Inconsistent booting
 

I apologize if this has been addressed before, but I did a search, and found nothing that <i>exactly</i> describes my problem.

I recently installed a new WD 120 GB HD on my computer - AMD 700mHZ; win ME.

The problem is - well, most of the time there <i>is</i> no problem, but every once in a while I get the DISK BOOT FAILURE message on start up (and the BIOS doesn't detect either HD). On every occasion so far, if I just turn off the computer and turn it back on, it will boot up just fine.

Right now it's just a minor inconvenience, but I'm worried that this might be a sign of more trouble down the road.

Any ideas what might be the cause of this?

Check the cables and make sure they are tight. Check the jumpers and make sure they are correct. Download the drive integrity software from the Western Digital site. If it all checks out, make frequent backups so if the drive dies you can RMA it and still have your data.

The only thing I can suggest is checking the jumper settings like hrdwareguy said. Incorrectly placed jumpers can give really weird results; some that are similar to yours.

-Lasereth

I have the same disk as you, and had to replace it due to spinup problems. Might just be co-incidence as the supplier hadnt got many returns on that model at all.

As has already been said above, check cables, replace if you have a spare, and try it on the other IDE plug on your m/b. As it does boot sometimes I'm sure your jumpers are right.

First of all - thank you for the quick responses.

The first time it happened, I replaced the cable with the new one that came with the new HD. I suppose I should open it up and check it for any loose connections.

The jumpers are set as detailed in the instructions that came with the new drive, and as shown on the older slave (which was a slave drive before, so didn't need to be changed).

I'll DL the software recommended by <b>hrdwareguy</b> and see what happens.

Thanks again.

Try cable selecting the two drives. since you must be running a 32bit gui like windows XP or 2000, this will not cause any more problems and it may be better to let the bios assign the irq's and addresses instead of directing them via slave and master.
On some via bios this solves a constant re-booting problem concerned with memory addressing.