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Is it me or are S-video cables hard to insert?

"Disk Boot Failure, Insert System Disk and Press Enter"...Error, Help!!?

  • I've been desperately trying to repair our 4ish year old Gateway desktop. After finding a way to get it to start i'm having some booting issues. It reads, "Disk Boot Failure, Insert System Disk and Press Enter". This computer was originally an XP, but through the years i've upgraded it to Windows 7, so i've kinda lost my XP disks... My boot sequence as set in my BIOS menu: 1)Hard Disk/Drive, 2)CD-ROM, 3)Disabled. When I put the disk in and press enter the same error shows up.. :/ Cables are hooked up properly as well.. It just won't read my windows 7 disk :( So what do I do to get past this? I'm willing to reinstall windows (even if i do lose my data, i want my computer back). So all advice, suggestions, concerns, and answers are highly appreciated :) Thanks.

  • Answer:

    set the dvd rom drive to 1 if it is not a dvd drive you need to get one --------- don't know what that guy was talking about if that windows 7 disk is a full install disk then you don't need to install win xp just boot from the windows 7 install disk and you will be good

Colonel at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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hi colonel, thats right either on usb cdrom or just cdrom in your bios. but what has happened is your computer has crashed so the best advice is either buy another windows xp or borrow a disk and then place the windows xp in your dvd driver and reboot when you see your windows logo start taping f12 from here boot from usb cdrom or just cdrom and then start taping any key until you see the scan begin then stop taping and hit install when you begin you will come to your petition there hit D ENTER and L thats right we have to delete that old windows petition. now hit next and do the long format install windows xp completely then when you get to your windows xp desktop now remove that disk and install windows 7 beta start up diskett in your dvd driver and start it the same as we did windows xp then delete those petitions. hit advance and highlight the petition and delete it also then install and it will automaticly install windows 7 beta. good luck hope i was helpful to you

In your bios menu the cd-rom should be in the first position, the hard drive in the second position. In that case if you do not have any disk in the cd-rom it will just skip it and go to the hard drive. If the computer is trying to boot from the hard drive and gives the error "Insert System Disk" regardless if the hard drive is in 1 or 2 position, then your hard dirve has serious problems and is failing. If you have any important files on it you should immediately copy them to another device. If your cd-rom does not start with a bootable cd in the cd-rom (and the cd-rom is in the FIRST position in the bios menu) then your cd-rom might be failing. Probably the easiest way to test the cd-rom is to replace it with another. If you want to run a diagnostic test on the hard drive this link has a free utility. Good luck

In your BIOS, set the CD-ROM as the 1st boot device. That way the system will try the CD drive before the hard drive when it looks for a boot sector. (Normally, you should have the boot sequence set so the CD/DVD drive is the first boot device anyway. What happens then is if there is no disk in the CD/DVD drive, the computer will try the next device; in this case, the hard drive.)

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