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Why won't my PC boot?

Posted By : Robert of Mesa Community College on January 10, 2003

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I have an Intell Pentium III computer/Windows ME, and it seems that my computer is not booting up correctly. When I turn the system on, there is a red steady light on the front of the cpu. When I turned the system on, the system start to boot, but them it stops with a message stating "primary master hard disk failure" Press f1 to continue to DEL to restart., which neither restarts the computer. This has happened to me before and when it did, i simply turned the computer off and then on again, the red light turned off, my system bbooted up and all was normal, until this happened again. This time, the red light won't shut off and the same thing is happening.. I cannot even get to my desktop. Please help!

This question was answered on January 10, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.


First, check to make sure there isn't a floppy disk left in the machine.

Your symptom points to a bad hard disk They do go bad Sometimes, a cable or jumper may work its way loose inside a computer, but unless you have some familiarity with the workings of your machine, it might be best to have it diagnosed by your local PC repair shop Since the problem may still be intermittent, perhaps the guys at the shop can help you save any data that might be in jeopardy before the drive crashes entirely.

Should you be fortunate enough to get the PC to boot, save any data to floppy disks or CD-R before the situation becomes terminal However, before things get worse, my sense is that you may require some first-hand outside technical assistance.

RG

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Posted by Robert of Mesa Community College on January 10, 2003

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