This can happen for one or more of several reasons: (1) the boot files on
your hard drive are corrupted. (2) the settings for your hard disk drive in
the CMOS are incorrect. (3) the order of the boot devices in the BIOS is
incorrect. (4) the BIOS is corrupt or has some incorrect setting. (5) there
are loose connections to your hard drive. (6) the disk drive has gone bad.
If the boot files on your hard drive are missing or corrupt, you need to
boot to a bootable floppy diskette which was made from the same version of
Windows as your computer's operating system. When you reach the "A:\"
prompt, type the command "sys c:" and press the Enter key. This should give
you a message "File system transferred." Now you can try to reboot to your
hard drive, after removing the diskette.
If you still cannot boot, you can boot to the bootable floppy again, and at
the "A:\" prompt try using the command "fdisk /mbr" to rebuild the hard
disk's Master Boot Record.
The settings for your hard drive in the CMOS may be incorrect. Use the key
sequence required for you to enter the BIOS (usually, you see a message on
the screen as the computer is starting up that says something like "Press
<Del> to enter System Setup", which in this example is telling you that the
Delete key is used to enter the BIOS.) Verify that the settings for the hard
disk are on Auto Detect, or have the proper values. You can also verify that
the order of the boot devices has been set correctly in the BIOS. Usually,
the primary boot device is the floppy drive, and the secondary is the hard
drive, with the third device (if any) being specified as the CD-ROM drive.
If none of the above corrects the problem, you may need to choose the option
to reset the CMOS settings to the factory or default settings.
If none of the above measures corrects the problem, your hard disk may have
gone bad.
Good Luck!
Michael D. Alligood
MCSA, MCP, A+, Network+,
i-Net+, CIW A, CIW CI
