Inaccessable boot device

[Kieran]

Hi.

This morning I went to turn on my work computer and it quits. I get a message at the top saying "inaccessable boot drive". I try to start it in safe mode and I get the same.

Any ideas? Thanks.

[Michael]

Check the connection of your harddisk. Reconnect the cables on both harddisk and motherboard. If that doesn't help, try to connect the harddisk to another computer and see whether it works. What OS are you running?

[Kieran]

Thanks. Windows 2000. I'm not too strong on the insides, but I'll have a poke around in there and see if anything's loose.

[Michael]

There are two cables behind the harddisk. One is the power connector to the Power Supply Unit, one is the data cable connected to the motherboard's IDE channel. Disconnect and reconnect them.

[Kieran]

Done. No change.

[Michael]

Try the harddisk on another computer. Connect it as a slave (change the jumper setting at the back of the harddisk). Check whether it can be detected.
Btw, is the harddisk detected on the current computer during the initial boot?

[Kieran]

I don't know if it is detected or not. It begins starting up, but quickly goes to the blue screen with the message.

[Michael]

During the initial boot, after the memory test, it shall detect whatever IDE device you have (Primary Master/Slave, Secondary Master/Slave).
Can you go into the BIOS anyway?

[Kieran]

Can I go into BIOS? I dunno. Explain it to me stupid like, and I'll give it a whirl.

Thanks, by the way.

[Michael]

During the initial boot page, there shall be an option (normally at the bottom) e.g. Hit Del / F1  to go into BIOS setting.
If it's too fast for you to see the words then you just keep pressing Del or F1 when the computer starts.

[Kieran]

I get a brief message suggesting I can go into Set Up or Boot Memory. I got myself into Set up OK. Should I be somewhere else? Neither Delete or F1 did anything.

[Michael]

When you are in Setup, look for page that shows the hardwares. How many harddisk you have? And CD drives?

[Kieran]

Thanks for that, but I ended up going into Boot Memory, and then something along the lines of starting in a separate partition (can't remember the exact wording) and now I'm running a fast check of the hardware.

I only have one hard drive, and it's all word/excell documents so it won't have chewed up too much memory. Of course, I'd really like to get all those documents back.

I'll let you know what it says when the quick test finishes in about 15 min. Thanks.

[GX1_Man]

Have you had problems with it before? How old is it? Sometimes you get a message like that when the hard drive expires as well.

[Knut_Arne_Vedaa]

Try booting with a Linux live CD (such as Knoppix) and see if you can access the disk

[Mac]

Knut, did TweakUI do the trick for you?

Kieran, click the link below to find KNOPPIX

Maybe a boot sector virus. Have you tried - fixmbr - or - fixboot - from the Recovery Console?

[Fed]

Knut, did TweakUI do the trick for you?

Private messages? Deleted posts? Hijacked threads?
Shakes head & moves on.  

[GX1_Man]

I guess it wasn't THAT important.

[Mac]

Inaccessible Boot Device