Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Non-System disk or disk error
Replace and strike any key when ready
Non-System disk or disk error
Replace and press any key when ready
Invalid system disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key
Disk Boot failure
Disk I/O Error
All these messages originate in the volume boot record (VBR) and relate to VBR or system file
problems.
19.
If no boot record can be read from drive A: (such as when no disk is in the drive), the BIOS
then looks for an MBR at cylinder 0, head 0, sector 1 (the first sector) of the first hard disk. If
this sector is found, it is loaded into memory address 0000:7C00 and tested for a signature.
20.
If the last two (signature) bytes of the MBR are not equal to 55AAh, software interrupt 18h (Int
18h) is invoked on most systems. This causes the BIOS to display an error message that can
vary for different BIOS manufacturers, but which is often similar to one of the following
messages, depending on which BIOS you have:
AMI BIOS:
NO ROM BASIC - SYSTEM HALTED
Award BIOS:
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER
Phoenix BIOS:
No boot device available -
strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility
or
No boot sector on fixed disk -
strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility
Older IBM BIOS:
The IBM Personal Computer Basic
Version C1.10 Copyright IBM Corp 1981
62940 Bytes free
Ok
