Disk Boot Failure - Insert System Disk "Blah" - If i reinstall windows over the top?

gord · 11 Aug 2007 at 00:36

Basically, ive got this error come up when i restart the PC without the windows xp disk in. (ive done all the common solutions with this.. checked the master boot record.. seems ok.. bios sees SATA drive fine and is set to first boot priority.. so ive come to the conclusion below)

Ive got 2 hard drives, primary SATA, and then an ATA for programs etc.

I installed windows to the SATA disk, but it said it needed to use the other disk too. Im fairly sure this is because i didnt load the SATA drivers when i did this installation. Now, ive just found a self made floppy disk with SATA drivers on it for this motherboard.. which i didnt use.. ! But ive already installed windows and done everything etc..

Can i load the installation with the drivers and reinstall windows on the SATA drive over the top without a format and have it just replace the files that were there?

Is this not a good idea and should i simply format the SATA, load the SATA drivers and do a clean install and redo all of my bloody config stuff?

Any help much appreciated.

gord · 11 Aug 2007 at 13:52

Ive also noticed, disk management is reporting my ATA HD as system and my SATA as boot.. is that right? shouldnt just the SATA be the system and boot.. and the ATA just active?

Still havnt tried reinstalling windows over the top on the SATA drive.. might try that later if there is still no ideas.

quish · 11 Aug 2007 at 15:13

I think I had this problem once myself,if I remember I unplugged one of the drives and installed windows then reconnected the other drive and it worked fine

me227 · 11 Aug 2007 at 18:47

Did you try fixboot as well is fixmbr?

bledd · 11 Aug 2007 at 18:56

me227 said:
Did you try fixboot as well is fixmbr?

def worth trying

remove the ata drive, then put in your xp cd, and go to the recovery console and do those two commands

google recovery console and the command names if you've not done it before

, it's pretty simple

gord · 11 Aug 2007 at 22:28

bledd. said:
def worth trying

remove the ata drive, then put in your xp cd, and go to the recovery console and do those two commands

google recovery console and the command names if you've not done it before , it's pretty simple

Ive tried it, but didnt remove the ATA drive, will try again with doing so.

Otherwise, what do you think about installing windows xp again over the top of my current install?

gord · 11 Aug 2007 at 23:33

Right, well, it didnt want to do that. Removed the ATA drive and fixbooting the SATA just said it wasnt a boot drive.. i think im just gonna clean install with just the SATA drive attached and then attach the ATA after ive installed XP.

Unless i try the windows install over the top of the current, or can i copy boot files to the SATA drive?

gord · 12 Aug 2007 at 00:20

Fixed it! Thought logically.. well.. sort of.. you know that special PC logic..

Ended up just changing the boot priority, when i realised the SATA wasnt being used as the boot device and checked the DIR of my spare ATA HD i found that it had the boot.ini on it.

I didnt think the priority of the HD's would matter, strange BIOS, and that it would check all HDs attached for boot.. but it didnt.. and i had my XP install SATA disk as the first one.. swapped that for the ATA and its worked.

Cheers for the suggestions anyway, without them it wouldnt have jogged my mind.