Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 5.11. IBM ROM BIOS display indicating an invalid master boot record.
The meaning here is, “Insert a bootable floppy disk into the A: drive and press the F1 key.”
AMI BIOS Messages
With no valid MBR or bootable device found, systems with an AMI BIOS display the following
message:
NO ROM BASIC - SYSTEM HALTED
This message is confusing to some because it seems to point to a problem with ROM BASIC, which
of course is not what it really means! The AMI ROM does not include a BASIC interpreter in the
ROM (neither does any other ROMs except those found in old IBM machines), so instead of jumping
into BASIC or displaying a useful message indicating there are no bootable devices, it displays this
confusing message. The real meaning is the same as for all these messages, which is to say that none
of the bootable devices in the boot sequence were found to contain signature bytes indicating a valid
MBR in their first physical sectors.
Compaq BIOS Messages
With no valid MBR or bootable device found, systems with a Compaq BIOS display the following
message:
Non-System disk or disk error
replace and strike any key when ready
This is another confusing message because this same (or similar) error message is contained in the
DOS/Windows 9X/Me VBR and normally is displayed if the system files are missing or corrupted.
So, if you see this message on a Compaq system, you can't be sure whether the problem is in the
MBR, VBR, or the system files, which makes tracking down and solving the problem more difficult.
Award BIOS Messages
With no valid MBR or bootable device found, systems with an Award BIOS display the following
message:
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER
So far, this appears to be the least confusing of these messages. You don't need a secret decoder ring
to figure out what it is really trying to say.
Phoenix BIOS Messages
With no valid MBR or bootable device found, systems with a Phoenix BIOS display either the
message
No boot device available -
strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility
or this one:
No boot sector on fixed disk -
