Boot Problem

[Oiuoiuoiuoiuoiux]

I recently built a new C2D system using a DS3 and a 250gb SATA HDD. Setup went fine, XP installation went fine, everything was great until today, 3 days after the system has been up and running. I left the system on while I went to work, and when I came home I got an error message that read 'DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER'. Now the bios won't recognize my SATA HDD. When I plug in an older HDD, it's recognized in the bios, but I can't do anything with it. The reason I'm having trouble is that it worked fine for three days, and when it was doing next-to-nothing, it crashed.

Specs:
E6300
DS3
WD 250GB HDD
2GB GSkill 800
BFG 7900gsoc

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome to the Forums

Let's say you put an older drive in there and the BIOS recognizes it. You try to install a test installation of Windows onto it... what happens?

 

[Oiuoiuoiuoiuoiux]

Nothing happens. Windows is unable to install and the Windows already installed can't boot.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Oiuoiuoiuoiuoiux
Nothing happens. Windows is unable to install and the Windows already installed can't boot.

Ok, but how far does Windows Setup get? Does it launch from the CD and then it can't find a hard drive to use, or what?

 

[Oiuoiuoiuoiuoiux]

The CD can launch, it gets to where you have a choice to exit, install windows, or repair an existing installation.

If it's any help, the error message from the XpressRecovery2 reads: 'IDE drive doesn't exist or ALL primary partitions are occupied'

I'm still not sure whether it's the motherboard, HDD, or even something else.

 

[mechBgon]

weird Is the SATA drive on one of the yellow connectors? It appears that's the native ones that I think you'd want to use. I'm going to get a copy of the manual and see if I can find some more ideas.

 

[Oiuoiuoiuoiuoiux]

I've had it connected to each one of the onboard connectors with the same results.

 

[Oiuoiuoiuoiuoiux]

Okay, now I've reconnected the old HDD, and Windows installation went okay, but now when it tries to load Windows on startup, the computer just restarts.