Business | Technology

Resolving boot disk errors

You turn your computer on, and it tells you the boot disk cannot be found. Here are a few tips to help diagnose the problem

  • Gulf News Report
  • Published: 01:04 February 9, 2008
  • Gulf News

A missing boot disk error, which means the computer doesn't know where to get the information it needs to start up, could mean you have a crashed hard drive (trouble), but it may also mean you have too many things plugged in. Here are a few things you can do.

1) Unplug storage devices from the USB ports: Who knows what makes the computer try to boot off of USB-connected devices, but everything from iPods to flash drives can cause problems. Unplug your device, reboot, and plug it back in after your computer restarts. I've noticed this is often more of a problem for Macintosh computers. CDs can also cause problems, so eject those too.

2) Change your start-up: drive You may need to look at your computer's instructions to figure out how to change the start-up drive, but booting from a second drive - or just a bootable CD - will let you know if the problem is your computer or your drive.

3) Dealing with a crashed drive: Hopefully, you have a backup drive that you can use instead (backup drives are cheap, usually between Dh300-Dh600), but it you don't, there is going to be a trip to the computer store in your future.

Sometimes, the technical people at the computer store can restore your data, but sometimes they cannot. To make sure you are not faced with the loss of everything (personal data, music, pictures) always make sure you're using a backup drive.

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