Drive not found, please insert boot disk and hit enter???????? HELP

[barch 88]

Ok, so I took both our computers out to the garage for a air compresser cleaning. I did mine first (Sig), then I did my parents old HP Pavalion 520n w/ 512 Ram, Stock everything basicly. There computer is from 2001 (just guessing), it has XP Home, one of the first with XP. There computer has NEVER in the 5 years we had it been blew out with air, so the dust I blew out was A LOT, I was surprised the PSU or CPU didn't overheat or shutdown. The fins on the heatsink were filled with dust, I couldn't even see past the fan. After I blew the psu, ram, heatsink, and everything, I SEEN SILVER AGIAN!

Anyways, I go to hook up my parents computer for them, and it starts fine, says HP invent, then it goes to black screen, then says "Error reading drive, please insert boot disk and hit enter." Since it's a HP all I have is the one the computer came with so I insert it, hit enter, then it just says the same thing...

Any help? It ran before I did this...and my computer works.


Thanks,



Mike.

[FLG]

Did you check your connections? Its possible you bumped something when you were cleaning it or simply forgot to connect everything. Id check the Molex and IDE cable on the HDD, then go from there.

[barch 88]

Yes. I checked everything over and over. I did unplug the HDD, but I plugged it back in, same way.

[glc]

Did you check BOTH ends of the drive cables? Reseat the power cables?

[barch 88]

Yes. I did everything I just went over all the cables, unplugged them all, pluged them all back in, checked my power connections from PSU, everything is plugged in, I started it up, and this comes up agian:

"Disc boot failure, please insert system disk and try agian"

[tempus]

Originally Posted by barch 88 Ok, so I took both our computers out to the garage for a air compresser cleaning. I did mine first (Sig), then I did my parents old HP Pavalion 520n w/ 512 Ram, Stock everything basicly. There computer is from 2001 (just guessing), it has XP Home, one of the first with XP. There computer has NEVER in the 5 years we had it been blew out with air, so the dust I blew out was A LOT, I was surprised the PSU or CPU didn't overheat or shutdown. The fins on the heatsink were filled with dust, I couldn't even see past the fan. After I blew the psu, ram, heatsink, and everything, I SEEN SILVER AGIAN! Anyways, I go to hook up my parents computer for them, and it starts fine, says HP invent, then it goes to black screen, then says "Error reading drive, please insert boot disk and hit enter." Since it's a HP all I have is the one the computer came with so I insert it, hit enter, then it just says the same thing... Any help? It ran before I did this...and my computer works. Thanks, Mike.

Sounds liks a hard drive failure. what kind of compressed air sis you use? My preferenced is to use only clean compressed nitrogen to blow out dust. Double check all cable connections to the hard drive. remove the cable and check for any dust in and around the connector. My thought is a cable has been disturbed somewhee.

[sgtspector]

Take the drive out and slave it to your pc and see if it's reading it. You can also try booting from the windows cd if you have one doing a repair install.

[barch 88]

I used air from a regular air-compressor in my garage. I did it to my computer too, and mine is working great, so I doubt I hurt it from using the air...

Theres no dust around any connectors, I made sure of it already. So instend of having the HDD master, I should try and slave it?

I have the Windows HP Disk, but I also have a Windows XP Home for my computer, but it is already registered to my computer (it's OEM).

[glc]

There is an article on the HP site on how to do a nondestructive system recovery/reinstall, but that's last resort.

The suggestion is to slave the drive into ANOTHER computer to try to read it, not just rejumper it in place.

You may want to download the hard drive diagnostics from the hard drive manufacturer and run them - the download will be a boot floppy maker or bootable CD .iso. You will want to make sure you can boot with a bootable floppy or CD.

[barch 88]

No luck STILL. Sorry for the late response, been busy.

[rspassey]

Is the BIOS detecting the opticals?

[barch 88]

I cannot seem to get in this computers BIOS, thats whats really WERID!!!!!

I tried Delete, and I know some HP's have F8 instend of Delete, I tried that, still no luck, then I tried all the keys I could think of, and still no BIOS.

[oryx]

It's starting to sound like damage to the motherboard.

[rspassey]

Originally Posted by barch 88 I cannot seem to get in this computers BIOS, thats whats really WERID!!!!! I tried Delete, and I know some HP's have F8 instend of Delete, I tried that, still no luck, then I tried all the keys I could think of, and still no BIOS.

Try pressing F1 and F2 alternatively (and repeatedly many times) - I am pretty sure it is one of those that gets into BIOS on HP computers.

This site might help also - read through it if needed
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

[barch 88]

Originally Posted by oryx It's starting to sound like damage to the motherboard.

No, even when it was new I couldn't figure out how to get into BIOS.

Alright I will try that, Thanks.

[Panama Red]

HP/Compaq site says it's either F1 or F10. Start tapping the F1 immeidately upon boot up and see if that gets you there.