Zatrix said:
my old computer wont start. whenever i start it it says it error loading something plz enter boot disk. i dont have a boot disk. i even tried putting the cd in first and starting it and it never even allows me to format. and when i finally did get it to do that it said couldn;t detect hardrive. i even cleared the cmos by taking the battery out. that didn't work either.
now im REALLY scared about installing my new mobo and processor in my new comp. what happens if that happens again....?
how should i install my mobo again?
step by step
Ok, a couple of things. Quoting error messages ambiguously makes it difficult for anyone to diagnose your problem, so if you really want to solve the issue, you should take the time to write down the error message in full and type it in here. That sounded kind of harsh, but I don't mean it to be
I want to help.
In this case, the error message you're quoting is a one-of-a-kind, so it's ok. Your computer is telling you that it can't find the primary boot device.
When your computer starts, it looks for files that load an OS. The location it searches for these files is determined by a
BIOS setting (looks something like
this). Normally, your computer boots from the hard drive that contains the operating system. If that drive fails, then the system can't read it and there's no more boot disk, so you get the error message.
The highest likelyhood is that your hard drive just failed. It happens. Especially with hard drives becoming cheaper and cheaper. Fortunately, most hardware failures are isolated to the device that fails. In other words, a failed hard drive is not going to kill your motherboard, unless something really catastrophic happens... but your chances of that happening are very, very, very slim. The only device failure that commonly takes out other componenets is the power supply.
The question is, why did the hard drive fail. How old was it? If it was older than three years, then it was probably just a disk falure (bearing seized, disc surface structure failure, etc). The other thing that can produce failures is a malfunctioning power supply. If your power supply is supplying too much voltage, then it can kill components... however, a hard drive isn't the most sensitive device in the computer, and there are other parts that normally fail first.
I'd say you're safe to go ahead and install your new components. Just order a new hard drive and install Windows. In order to do this, you'll need to go into your BIOS on start up and change the boot sequence so that it looks for the CD-ROM first. Change the setting, save, and exit. Then you should be good to go. When you're completely finished installing Windows, change the boot settings so that C: or IDE-0 is the first boot device. This will speed up the boot process a little bit
Hope this helps you out.