System randomly gives error: Invalid Boot Diskette: Insert Boot Diskette in drive a:

[Mears]

My buddy has a Dell 4100 that will randomly give the above message when started up. I flashed the bios to the current version and cleared the CMOS. That didn't help. I looked in the boot order and tried moving the hard drive to the primary slot, but I still encountered it.


The error doesn't always come up, and most of the time a restart will be enough, but sometimes it will come up multiple times. None of the cables are loose. Any ideas?

 

[Mears]

bump

 

[EeyoreX]

IIRC the actuall message is most likely "Invalid Boot Disk" not Diskette. At least I have never seen the diskette one, and it sounds like you are trying to boot from the hard drive. It sounds to me like a flakey IDE controller or a bad cable. First, I would check to insure the IDE cables are tightly and securely connected. Then I would try a different cable. Then, if needed and if possible try a different controller. Etiehr a different motherboard or a PCI controller card.

\Dan

 

[13black]

Obvious question is did you do anything to the PC lately? If it's looking for a floppy it must be having trouble reading the harddrive. Try checking the hard drive for errors. If you removed a slave drive or added one you may have to change the drive select jumper on the master. I would try another ribbon cable if you have one. When you get the error can you boot up with a floppy and access the hard drive?

 

[vortix]

I do PC Support for a living, and from my experience, this error is usually caused by a hard drive problem. You might want to back up any data you have on there that you need ASAP! As long as the drive is within a year old (or 3 years, depending on the drive), you should be able to get a new drive under warranty.

 

[capricorn]

I would add a vote for a dying hard disk, too. Could be one that a reformat and reinstall could fix, but once you start getting that sort of error, be thinking about replacing it. Has the disk been scanned for errors lately?

-cap

 

[Mears]

Nothing has been added or changed. He said that he has been getting the error for a while. CHKDSK found a file system consistency error when I ran it a couple days ago. The error message is exactly as it is displayed except the 2nd part is on a seperate line.

 

[Mears]

Ok, I just replaced the cable with a new one and after a few restarts and shut downs it happened again. And I couldn't get into windows after that until I power cycled it about 5 times.

 

[13black]

Sounds like a dying hard drive. Could be the controller on the motherboard, more likely to be the hard drive. How old is the hard drive and or system? You may find that it it's temperature related too, it will be more prone to failure when it's hot. I would backup your data before it's too late.

 

[Mears]

The system is probably around 3 years old. PIII 800EB.

 

[13black]

3 years, that's ancient, j/k That's about the same age as my system. I would run some diagnostics on the hard drive. Best bet is to go to the drive manufacturers website and download their utilities. If you still can't nail it down to the drive or the motherboard you may have to swap in another hard drive and see what happens. That or put that drive in another PC to see if the fault follows it.

 

[Dennis Travis]

I would also say it sounds like the Hard drive but one thing I ran into with a PIII Gateway a while back was it did the same thing and seemed for SURE to be the HDD. We got a brand new Maxtor 40 Gig and after a few days same thing. It was something with the gateway motherboards bios.

 

[WoofyJr]

I have this same problem, it was running beautifully till my friend changed from cable to master the first hd in and slave the second hd. It was running but once I shut it down and boot. It suddenly changed everything. It 's causing slllooowwww boot. So I decided to pull it out and swtich back to cable on harddrive. Still couldnt make it right. It's still rebooting real slow. I m not sure if i can change it back in bios or just the jumper???

I m getting very frustrated and ready to throw my computer through the window....

 

[MDE]

I saw almost the same issue with a PIII 1 GHz IBM machine. Turned out to be a dead hard drive (verified in my system) and it needed the CMOS jumper reset.

 

[Blain]

Toss the HD in the freezer

I've got a WD JB that just stopped working.
I got up from my computer and it rebooted by itself. It would not boot into Windows 2000 at all. I got the no system disk found message.
The BIOS setup showed no HD at all.
I shut it off for a few hours then restarted. It booted into 2000 that time. It ran slugishly for a couple of minutes, getting slower and slower.
I shut it down, pulled the HD and stuck it in the freezer.

About 5 or 6 hours later I reinstalled it. It booted up into Windows 2000 just fine. It seemed to be running just fine.
I burned the data I needed and waited for it to freak out again. I downloaded WD's diagnostic utilities and ran them.
Both the Quick and the Extended tests showed no errors with the drive.

 

[WoofyJr]

My harddrive is new, It's not dying. I also tested with other harddrive same result.... I m starting think it might be the cable or the rack loose somewhere. I will check it later tonight. If it still doesnt help, i might reformat and see what happens....... aruugghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[WoofyJr]

Originally posted by: MonkeyDriveExpress
I saw almost the same issue with a PIII 1 GHz IBM machine. Turned out to be a dead hard drive (verified in my system) and it needed the CMOS jumper reset.

How do u do cmos jumper reset. I gotta try that first.

 

[13black]

Originally posted by: WoofyJr

Originally posted by: MonkeyDriveExpress
I saw almost the same issue with a PIII 1 GHz IBM machine. Turned out to be a dead hard drive (verified in my system) and it needed the CMOS jumper reset.

How do u do cmos jumper reset. I gotta try that first.

Check your manual, there should be a jumper on the mobo marked something like "clear cmos". You move the jumper over and then put it back the way you found it.Don't do it with the power on or you may end up with a big paper weight. Removing the battery for 5 or 10 does the same thing. If you can get into the BIOS you could use the "reset to failsafe settings" option.

 

[WoofyJr]

Finally, it's cured.... I figured it was the removeable mobile media's power cord or controller is damaged. It caused hd not working properly... I had to buy a new one and install it. It works awesome again ... whew.........


Werid.... Cable can be one of the factors that causes slow boot... thanks guys making me think twice before I format it. I know it's not related to jumper now

Nice of my friend did not offer to check it out for me when I told him about the plm after he changed the jumper... He's giving me a hell of time figuring out....