Can't Boot From HDD!

[GabeQ]

I can't get my system to boot from the hard drive. I turn it on and it recognizes the HDD and CDROM. I boot from a win98 disk and install Windows but when it comes time to restart the system, the computer can't boot from the HDD. I've tried booting from a floppy and changing the boot sequence. I've tried three different hard drives that are known to be working. The system will always recognize the HDD during post but can't boot from it. Help!

I have the following:
PII system 350 MHz
Holco (Shuttle) MoBo (HO 661?)
64 MB RAM
4 MB MSI AGP video Card

I've tried these HDDs:
1.6 GB Western Digital
6.4 GB Western Digital
2.1 GB Samsung

Thanks,

Gabe Q.

[apocalypse]

make certain that the jumpers are the drive are set correctly. i had purchased a western digital drive and set it to be master, only to find out that if it is the only drive on the IDE cable you should have NO jumper set.

[GabeQ]

I don't think the jumper is the problem since the hard drive is detected during the power on self test. When I boot from the Win98 cd, I can read the contents of the drive just fine using the dir command but the darn thing won't boot from the hard drive. I've tried every boot sequence. I have no clue what it could be.

[Lebo]

Do you get any error messages during the boot process?

[GabeQ]

I get no error messages other than the DISK FAILURE, INSERT A SYSTEM DISK. The wierd thing is, if I boot from a floppy or CDROM, I can read and write to the drive just fine.

[GabeQ]

I've asked three of my friends at school, all of whom are computer science majors, and they are all scratching their heads over this. As I'm only a pitiful math major, I am at the mercy of my machine and can only remain hopeful that someone will help me. Seriously, I'm frustrated and any help would be very greatly appreciated.
If it would help, the board was working fine a couple days ago. I upgraded a friend's computer to a PIII and he gave me his old board.

[elroy]

Hope this helps.
When you fdisk the drive [partition it] you must set the partition to be active. Otherwise no boot.
Fdisk by booting with a Windows boot floppy and type A:\fdisk and hit enter

[Bellbus]

Your larger drives must be set to LBA mode inside the BIOS. This can cause the symptoms you describe, if its not set (or autodetect is messing up).

[alexj]

Hi there.

Go to the BIOS and make sure that Anti-Virus protection for the Boot Sector is disabled.

Some BIOS make a fuss whan you try to write to the boot sector by displaying messages and beeping, and so on, but some other don't. They simply deny the writing. Other are even worst, they make the OS think it made a successful write to the HDD boot sector when in fact it was simply discarded.

You can always use the SYS C: command to make the HDD bootable.

I hope this helps.

[GabeQ]

thanks for the help guys. I'll let you guys know how things turn out.

[GabeQ]

Well, I did a format c: /s on the hard drive and the system DOES boot from the hard drive. However, after I start to install windows, it does the same thing on the first restart. It won't boot. It says DISK FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK. This is pretty wierd. I want to try and make a boot disk with cdrom support and then copy the contents from the floppy to the c drive. Then i can boot from the hard drive with cdrom support. I don't know how to make a boot disk with cdrom support though. Any help?

[Infragrrl]

Short of creating a boot disk, go to: www.bootdisk.com and you can find already made boot disks that only need to be extracted onto a diskette.

[Bellbus]

Infragrrl's idea is easier, however if you have trouble and want to create your own.

If you already have a Windows Boot Disk:

1] Boot down to DOS using the floppy disk
2] Insert the CD Rom driver floppy disk and install it to C:
3] Copy the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys from C: onto your A: disk. You will overwrite the current files.
4] Now reboot with the floppy and you shoud have CD Rom support.


If you don't already have a Windows Boot Disk:

I'm assuming the Sys files are already on C: (even though your system isn't booting)

1] Boot down to DOS
2] Type: C:
3] Type: Sys A:
4] Insert the CD Rom driver floppy disk and install it to C:
5] Copy the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys from C: onto your A: disk. You will overwrite the current files.
6] Now reboot with the floppy and you shoud have CD Rom support.


Both methods assume that your CD Rom installs MSCDEX onto the system.

Some other things to try:
1] Disable Ultra DMA 33 support in BIOS. Some older drives dont like this option active.

2] Manually enter the setting of the Hard Disk into your BIOS rather than relying on 'Auto'.

3] Make sure that the C: disk on the Primary IDE channel and not the Secondary IDE Channel.

4] Try changing the BOOT sequence in the BIOS

[Imperion1]

What do you have for your boot sequence in Bios?

You can use either: C being the hard drive
A, C, Cdrom
C, A, Cdrom

The hard drive should be in your boot sequence.

[GabeQ]

This is a list of all the things I have tried:
(Keep in mind that I can read and write to the drive just fine)

1. I made certain the jumper on the hard drive was set correctly.

2. I made certain the hard drive was on the primary IDE channel.

3. I set the drive as a single active partition with fdisk.

4. I set the drive to LBA mode.

5. I set the drive parameters manually.

6. I formatted the drive with the format c: /s (in this case, the system will boot from the hard drive but after I install Win98 or Win95 or WinME, the system won't boot.)

7. YES, I did check the boot sequence, that was the first thing I checked.

I am huddled in the corner of the room crying now, as I'm spooked to death by my computer's strange behavior.

Your help will be greatly appreciated.

[GabeQ]

I finally got the **** thing working. Thanks to everyone for their help, especially Bellbus. I had to format the hard drive with the /s set to get it bootable, then I installed the DOS CDROM drivers, then I loaded Win98. I don't know why I couldn't just install like I normally do, I usually just boot from the install disk and install the OS. I guess this particular motherboard was picky or something. Thanks again.