Hi, I just finished assembling my new PC and tried to boot up for the first time with the Vista Premium DVD in my drive and was greeted by the error message in the subject. I've tried all manner of boot sequence combinations, and the hard disk is brand new so there's no previous O/S or data installed, I just keep getting this error. I sure hope it's not faulty! Also, the hard disk is recognised by BIOS. I've looked around quite a bit for posts about this problem but all seem to relate to O/S re-installs, partitioned drives, RAID setups etc. which are not relevant to me, as I haven't even been able to reach the Vista install screen. Below are my specs, thanks in advance to anyone that has some ideas :-) much appreciated. Q6600 Gigabyte x38-Ds4 motherboard 500GB Western Digital HDD Gigabyte 8800GT (SATA2) DVD-RW (SATA2) Thermaltake Toughpower 750W 4GB DDRII-800 RAM Vista Home Premium 64-bit

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Norp277, It sounds like it can't boot from the DVD. Either
1. The drive is not configured properly - master / slave or
2. The DVD disk is not bootable - It is a legal copy, not a pirate version?

Too old to die young

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Sorry, probably should've mentioned it's a legal OEM version of Vista Home Premium 64-bit, so it should boot... Being a n00b, I'm not exactly sure whether or not my hard disk is in master or slave setup, but I have: DVD drive: connected by SATA data cable to mobo, and by SATA power cable to PSU. HDD: connected by another SATA data cable to mobo, and by the same SATA power cable above to PSU (the cable has outputs for 3 devices, of which I'm using 2). Should I hook up one of the two drives to its own SATA power cable? The reason I haven't tried it so far is the dextrous re-wiring required, but if that's the problem then I'm very glad :-P

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The power cable shouldn't be the problem. A couple of things is first you need to make sure of, in the BIOS, that it is enabled to boot from CD (or DVD, same setting), then set the Boot order to look at the CS/DVD first. Study the book that should have come with your Motherboard. It should have an entire section devoted to these settings. Then in the POST (the first couple of screens that you see notice if it lists the CD/DVD as being found. You can use your pause key here. I know it goes by pretty fast and when you aren't used to noticing particular events in there, it is difficult. All of that taking place should get you loading the OS from the DVD.

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If it were a cabling problem I would be more inclined to look at the data cable. The plug on the ends of these tend to be fragile and I have already found a couple of them broken in some client machines. I truly thing your BIOS is not set to see the CD/DVD as a boot device though.

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Yeah setting the boot sequence to CD-ROM 1st was the first step I tried to remedy 
the problem, unfortunately no matter whether it's CD-ROM 1st, HDD 1st, or any other 
order, I get the same result :( 

I just tried changing the data cable on the DVD drive, no success. Could it be a 
faulty DVD drive? Out of curiosity, in BIOS I have the following list, should my 
DVD drive also show up here?


> IDE Channel 0 Master        [ None ]

> IDE Channel 0 Slave          [ None ]

> IDE Channel 1 Master        [ WDC WD5000AAKS-00YGA

> IDE Channel 1 Slave          [ None]

> IDE Channel 2 Master        [ None]

> IDE Channel 2 Slave          [ None]

> IDE Channel 3 Master        [ None]

> IDE Channel 3 Slave          [ None]

> IDE Channel 4 Master        [ None]

> IDE Channel 4 Slave          [ None]

Drive A                                [ None]

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Also, I'm not sure whether or not my DVD drive is listed in POST. The PCI device 
list is:

USB 1.1 Host Cntrlr (x6)
USB 2.0 Host Cntrlr (x2)
Multimedia Device (is this it?)
IDE Cntrlr
SMBus Cntrlr
Native IDE Cntrlr (x2)
Display Cntrlr
Network Cntrlr
IEEE 1394 Host Cntrlr
ACPI Controller

Below this it has:
Verifying DMI Pool Data..................
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

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You say this is a new PC. Do you have your "old" PC with a DVD/CD drive installed? If so, remove it from the old and insert into new. The old dvd drive should be IDE rather than SATA, it will connect to the MOBO by a big cable rather than small sleek thing. Ensure the HDD is connected to SATA1 on the MOBO, it sounds as though it is but check to be sure. If it is a brand new drive then it doesnt matter which order the BIOS is set to search for discs. It cant find a bootable partition on the HDD so it will look to the dvd and then the floppy (if fitted). There is always the chance the HDD is faulty, I went through 5 of them in one night a couple of years ago. First four were from the same batch and proved faulty. Good Luck

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Yes it should show up there so your dvd drive is not being recognized.Is this a sata 
drive?If it is change ports to see if that changes anything.

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Agree with JBMac, if the optical drive (DVD) was being "seen" by the BIOS it would 
be on the list with the hard disk drive.

Suggestion:
1.  Change the HDD to connect to SATA port 0
2.  Change the optical drive to connect to SATA port 1
3.  Refer to p43 of the manual and set SATA RAID/AHCI to AHCI, and set SATA Port 
0-3 Native Mode to enabled
4. Refer to p39 of the manual and set IDE Channel 0 and 1 to Auto.  Assuming you 
have no other HDDs/DVDs besides the two mentioned, set the rest to None to save a 
little boot time.
5.  Don't forget to choose Save & Exit
6.  Upon reboot, hit F12 Boot Options menu and choose Boot from CD/DVD if the option 
is on the list

Until the SATA optical disc drive is showing in the BIOS, you will be dead in the 
water.

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I agree with that totally. You H/D is being recognized. Not the DVD. It's been a long time since I ran a Gigabyte, but you should be offered a Single Phrase (mine is at the bottom of the screen), asking if you wish to boot from the CD/DVD. Of course this won't be offered till we can get you MoBo to see the drive! Thanks to the other fellow that got the book to view, I have been trying to D/L it from Giga.. for 2 days now. They are responding like they are using dial-up. Bottom line is first recognize the device!

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Problem solved! CHEEEEE!!!! :D

I tried going into BIOS and forcing each IDE port to detect any devices, which succeeded 
in displaying the DVD drive along with the HD, however when I saved settings and 
restarted, I got the same error, only to find the device once again not listed in 
BIOS.

Problem was solved by simply switching the SATA cable to a different port a couple 
times (third time lucky, as it turns out). Not sure why this one in particular is 
working, but after all that I'm installing windows as we speak so who cares!

Thanks so much for your help guys, I'm glad people are awesome enough to lend their 
advice on forums like this. Hooray for humanity! Peace out :)

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