Disc boot failure

My 2008 PC is running XP and decided to crash this am. Attempts to restart are unsuccessful, even in Safe mode.
Screen is now telling me 'Disc boot failure, insert system disc and press enter etc..'
Have tried looking through the forum for advice and one post stated running recovery, but you need disc space and unfortunately this probably only has about 1GB left..!
The PC had XP pre installed, but I do have the product key - if this is required for any process...?
Be very glad of help how to get it running again - afraid I'm not very up on PC problems.

 

you could use an external boot disc to access your drive

Hirens boot cd or puppy Linux

you need to run checkdisk and or fixboot/fixmbr from the recovery console

if you do not have the recovery console you can use the above external boot discs.

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the product key will be needed if you reinstall the os, which there should be a hidden partition on your drive to accomplish this if it has not been wiped since you bought the pc.

the above discs will also help you remove data from the drive in case it has to be wiped.

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http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

http://puppylinux.org/main/Download Latest Release.htm

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=EC673DF6F8DFEE84&id=EC673DF6F8DFEE84!109&authkey=!AEMs5lwt9Todokc
above will get you to a download to burn the recovery console to a cd, download the file:

xp_rec_con.iso

 

I don't understand. If windows wont load and there is no active keyboard (meaning no keys are active) then how do I input any commands.
I might also mention in the process of windows startup I hear a clicking sound coming from the cpu.

 

Try attaching a functional keyboard?

 

Hi Katie,
Never heard of functional keyboard. Can you provide me a little more information on this?

G

 

I believe Katie is simply referring to plugging in a USB keyboard.....if you have access to one.

Liz is referring to booting up what is commonly known as a 'rescue disk'; Hiren's is well known for this, and I run several different versions of Puppy Linux myself. All you need to do is to download a Puppy Linux ISO file, and 'burn' it to a CD (it's small enough to fit on this.....Puppies are typically only 200 MB or so in size.) I recommend Tahrpup 6.05, from here:-

http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/puppy-tahr/iso/tahrpup -6.0-CE/tahr-6.0.5_PAE.iso

We normally recommend the BurnCDCC app, from TeraByte Unlimited; it's very simple, as it's a .zip file. Unzip it anywhere you like, and click on the executable. You can't go wrong, as there are no options with this; it does one thing, and ONE THING ONLY.....it burns an ISO file to an optical disk. That's ALL it does.

https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads-free-software.htm

Second item down. Then, having got the disc ready, all you need to do is to 'boot' from it, usually by selecting this in the BIOS, or some machines have a 'one-time boot menu'. Puppy can read the Windows NTFS file system, and you will be able to copy your files off the machine to wherever you want.

It's always handy to keep a 'Puppy' around for emergencies.....although it's a very capable lightweight OS in its own right!


Mike.

 

Cause:Incorrect BIOS boot order The most common cause of this error is an incorrect order of boot devices in BIOS. Usually BIOS tries to find a bootable drive according to its boot device order, so if a PC has a floppy drive set to a higher priority than a hard drive, and there is a floppy disk inserted – then the PC tries to boot from a floppy disk, and a error message is displayed.Cause: Faulty data cables. Like all components of our PC’s, hard drive data cables tend to deteriorate as the time passes. If the same data cable was used for several years(or even the same one across several computers), then it might me the cause of periodic read/write errors that can affect the loading process.

Fix : Change BIOS boot order
To check a computer’s boot order, follow these instructions:
Restart the computer
Open the BIOS. If you’re not sure which key is used to open BIOS, it’s either any of the following or it’s listed on the first screen that appears on the monitor, before the Windows logo appears.Possible keys: Esc, Del, F2, F8, F10 or F12Go to the Boot tab
Change the order to position the hard disk as the 1st option
Restart the computer
Open the BIOS. If you’re not sure which key is used to open BIOS, it’s either any of the following or it’s listed on the first screen that appears on the monitor, before the Windows logo appears.Possible keys: Esc, Del, F2, F8, F10 or F12
Go to the Boot tab
Change the order to position the hard disk as the 1st option