Upgraded motherboard bios - disk error on boot up now!

[SnoopZ]

Hi all,

I've updated my Award Bios using the Asus windows bios upgrade utility from version 0302 to 0902.

All went well until i came to reboot and i now get a message saying somthing like, 'Disk boot error please insert system disk'(can't remember it exactly).

I've been into the bios and it says it's been upgraded to version 0902 and the boot order looks to be correct,but whatever i do i get the same error every time and can't boot up the computer.

The only way i've managed to boot it up is by pressing F8 on startup and selecting the harddisk and all boots fine.

Any help on getting my booting back to normal please.

[alferret]

You could try to re-flash the bios back to an earlier version or re-flash with the latest version but through DOS or using the utility in the bios and a USB flash drive.

This looks like the priority has changed perhaps, Boot from windows cd and enter recovery for os and try fixmbr command if this fails try bootcfg /rebuild. Can you select the particular hard drive using boot select menu?

failing all these get hold of a bootable live cd either the xp I posted years ago the new vista one ive mentioned or a linux one that allows you to see ntfs partitions and find the boot ini and edit it adding different entries for disk position

edit seen boot menu allows you to boot so edit your boot ini adding lines with varies disk placements

[SnoopZ]

Yes alferret that is an option but i've only got 1 computer, so if that goes wrong i'm screwed and this 1 is up and running.

I guess it must be a bios problem and i really need to fix that rather than any damage to the HDD?

I'll wait further comments before i dive in as i don't want to be computer less all weekend.

Thanks for your advice.

boot to it and edit the boot ini post the line that is there now and ill post what you need to add

[SnoopZ]

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

This looks like the priority has changed perhaps, Boot from windows cd and enter recovery for os and try fixmbr command if this fails try bootcfg /rebuild. Can you select the particular hard drive using boot select menu?

failing all these get hold of a bootable live cd either the xp I posted years ago the new vista one ive mentioned or a linux one that allows you to see ntfs partitions and find the boot ini and edit it adding different entries for disk position

edit seen boot menu allows you to boot so edit your boot ini adding lines with varies disk placements

Will look into it and post back when i can mate.

---------- Post added at 21:09 ---------- Previous post was at 21:08 ----------

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

boot to it and edit the boot ini post the line that is there now and ill post what you need to add

Can you explain that one please as i'm out of sync with the suggestions at the moment.

got CP/System/advanced/start up and recovery and click the edit tab(still post your line before you add the below text)


multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(3)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(4)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

if you add this text to your boot ini(no space in microsoft cf added it) as long as your os is xp and on a primary partition this should (hopefully) catch it.
You will get a multi boot menu try each option until you find one that boots . Once your sure you have caught it goto msconfig/boot.ini and check boot paths . Dont do this at the start just in case you lose the boot you have now

[alferret]

I had a bad flash using the windows flash utility.
While the comp is working, download and copy to either cd and\or flash drive the bios. Rename the bios to (in my case) p5b.rom yours would be xxx.rom.
Using the BIOS option to flash the mobo with either device.

I had to drop the BIOS onto a cd and get my system back up that way.

Alternitivly Zings comments are worth trying.

Also you could go to Asus forums and see if anyone else with the same board has had the same\simular problems and what there fix was.

What board do you have?

its not a bad flash imo the drives have just be assigned a different boot order

what you do have to remember is when you flash a bios it resets also. It could be as simple as just pointing the boot order in bios to the correct hard drive. In fact try this before all the other stuff

[SnoopZ]

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

got CP/System/advanced/start up and recovery and click the edit tab(still post your line before you add the below text)


multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(3)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(4)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

if you add this text to your boot ini(no space in microsoft cf added it) as long as your os is xp and on a primary partition this should (hopefully) catch it.
You will get a multi boot menu try each option until you find one that boots . Once your sure you have caught it goto msconfig/boot.ini and check boot paths . Dont do this at the start just in case you lose the boot you have now

I've tried fixmbr and that didn't work.

Tried bootcfg/rebuild and that didn't work either however i just pressed enter when the options Load identifier and os load options came up, so when i now press F8 for the boot menu on startup i get a question of what i want to boot to.

1 option just says "" and the other is Windows XP, you can see this below.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=""
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

.

So it still doesn't work other than pressing F8.

Zingle should i enter that text you pasted? if so exactly in what format?

or

If i take the easy option and just reinstall my OS as i'm thinking of trying Vista out will that fix it?

alferret i might try your option over the weekend but my heads spinning and i'm looking for a quick way out now as i'm thinking of trying Vista and had enough tonight.

Atleast i can get it by pressing F8.

I've got an Asus A8N5X alferret.

try the text I entered as it is but no space in the first microsoft

You will get a multi boot menu just choose the second one in the list first then the third if one works go into msconfig and then boot ini and click check boot paths this will delete the wrong ones

the fact it boots when you selct boot order is a good thing and not the biggest ball ache in the world lol

---------- Post added at 22:30 ---------- Previous post was at 22:25 ----------

actually an easier way to see what disk is booting right click my comp select manage and diskmanagment look for your booting hdd and see what number it is on the left hand side. if its 0 your stuffed if its 1 2 3 4 or whatever just add the line with that figure in rdisk(*)

[SnoopZ]

[Update]

I dug deeper into the Bios and found a Boot Priority option and this was set to boot from the slave first so i swapped it around and all is back to normal now.

But because of what i did before, i get the menu up still because of the "" i added to the boot.ini.

Is it safe to delete the below bolded part of the boot.ini and save it from within windows so i wont get asked the question or is there something else i need to do to get straight into windows?

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=""
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Thanks guys for all your help, reps awaiting.

yes if you added it

the check you did was what I said in post 9