BIOS Updates forum

I'm having problems with a Western Digital 80gb hard drive on a Chaintech 6VIA3 motherboard.

On installation of the HDD it seems to be recognised and reported OK by the BIOS. I can even carry on and install XP, from CD. However, once the XP installation has got to the point where it needs to reboot, the problem begins. Basically, the system goes through the POST fine, but at the point when XP should start the following message appears:

"FAILURE TO START OPERATING SYSTEM"

I suspect the problem is that the BIOS and XP are using different boot sectors.

I would prefer not to use any layering sofware, as I have experienced problems with it in the past.

Can anyone help solve the problem?

It seems that th HDD is faulty. Tried it in another system which I know will take HDD up to 128gb, and the same problem occurs!

I now have the troublesome task of convincing the supplier that there is a fault with the HDD!

Get an emergency scan diskette set from mcafee or elsewhere and check for bootsector viruses, they can also cause symptoms like this.

Maybe the drive has a boot sector virus as Edwin suggests or is just plain corrupt.


I recently had a BIOS S.M.A.R.T. technology problem on a drive that turned out to be fine, resolved by an XP Repair. And I am fairly certain the a clean XP install would have solved it also. Just some process that thoroughly re-wrote the boot sector.

So if you are not currently doing a clean install, I would consider backing up data, making sure you have installs for all required programs and drivers, and then doing an install of XP. Wipe partitions if/when given the opportunity. Do a full format. If the choice between a full format and quick format is given take the more thorough one. And then let it install. If the above fails I would consider a low level formatting program.

Also, make sure the BIOS recognises the 80GB. Go into the BIOS, find the parameters of the 80GB drive (clynders, heads, size, etc) and check the reported size is actually 80GB or thereabouts. I think 2000/XP can look at the entire drive even if the BIOS cannot. (which is why I am asking you to check). But maybe a mismatch between the BIOS and O/S may prevent booting.