Windows won't Boot!! help

I rebooted and got this error on a black screen.

Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key

I have tried booting from the hard drive but i get the same error. I've tried booting from my xp pro cd, and try to recover and as soon as it has to reboot it comes back to this error on a black screen.

Any suggestions?? is my Hard drive screwed?

 

Sounds like your hard drive either came unconnected, or it died. Check to make sure it's inserted properly (especially if you did it yourself) and hasn't worked itself loose. Also, test to see if you can boot from a CD, and if you can see the hard drive when booted from the CD.

 

Did you use a disk tool (fdisk) to make your hard disk primary and the ACTIVE hard disk?

During boot up watch the BIOS and make sure its finding your hard disk(s).
Normally it should show hard disks detected (or stand there picking its nose looking for something that should be there.)

If BIOS finds something....
Boot from the CD and then go to the hard disk letter and try to get a "dir".

If you see something, then the hard disk is registering, and odds are it can't boot from it because the boot partition is wonky or its not primary and active.

 

It doesn't get to the bios on the boot up. It just goes to my Asus screen then to a black screen with that error. I booted with the Xp pro cd and typed in dir, and it gave me a list of stuff.. so it seems like its working. How do I change it to primary and/or active??

 

The asus screen was the bios.
try to fresh install XP Pro

 

You can go into the BIOS (usually F1, F2, or delete while booting) and turn off the ASUS screen and see the BIOS info.

Doesn't really matter as if you can get a directory of info, more than likely your hard disk is still viable... its just confused.

Try fdisk from a prompt.
Windows might be able to fix this using "repair" as well.

 

He tried repair
Have you checked that the cable isnt loose?

 

/sigh

Wrong repair I think... you can use the boot-disk to do a auto-repair or a manual one.

please go to the prompt off the install CD and start fdisk.

Fdisk should have an indication of active disks... if you have no active disk, then that is what is wrong.

It still could be a dead disk... but frankly, it most likely is simply a MBR that needs a fix or a disk that is not labelled active and primary.

 

Restart computer, hold down F8 till you hear this loud beeping sound which will take you to the BIOS recovery consol, arrow down to you see the option (last known good configuration) then press enter.

If this don't work then you can deal with HDD, or OS reinstall.

 

I was not able to start fdisk off of prompt.. it said it wasn't there. :S I also saw the bios which booted and my HDD was one of them.. any suggestions??