Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected Boot device and press a key

[stray358]

So this is what happened:

I wanted to download steam in my computer but it told me that it would download on disk E which i didn't have so i created a new partition. Steam downloaded fine after that but when I turned my PC off and turned it back on this message came out:

"Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected Boot device and press a key"

I'm not good with computers so I need some help.
I went to ask a friend and he told me that my computer is still able to detect my hard drive but for some reason it can't use or something like that. He told me to reformat it but as much as possible I don't what that to happen for obvious reasons. Any Suggestions?

The PC uses Windows XP

 

[Szyrs]

Open BIOS and check your boot priorities.

 

[stray358]

Thank you for replying but I already tried interchanging boot priorities and sadly it doesn't work for me. Anymore suggestions?

 

[stray358]

Thank you for replying but I already tried interchanging boot priorities and sadly it doesn't work for me. Anymore suggestions?

 

[Szyrs]

How and where did you create this partition E:?

 

[stray358]

Sorry i wasn't really sure what I was doing but I'll just explain what I did.

I opened the disk management and below BESIDE the blue highlighted box where it said (C: ) [with other info below] was another box but it was yellow (I think) i right clicked it and created a new partition and gave it the drive letter (E: ) with around 10 GB of space and I just kept clicking the next button until it finished.

Like I said I'm not really good with computer things.

 

[Szyrs]

If you have a windows installation cd, boot from that and repair your version of windows. There is often a small partion, I think 100MB, that is your boot loader. You may have somehow deleted this during your partition.

 

[stray358]

I just inserted the windows xp cd in my computer and and pressed r to use the repair console what code do i enter?

 

[Y0GI]

I just inserted the windows xp cd in my computer and and pressed r to use the repair console what code do i enter?

You don't want the "Repair Console" You want to do a "Repair/Re-installation" of Windows XP.

Try booting from the CD again. Go into the installation process. Once in there, Windows will give you a message that "A previous installation of Windows has been detected. Do you wish to repair this installation? Y/N" Select Y for Yes.

Yogi

EDIT: More info here: http://www.windowsreinstall.com/indexwinxpmenu.htm#.UoFCLRCkaqg

Yogi

 

[Szyrs]

Sorry, I went to bed - hope you got it sorted.

 

[stray358]

I tried running the what YOGI suggested above twice and sadly still nothing. . . Any more Suggestions?

 

[Szyrs]

It may not be the best solution, but if you have access to another PC, take out your hard drive, put it into another machine, back up any data that you can salvage off your disk and do a clean install. Your issue with steam should be solveable (but you'll need to download it again) I certainly never have had to install it into any specific directory.

I'm afraid that that is all I can suggest - it's all I do when I can't solve an issue with Windows (and I don't have a back-up/disk image saved. There are sure to be plenty of people who know more about Windows installations than me on here though, perhaps a more specifically targeted question might get their attention. Good luck.