Reboot and select proper boot device

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Hi folks

I’ve afriend whose PC (XP Home SP3) I look after and which has started giving this error message every time she powers on.

“Reboot and select proper boot device or insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press key”

Now I thought I knew what this might mean normally, but this time it is puzzling.

If she reboots using CTRL+ALT+DEL, then the Boot disk is found as expected, and Windows loads without a hitch.

[*]All patches up to date
[*]All virus software up to date
[*]Firewall up to date
[*]Spybot up to date
[*]Recent scans using Spybot & AVG report clear
[*]CHKDSK run
[*]Defrag run
[*]Error checking run from Windows Prodperties

[*]BIOS reports Boot priority as Floppy, HDD & DVD drives in that order – Not ideal, but should work fine (no disks in either flopppy or DVD drive)
[*]Only one physical disk in PC (an eMachine)
[*]Only one partition on disk

I would normally suspect some form of loose/dodgy connection, but I have stripped PC back to MB and reseated all items (after a thorough clean)

So 100% of time, pc fails to boot, but a restart via CTRL ALT DEL gives 100% success, and Windows runs perfectly (as far as I can see) for as long as its switched on.

I have Googled and searched here, and found thousands of answers, but none seem to apply to my friend’s circumstances.

Could it be a slow to spin disk? would that cause this error? if so can I force a delay in the boot process.

Any other suggestions welcome.

Colin

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Any other suggestions welcome.
Colin

Knowing how unreliable floppy drives can be, I would suspect it to be the flaky element. Do you know if it works reliably?

I’d be inclined to swap the booting priority away from having the floppy first, preferably keeping the HDD as #1. If need be, you can always go back into the BIOS and change it back.

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I’d be inclined to swap the booting priority away from having the floppy first, preferably keeping the HDD as #1. If need be, you can always go back into the BIOS and change it back.

No I have no idea if the Floppy works. For all practical purposes it couild be removed anyway as its never used. However I will remove ot from the Boot Priority section in the BIOS ans see if that makes a difference.

Just thinking about it I don’t think I even have a floppy disk to check even if I wanted to!

However in theory it shouldn’t make a diff as the re-boot should presumably still go throught the same process.

Let you know how I get on.

Colin

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You can also use a utility such as SIW | System Information for Windows by Gabriel Topala to check the HDD SMART status.

Joe

--Joe

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No I have no idea if the Floppy works. For all practical purposes it couild be removed anyway as its never used. However I will remove ot from the Boot Priority section in the BIOS ans see if that makes a difference.
However in theory it shouldn’t make a diff as the re-boot should presumably still go throught the same process.
Colin

I would agree with Leif to change the boot order to HHD first and eliminate the floppy as a choice altogether. Also disable the floppy drive completely in the BIOS.

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