Disk boot failure Insert System disk and press enter

[chefslb]

Hello,
I had this error message happen after running my system all day, without any issues, and NEVER hearing any weird sound from the computer, or having any access issues. But had a last minute project to do, restarted my computer, and all I got was the error message.

When I try to reinstall XP it cannot find my hard drive. I tried looking at the hard drive from another computer.. Tried looking at it with a recover software, and on my same computer with another hard drive running XP. But it will not see the hard drive at all.

Like I said, there have been no issues with it AT ALL.. No freezing, no restarts, no sounds, not access issues nothing. Just restarted after shutting it down for about 10 minutes.

Motherboard is an Asus M3NHT, Seagate Sata HD, 4G memory. It had no issue running an IDE HD drive after the failure

 

[dndhatcher]

If the bios cant see the HDD, its not good. Can you hear/feel the HDD power up now or is it not getting power?

 

[pjmelect]

I assume that you do not have a floppy disk inserted? The hard disk has probably failed which they can do for no reason, but check that you have good air flow over it before you replace it, also check that the plugs and cables are fitted correctly by removing them and refitting them.

 

[chefslb]

If the bios cant see the HDD, its not good. Can you hear/feel the HDD power up now or is it not getting power?

Nope it does not spin up... It was working fine. No issues, no sounds, no freezing, NOTHING.. Just powered down and minutes later it came up with the message.

Any ideas on a recovery software I can use that might have a chance of seeing it. I tried Bart PE, but it did not see it.

 

[chefslb]

I assume that you do not have a floppy disk inserted? The hard disk has probably failed which they can do for no reason, but check that you have good air flow over it before you replace it, also check that the plugs and cables are fitted correctly by removing them and refitting them.

No floppy in, cables are connected, even tried a different SATA port... It powers but does not spin up.. When I try t reinstall windows on my system partition, it does not find the HD... I have my data on a different partition.. So do not care what I install on the main one..

 

[dndhatcher]

If the HDD isnt spinning up, no software is going to help you.

Do make sure its not a loose power cable connection. Since its been working and now wont spin up a loose power cable is the most likely cause. Unplug and re-plug the power cable and see if you can get it spinning up.

 

[chefslb]

If the HDD isnt spinning up, no software is going to help you.

Do make sure its not a loose power cable connection. Since its been working and now wont spin up a loose power cable is the most likely cause. Unplug and re-plug the power cable and see if you can get it spinning up.

The hard drive powers on, it just does not spin up.. I feel it power on. I am wondering if something on my HD motherboard went to crap... Since there was no sound, or weird behavior, not really ready to believe its dead..

 

[chefslb]

Let me correct my statement... When the computer FIRST powers on there is the initial spin up... I plugged in an IDE HD and they both do the same initial spin up... But when it comes time to load the OS, the IDE continues but the SATA does not initiate.. It has changes in its initialization, as I can feel the HD change during processes. So when I was shutting the hard drive down from the IDE hard drive, the SATA drive spun down. I don't get it..

 

[chefslb]

It seems there is a KNOWN issue with specific Seagate and Maxtor Hard drives called bricking. The following gives info on what happens, and how to fix.. Also Seagate has a free service to flash the drive for you and send it back, or replace the drive.
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/128807-the-solution-for-seagate-720011-hdds/
The pisser is you have to know what the issue is to find out how to fix it. I talked to IT people and NONE of them had heard of unbricking. So unless you go happen to fall into the info, you will not know how to fix it.. I happened to find the issue by accident. Here is a thread on Seagates website also.. http://forums.seagate.com/t5/tag/unbricking/tg-p/category-id/internal_drives

 

[dndhatcher]

Is it a seagate 7200.10 or 7200.11? I forgot that those did have known bricking problems. Some kind of bios error. At least Seagate will fix or replace it.

 

[chefslb]

It is a 7200.11. And it has been successfully unbricked, and will be sent back to me with data in tact, and on Seagates tab... So if anyone has an issue they need to go onto Seagates website and check their drive first... If you had the EXACT same behavior as I have listed, and it is on the list, that is the most likely candidate.