My WinXP system wont boot, when ever i go to boot up it comes up with 'disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter'. I have looked all over the net and nothing has helped me. I have created a ms-dos startup disk, but when i put it in it simply creates a "A:\" command and i dont know what to do from there. I have also turn my computer on and off and that still doesn't work.

Can someone please solve my problems?

Troubleshoooting Disk Boot Failure
This error means your FAT boot sector is corrupt. Indications can include messages such as;

"Invalid system disk."; "Disk I/O error."; "Replace the disk, and then press any key"; "Non-System disk or disk error"; "Replace and press any key when ready."; and "Disk Boot failure "BOOT: Couldn't find NTLDR."; "I/O error reading disk.";

Or you may seem something like this, "disk boot failure insert system disk"; "boot disk failure insert system disk and press enter"; "windows xp disk boot failure"


How to Repair the Boot Sector:
If XP won't start it may be due to a damaged boot sector or a missing or corrupt ntldr or ntdetect.com files.

To replace damaged ntldr and ntdetect.com you can copy fresh files from the XP CD using the COPY command. Boot with the XP CD and enter the Recovery Console (as above). At the Command Prompt type the following (where "X" is your CD-Rom drive letter) allowing the files to overwrite the old files
COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C:
COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:

To repair a damaged Boot Sector at the command prompt type FIXBOOT and press Enter. Then answer "Y"

A link to this information, along with excellent win xp info can be found at
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm#How to Repair the Boot Sector:

I would try the fixboot option first. Also try F8 at startup for xp boot options. If you need to boot XP disk, you might have to change BIOS boot options to cd-rom as 1st option if disk won't boot up.
cheers, ~pawprint~

Originally Posted by phez_boy

My WinXP system wont boot, when ever i go to boot up it comes up with 'disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter'. I have looked all over the net and nothing has helped me. I have created a ms-dos startup disk, but when i put it in it simply creates a "A:\" command and i dont know what to do from there. I have also turn my computer on and off and that still doesn't work.

Can someone please solve my problems?

greetings phez_boy

do you have an xp cd?
an xp disk that works needs to be bought or have been installed as oem.
is this a new machine? did it ever boot? just stop? if no cd & yes it's new; have you called your retailer? more details would be helpfull in trying to help.

it an old machine, i dont have the copy of the cd but i can get 1, it used to boot, but now it just wont for some reason.

can you get into safe mode? (clicking F8 after BIOS set-up)

if yes; then try starting "last good configuration"

Just a check - You haven't got a CD in the CD drive or a floppy in the A drive at the moment have you?

Does your BIOS correctly recognise your drives?

OK - As you where everybody :-.

yeah my bios does reckonise everything, and no i cant get it in 2 safe mode

Have you set in bios that first boot device is the hard drive that you have windows on?

2 other reasons I can also say why you can't boot with 'disk boot failure' is you set first boot device as floppy and it's busted, so it could be the floppy drive itself or a dud cable connected to it or the connection device on MOBO knackered.

Or your hard drive is going to meet it's maker.
It's brown-bread aka DEAD.

I would set firstly in bios that first boot device is HD, and no other boot devices.
Then report back.

This is just an idea but it is possable that your bootrecord is bad. If so you can boot to the Windows XP recovery console and repair this.
You first boot to xp disk.
Then when given the menu press R.
If you only have xp on computer you will chose choice 1
If you have one, type in the admin password.

Finaly you will have a comandprompt
all that is left is to type
fixboot
after that type
fixmbr
this will rebuild both the boot sector and the master boot record.

I wish people would saty and wait for answers so they can get helped quick.