So I have a very old pc and I was updating safari and iTunes and it said to restart the computer. I did so. Now it does not turn on at all. I get a black boot up screen and it's asking for a disk to boot up. I don't know what the heck it wants but it does nothing now. I don't know if anyone can figure it out for me or have any ideas. It's running windows xp or it was lol. I understand it's old and it's slow but it's all I got and I can't get into emails that I need to send as of late. Anyone with any constructive ideas or anyone that could help by looking at it I would really appreciate it. Thanks all.
sounds like the HD is not getting power or is dead check the wires
Quote from: light on April 22, 2011, 08:35:59 PM
sounds like the HD is not getting power or is dead check the wires
Sorry Glen I should have said your checking the wire that connect the hard drive inside the case there will be a large gray ribbon cable and beside it a plastic plug with 4 wires just move them a bit and see if it fires up (do you know what a Hard drive looks like?)
If all else fails call Bruce I am sure for a small Pitance he will help
Well it's getting power cause it boots like it's going to go then it stops when the screen is black with the bios stuff there then asks for a boot disk. So I would have to presume it's getting power but thanks Gord. And thanks Don if Bruce is reading this I would have beer for a bribe or we could work something out. Thanks guys i need to get this going so I can still email resumes off.
Quote from: rcshadow on April 22, 2011, 09:37:47 PM
Well it's getting power cause it boots like it's going to go then it stops when the screen is black with the bios stuff there then asks for a boot disk. So I would have to presume it's getting power but thanks Gord. And thanks Don if Bruce is reading this I would have beer for a bribe or we could work something out. Thanks guys i need to get this going so I can still email resumes off.
I have a system here that has the same problem. The mother board is getting power and that's what you see when you boot up. But the system stops when it can not find the hard drive with XP on it. This is why I'm saying to check the wires going to the hard drives or the hard drive with XP on it could be dead.
Ok I think I hear what you mean Gord. So there is one of the grey ribbons that goes from the mother board to the hard drive. The hard drive is the box inside that is not the power supply right? I have only been inside once or twice to get a wireless card in it. And i presume it's the wider one cause there are a few inside. And should I unplug it and plug it back in or just wiggle it a bit to make sure it's in. How long do hard drives last cause this one is pretty old?
Just unplug and plug in everything in sight. Make sure you plug things back in the way they were though!
Hard drives usually fail in a gradual way, by starting to make lots of weird noises and giving errors. It's unusual for them to just up and die. However, corrosion can occur within the contacts of connectors in your computer, and the act of unplugging and plugging them back in is sufficient to restore a good connection.
This EXACT Thing Happened to my laptop. Do you still have the disk for Windows Xp? If not, than you will need to start looking for one, or you could upgrade to a newer microsoft program, like windows Vista. What happened is there is a virus in your computer and it hacks your computer then deletes all programs (including Xp). So that's why its asking you for a disk. it would be very smart to take it to a repair shop like Gizmo's computers, then they can get all of your documents, pictures, etc. and you wouldn't have to look for a disk.
Good luck! Joey :D
Repair shops? Whats that?
:)
I am coming to you live from my resurrected old PC. I have to give a huge shout out to all of you that helped especially Gord and Bruce. I don't really know what I did I opened the side and didn't unplug wires but made sure the spider web of wires were all pushed in as far as they would go into the sockets they were already in. I think it was a good wake up call to start backing up important pictures and files for the future. Again thanks to all that helped I REALLY appreciate it. ;D ;D
Now lets start charging RC stuff in the hopes that the light showers they are calling for tomorrow are just that and start at around 9 pm. :-\ :-\
Sounds like the MBR (Master Boot Record) has been corrupted. If it is indeed the problem, you can solve it by booting from a boot disk, and going to the command prompt. Then using the command "fdisk /mbr"
It will create a new boot record for you. If its not the problem, it wont cause any damage to the HD. While in the command prompt, you might want fdisk to list your partitions too. Just to make sure they are still their.
Shawn.