Disk Boot Failure - Help Please

jellybeard999 · 15 Nov 2009 at 19:06

Now I know this has been covered, but I have not found an answer in the searches I've made.

Windows boots fine with a CD in the drive, if I take the CD out or remove the cd drive I get disk boot failure
OS disk is IDE, jumpers are correctly set
Boot order is correct, the correct disk is first in hdd priority and I've tried both CD and HD as first boot device
Tried resetting bios to defaults
Tried different hard drives
Tried different cables
Tried several different OSes and installs

I don't know what else I can try, or why it works with the CD in

I want ride of the CD drive, as this is my fileserver and the current drive is connected by USB.

Paul11 · 15 Nov 2009 at 19:08

did it used to boot from the hard drive.. or never booted from it?

jellybeard999 · 15 Nov 2009 at 19:12

Paul11 said:
did it used to boot from the hard drive.. or never booted from it?

Well it's a new board, bought from MM. I presume it's worked previously though.

Paul11 · 15 Nov 2009 at 19:13

jellybeard999 said:
Well it's a new board, bought from MM. I presume it's worked previously though.

so the hard drive you are using has never booted from that board before?

is the HD being seen in the bios ?

does the HD have an OS on it ?

jellybeard999 · 15 Nov 2009 at 19:18

Paul11 said:
so the hard drive you are using has never booted from that board before?

is the HD being seen in the bios ?

does the HD have an OS on it ?

The HD is seen in the bios.

The HD has an OS on it, and it boots into it fine... but only if there is a CD in the CD drive - ie I don't press a button to boot cd, it then boots into the OS.

Paul11 · 15 Nov 2009 at 19:21

you mean a windows CD ? does it say booting from CD?

sounds odd that it boots from CD and then boots the OS that is on the HD

did you install the OS yourself ?

jellybeard999 · 15 Nov 2009 at 19:28

Paul11 said:
you mean a windows CD ? does it say booting from CD?

sounds odd that it boots from CD and then boots the OS that is on the HD

did you install the OS yourself ?

Well, any bootable CD i presume, but in this case it's done this with a ubuntu cd and an XP cd.

It doesn't boot to CD, it asks if I want to and to press any key, if you don't it then moves along to the next item on the boot order, ie HD

I installed the OS myself, yes.

I've seen the exact same circumstances all over the net, but no solutions :/

ie http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17968061

This post in particular is of interest - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13422555&postcount=22 - but I've ensured the boot order is correct about a million times.

subzero · 15 Nov 2009 at 19:42

sounds to me as though your drive is not reading the MBR correctly,have you gone from vista to xp at all...

jellybeard999 · 15 Nov 2009 at 19:48

subzero said:
sounds to me as though your drive is not reading the MBR correctly,have you gone from vista to xp at all...

Nope, fully formatted and fresh install. Surely the fact I've tried several drives and OS installs (even different OSes) means that is unlikely?

postmanfw · 15 Nov 2009 at 20:09

Had the same problem myself a few years back and after about 10 installs and much stress it turned out that the boot order was not right.

I know you said it is but def check again.

How many hard drives are in the machine?

Others had the same problem too and its the boot order.

My board was saying hard drive 1 was the 1st in boot order which i presumed was the right one....turned out it was hard drive zero

Try removing any extra hard drives and double/triple check boot settings...i didnt and nearly cried when i realised what the problem was....wife found it very amusing though.

Paul11 · 15 Nov 2009 at 20:14

jellybeard999 said:
Nope, fully formatted and fresh install. Surely the fact I've tried several drives and OS installs (even different OSes) means that is unlikely?

correct, if you have used different drives, different installs and different OS's then its not MBR related

sounds like the postman is saying, play around with the boot order settings.

jellybeard999 · 15 Nov 2009 at 20:17

Right -

I've got -
1x IDE oboard - 1 drive, set as master
2x SATA onboard - 2x drives
4x SATA card (sil3114) - 4x drives

The drives are identified by name - and it's 100000000% definitely selected. I've tried removing the 2 onboard sata and booting with no success, but I'll remove the card too this time and report back.

postmanfw · 15 Nov 2009 at 20:27

No insult was intend about being 100% sure

Its just that the only time i have seen exact problem where it boots only if disk is in drive (though doesnt boot from it) was related to the boot order.

Hope you get to the bottom of it and interested to know what is causing it myself

Paul11 · 15 Nov 2009 at 20:27

unplug everything except that drive

jellybeard999 · 15 Nov 2009 at 20:39

Right -
Removed network card
Removed SATA card
Removed all drives except boot drive
Changed slot (no reason to suspect it's ram)
Default bios settings
Double check boot settings

Still no go :/

Removed CMOS battery and am waiting to put that back in - not that I think it'll do anything.

Paul11 · 15 Nov 2009 at 20:41

do you have another IDE port on the board, plug it to that, just to eliminate that as a possiblity too

jellybeard999 · 15 Nov 2009 at 20:49

Paul11 said:
do you have another IDE port on the board, plug it to that, just to eliminate that as a possiblity too

Only one unfortunately. Gonna put the CMOS battery back in and try SATA now :rolleyes:

jellybeard999 · 15 Nov 2009 at 21:09

Boots straight away via SATA - guess that means I'll be getting another SATA card then as I've lost an onboard port :/

Anyway - something must be up with the IDE port at a guess ?

Paul11 · 15 Nov 2009 at 21:21

cool, sounds like a dodgy IDE port

atleast you know now...