Cant boot due to floppy error

[acireekili]

im making a computer
i have a hd with win xp
but it wont boot the hd
in bios, the bios is award i think
it checks mem and detects ide drives
an then says floppy disk failed (40)
and restarts and keeps goin thru the same thing
i dunno wat to do
plz plz help

[Catweazle]

Remove the data cable from the floppy drive, reverse the connector and plug it back in. Sounds very much like you've simply plugged it in the wrong way round.

Moved to Hardware, by the way

[DMR]

im making a computer

If by that you mean that you built it yourself, open up the case and check the all of the floppy drive cabling and connections. Make certain that you have the floppy drive's ribbon cable correctly oriented and seated.

[antioed]

He didn't say that he was trying to boot from floppy, sounded like he wants to boot a hard drive that already has XP installed. Check the boot order in the BIOS...if it's an Award BIOS you probably need to press DEL to get into setup and then make sure the hard drive (HDD-0?) is set to the first boot device instead of the floppy. If you've already done this you need to check the connections on the HD, if they're ok then check the manual for the motherboard.

[DMR]

He didn't say that he was trying to boot from floppy, sounded like he wants to boot a hard drive that already has XP installed.

Yes, but this:

in bios, the bios is award i think
it checks mem and detects ide drives
an then says floppy disk failed (40)

would indicate a problem with BIOS detection of the floppy drive, regardless of which device was the actual boot device, yes?

[acireekili]

uh u are right it is a problem with the bios,
at first i didnt even have a floppy plugged in,
so i thought that it needed one
now that one is plugged in it still doesnt work

[DMR]

As Catweazle and I suggested- make sure that you have the floppy drive's ribbon cable connected correctly; if it's connected upsidedown or seated off-center (not contacting all of the pins on the drive's connector), you will experience errors.

[acireekili]

its connected fine

[Catweazle]

You flipped the connector 180 degrees and checked?

[DMR]

Try a different floppy drive.

[dlh6213]

And/or a different cable.

[StrangePaper]

If all else fails you can change the boot sequence to just not boot the floppy drive, that way your computer will boot windows but your floppy drive wont work. :sad:

[anheuser]

I have a friend that has a computer with a similar problem it says that the A drive is not a proper boot disk. I went into the bios and changed the boot sequence to not even consider the floppy and it still does it. I also unplugged the ribbon and the power from the floppy and it still says A drive is not a boot disk and then it won't do anything else. I plugged everything back in and put a win 98 boot disk in the floppy and that worked but it still won't boot any farther than the A drive and I have no clue as to why. It is a gateway p3 slot 1 with 256mb ram and 40gig hd with win xp pro. Any suggestion would be great.

[DMR]

Hi anheuser,

We ask that members not tag their questions on to a thread previously started by another member (regardless of how similar your problem might seem). Not only does it divert the focus of the thread away from the original poster's problem, but it also makes it less likely that you yourself will get the individual attention that you need.

Please start your own thread and post your question there. When you do, please try to give us as much specific info as possible regarding the problem (exact error messages, system specs, etc.).

For a full description of our posting guidelines and general rules of conduct, please see this page:

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforu...b_faq#faq_rules

Thanks for understanding.

[darshan003]

just try to disable the floppy drive in the BIOS and try to boot with the hard disk. i think the system will boot fine.