Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Problem: The display shows a No Boot Device, Missing Operating System, or similar
error message.
• This is normal behavior if you have not yet installed an operating system.
Error messages like this generally mean that the drive is physically in-
stalled and accessible, but the PC cannot boot because it cannot locate
the operating system. Install the operating system.
•
If the drive is inaccessible, verify that all data and power cables are con-
nected properly. If it is a parallel ATA drive, verify that master/slave jumpers
are set correctly and that the drive is connected to the primary interface.
•
If you upgrade your motherboard but keep your original hard drive (or
use a utility to clone your original), your operating system installation
may not have the drivers necessary to function with your new hardware.
If you're upgrading your motherboard, chances are good that enough
things are different that Windows won't be able to boot. You'll need to
reinstall Windows.
Problem: The system refuses to boot from the optical drive.
• All modern motherboards and optical drives support the El Torito specifi-
cation, which allows the system to boot from an optical disc. If your new
system refuses to boot from a CD, you can verify that the CD is bootable
by booting it in another system.
• Run BIOS Setup and locate the section where you can define boot se-
quence. The default sequence is often (1) hard drive, (2) optical drive, (3)
USB boot device, and (4) network boot device. Sometimes, by the time the
system has decided it can't boot from the hard drive, it “gives up” before
attempting to boot from the optical drive. Reset the boot sequence to (1)
optical drive, and (2) hard drive. We generally leave the system with that
boot sequence. Most systems configured this way prompt you to “Press
any key to boot from CD” or something similar. If you don't press a key,
they then attempt to boot from the hard drive, so make sure to pay atten-
tion during the boot sequence and press a key when prompted.
• Some high-speed optical drives take several seconds to load a CD, spin up,
and signal the system that they are ready. In the meantime, the BIOS may
have given up on the optical drive and gone on to try other boot devices.
If you think this has happened, try pressing the reset button to reboot the
system while the optical drive is already spinning and up to speed. If you
get a persistent prompt to “press any key to boot from CD,” try leaving that
prompt up while the optical drive comes up to speed. If that doesn't work,
run BIOS Setup and reconfigure the boot sequence to put the USB boot
device first and the optical drive second. You can also try putting other
boot device options, such as a network drive or boot PROM, ahead of the
optical drive in the boot sequence. The goal is to provide sufficient delay
for the optical drive to spin up before the motherboard attempts to boot
from it.
