]

Tell her, to remove the Floppy Disc from Drive A: (most common cause)
OR: Change Boot Order in EPROM (Floppy NOT in first place!).

 

[Malke]

Ralf,

That was the first thing I asked her. She claims there is no floppy in
the drive.

B.

If there is no floppy in the drive, go into the BIOS and examine the
boot order. It should be something like A,C (hard drive), CD-ROM or
CD-ROM, C, A. Is the hard drive detected in the BIOS? Sounds like the
drive may be failing - run a hardware diagnosis on it.

Malke

 

[TheCrewser]

Then there is a possibility of hard disk failure. Try to enter the
BIOS and see if there is a primary master drive detected.

Good Luck...

GLCrews,MCP

 

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

Ralf,

That was the first thing I asked her. She claims there is no floppy in the
drive.

Then she's either got a catastrophic hard disk failure, or her BIOS has
decided not to even look for a HDD to boot from. 'Boot disk failure'
means it didn't find a disk at all (on most BIOSs), as opposed to 'non
system disk', or various other errors, which mean that the disk was not
bootable. You can get there by screwing up the master/slave/CS jumpers
and cabling, but if it happens in a previously working system it isn't
good news.

Does the HDD show in her BIOS (as a device). Is it still selected for
booting? Is it the first boot device in the list? Is the appropriate
EIDE channel enabled (not turned off in the BIOS).

If not, is it powered up, is the data cable still attached, is it going
round (you can usually hear that)?

It could (hopefully) be a cable / motherboard / etc. fault. It could
also (and more likely) be that the hard disk (electronics, spin motor,
whatever) has failed rather seriously.

I'd debug this by sticking the disk in another PC (as a slave) and
seeing if it was readable, but you/she may not have that option - a
reasonable PC repair shop would have.

 

[Bruiser]

Thanks to everyone. It's looking more like a hard disk failure, hopefully
something as simple as a loose cable, but who knows? My friend isn't
comfortable even with peeking inside the box to see, and since she doesn't
live close by, I told her to take it into a local shop, but be prepared for
the worst.

<SNIP>

 

[shaps]

i sometimes get this fault, after i shut pc down and back on again it works. the HD is detected in bios and selected as 1st boot drive too