# Trouble booting up: non-system disk error
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 1, 2002, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814 "2002-08-01T03:16:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@puubs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puubs)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/1 "2002-08-01T03:16:06Z")
For some reason, my friend’s computer just died. It can’t boot up at all. What happens is that I keep getting “non-system disk error”, and normally when you see that, you just eject a disk that may be in the floppy and move on. But this thing just keeps going (and no, there’s no disk in there). I’ve tried entering setup and making the computer forget it has a disk drive, but it keeps autodetecting it. Then I made a boot-disk, and got the same problem. Finally, i opened up the computer, disconnected the disk drive – got the same problem. It is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I usually don’t ask questions like this, but I’m really stumped. Maybe some wiring inside got loose?
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### Author:  [@EmbarrassingDad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmbarrassingDad)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/2 "2002-08-01T03:20:38Z")
The hard drive may be worn out and dying, usually due to bad bearings. Will it boot in another computer?
If this is the case, it may be possible to recover the data by removing the HD, putting it in a ziplock bag, and _freezing_ it for a few hours, then put it back in the computer cold. Usually you can get one last boot out of them and copy the crucial data to another drive.
Good luck
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### Author:  [@EmbarrassingDad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmbarrassingDad)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/3 "2002-08-01T03:33:01Z")
I forgot to mention it could also be that a virus deleted the boot sector or partition map. That would be bad.
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### Author:  [@puubs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puubs)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/4 "2002-08-01T03:38:50Z")
Thanks for the advice. To my knowledge, the hard drive is alright. The thing is, I don’t use that computer, so I wouldn’t know if a virus could have potentially been downloaded. Ugh. Until then, this guy has to use my computer.
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### Author:  [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/5 "2002-08-01T03:53:04Z")
The machine cannot read the drive:
The drive is defective (they do, eventually, die)
The machine does not know how to read the drive (if it is auto-detecting, this is probably not the case)
The cable is loose and/or defective.
Get another cable - swap cables.
if it still doesn’t work, use a known-good drive (like the one in your machine) and use it to replace the suspect one.
If the good drive works, the problem is the drive - let us know if the freezing (I’ve never heard of that trick) does or doesn’t work.
(yes, this is most likely a hardware problem - m/b, cable, or drive - if you are not comfortable ripping a machine apart, look for someone who is).
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### Author:  [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/6 "2002-08-01T04:33:01Z")
Go into BIOS and set the boot device to the floppy drive before you use a boot diskette to start the system.
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### Author:  [@Iteki\_actually](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki_actually)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/7 "2002-08-01T09:36:30Z")
I had this problem recently (well still do actually) when I tried to reinstall the OS on my laptop, the OS CD crapped out about half way throught the install leaving me with windows half installed.
I assume thats why I am getting the error.
If I can get my hands on a start-diskette I think I will be able to fix the problem. Or rather if I can get my hands on a laptop diskette station that is…
Anyone think I am right and that in my case it is the half-install that is making the error? Worked fine 10 mins before I tried the reinstall…
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/8 "2002-08-01T10:08:51Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Then I made a boot-disk, and got the same problem
If it won’t boot from the hard drive or from a boot floppy created on another machine, then it sounds like the drive controller (or something like that) is kaput, in which case you’d need to replace the motherboard.
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### Author:  [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/9 "2002-08-01T14:03:13Z")
Not necessarily. The BIOS can be set to boot from the HDD first.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/10 "2002-08-01T14:23:33Z")
Ah, yes, do check that **puubs**.
Another thing to try is to whip out the hard drive, jot down the drive properties from the label (heads, cylinders, sectors) and set it up manually in the BIOS (not forgetting to replace the drive first). Sometimes the autodetect _doesn’t_.
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### Author:  [@puubs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puubs)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/11 "2002-08-01T17:02:47Z")
I’ve played around with the boot order, and it still doesn’t work. The only thing I haven’t tried is booting from the CD drive (have to find a win95 CD). I dunno. I was wondering if anyone has had the same problem and how they dealt with it.
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### Author:  [@puubs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puubs)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/12 "2002-08-01T17:25:21Z")
Update: So I tried a win95 CD, no dice. However, I tried the recovery disk (CD) that the computer came with, and that worked. But, it would have reformatted the hard drive, which I’m not going to do unless I’m sure it’s the last option. So I don’t know. Maybe I made a bad boot disk? On my computer, I have windows 2000, in which you can’t just do sys a:, so I manually copied [command.com](http://command.com), io.sys, and msdos.sys. Any other ideas? I’m sure if I can get past booting up, it’ll be fine. I don’t think the hard drive is totally shot.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/13 "2002-08-01T18:29:46Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by puubs \*
> Maybe I made a bad boot disk? On my computer, I have windows 2000, in which you can’t just do sys a:, so I manually copied [command.com](http://command.com), io.sys, and msdos.sys.
You just didn’t make a bad boot disk, you didn’t make a boot disk at all. The boot sectors of a boot disk require a “Master Boot Record” (MBR) that actually does the real work of loading the above mentioned files into memory and starting the OS.
The error message you are getting means that the MBR of your HD is not readable. As others have mentioned, this can mean Bad News ranging from a bad HD to munged MBR to a virus. I _would_ suggest putting the HD in another system as a slave (secondary disk), booting and see what the (good) HD utilities think about the disk. _Except_…
You expertise on these matters is such (given your posts) that it might be a Real Good Idea to back out of trying to fix the computer and suggest that someone more knowledgable take over. There is an excellent chance you might make things worse.
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### Author:  [@puubs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puubs)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/14 "2002-08-01T19:12:08Z")
Well, I’m not going to make any excuses justifying my expertise becuase I am by no means an expert. I did download a bootdisk from [bootdisk.com](http://bootdisk.com) and it does work, I see the command prompt, and all necessary drivers are loaded. I also can use a restore CD which will reformat the harddrive, without using a bootdisk. Win95 CD doesn’t give a response, but I could probably reinstall it with using the bootdisk.
I am awaiting responses from an expert (not on the net), but I was wondering if somebody knew a quick fix for this, IF they’ve seen this problem before and have actually fixed it. As far as what I’ve done so far, I’ve just played around with the setup. I also disconnected the a: drive, got the same result, so I don’t think it’s a problem with the a: drive, or cd-rom for that matter (have since connected the a: drive, got autodetected again). So yeah, it’s probably a problem with the MBR. I know pretty much next to nothing about this, and I’m most likely not going to take any further course of action, unless otherwise suggested. I’m probably going to take it to an expert to fix, but my friend is pretty cheap and convinced it will inconvenience her beyond all measure.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions.
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### Author:  [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2002, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-booting-up-non-system-disk-error/121814/15 "2002-08-01T19:29:51Z")
I had a HD die - I confirmed it was the drive by setting it up as a slave in a good machine - the good machine could not read the drive (it was letter ‘D’, the OS being on ‘C’).
That was a high-tech trash week.