What the heck.."Insert boot diskette in drive A

[jt3219]

Turned on computer this evening and got this message-Searching for boot
record from floppy..Not found.
Searching for boot record from CDROM..Not found. (for some reason my cdrom's
don't read!)
'Insert boot diskette into drive A". Press any key.
Can't get it to boot to safe mode. Tapping F8
Ok, I have 6 boot disks. If I use these, will it do an install or just boot
to windows?

 

[sgopus]

not sure what 6 boot discs are?
are they the restore cd's sent with your pc, if so, they yes they will do a
restore.
however check for your floppy drive see if you left a non booting floppy in
it.
sometimes this may be caused by memory going bad.

 

[jt3219]

When I installed XP Pro, I made 6 boot floppies as a precaution in the event
of this type of thing. There is no disk in drive A. Computer checks BIOS
screen, goes to next screen, then searches for a bootable record. These are
not manufacturers restore disks. I built this computer.

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

Turned on computer this evening and got this message-Searching for
boot record from floppy..Not found.
Searching for boot record from CDROM..Not found. (for some reason my
cdrom's don't read!)
'Insert boot diskette into drive A". Press any key.
Can't get it to boot to safe mode. Tapping F8
Ok, I have 6 boot disks. If I use these, will it do an install or
just boot to windows?

Are the computers hard drive/s being recognised by the BIOS? It sound like
it/they are not.

 

[philo]

Turned on computer this evening and got this message-Searching for boot
record from floppy..Not found.
Searching for boot record from CDROM..Not found. (for some reason my cdrom's
don't read!)
'Insert boot diskette into drive A". Press any key.
Can't get it to boot to safe mode. Tapping F8
Ok, I have 6 boot disks. If I use these, will it do an install or just boot
to windows?

Unless you made some changes in the bios...
your HD must have failed...
or perhaps the cable is loose

 

[Malke]

Turned on computer this evening and got this message-Searching for boot
record from floppy..Not found.
Searching for boot record from CDROM..Not found. (for some reason my
cdrom's don't read!)
'Insert boot diskette into drive A". Press any key.
Can't get it to boot to safe mode. Tapping F8
Ok, I have 6 boot disks. If I use these, will it do an install or just
boot to windows?

The computer can't find the boot files to boot into Windows. This means that
your hard drive has failed and/or your motherboard has failed. Since the
optical drive isn't working either, I would look to the motherboard. You
can pull the hard drive and slave it into another computer to see if it is
dead or not. You can put another hard drive into the sick computer and see
if it reads. If it doesn't, you know it's the motherboard. Etc.

Malke

 

[Dragomir Kollaric]

When I installed XP Pro, I made 6 boot floppies as a precaution in the event
of this type of thing. There is no disk in drive A. Computer checks BIOS
screen, goes to next screen, then searches for a bootable record. These are
not manufacturers restore disks. I built this computer.

I second the advice given. tear it apart and look at the
cables, etc and re-seat them also the power-cable sometimes
they get loose or at the connectors it can build up
corrosion. Also follow the advice of using another disk.

Maybe a LIVE-CD rom could also help, but if the CD-ROM not read...
Inspect the mobo if you can detect any leaking capacitors.

happy "error" hunting.




Dragomir Kollaric

 

[Joe T]

Umm yes... I didn't fall off the pumpkin truck yesterday. I'm going to try
Malke's suggestion.

 

[Joe T]

Another head scratcher. I removed the 120 gb HD and installed it as a USB
drive on my laptop. My laptop wouldn't let me select the USB drive E for 1st
boot so I just ran anti virus, spyware programs, and then had my laptop check
the file system and fix any errors.
Prior to removing the HD, I tried to use my 6 boot disks but got to disk 4
and got error" DIMO.SYS corrupted".
I found an old win98 HD and plugged it in and it booted to Windows. Removed
win98 drive and plugged back in 120 gb HD and it booted to XP. No errors.
I suspect file system scan fix or dirty connection.
Although both of my CDROMS still don't work. I changed the cable on those.
And I still have packet scheduler miniport 4 error in my device manager.
Thanks all.

 

[Lil' Dave]

Any reason you're changing your screen name within the same thread as you
seem, allegedly, to be the OP.

 

[Joe T]

I'm changing providers and I got messed up exporting Outlook Express address
book and messages it asked for Windows Live account and I typed in my work
account name and signed me on like that. I was at work for my first posts.
No deception intended.

 

[Miske]

1) Check BIOS. It is possible that some power loss rest BIOS. Try to
find SATA/ATA devices. After check boot order.
2) If devices not found, check data and power cables on HDD and DVD.
3) Since you built computer yourself, You know your way around
hardware. Test HDD on some other computer.
4) If harddrive works on other comp, it is possible that motherboard
is broken. Sorry.

 

[Joe T]

Well Malke, all seems to be fix except I still have packet scheduler miniport
4 error in my device manager.
I borrowed my friends cdrom and put that in and I was able to use it. It
appears both of my cdroms went out at the same time. Changed cables also on
the old cdroms but no go.
I went out and bought a DVD-CDRW. Works now. Also, since I now have a cdrom,
I reinstalled my motherboard utility program and it cleared out the packet
scheduler problem but now its back.