Upgrading and Repairing PCs

Common Drive Error Messages and Solutions

Several common error messages are associated with problems in the file system or drives. This section covers the common ones, listing their causes and possible solutions.

Some of the most common file system errors are as follows:

• Missing Operating System

• NO ROM BASIC - SYSTEM HALTED

• Boot Error Press F1 to Retry

• Invalid Drive Specification

• Invalid Media Type

• Hard Disk Controller Failure

These usually occur when booting the system or when trying to log in to or access a drive. The following sections describe each of these errors and offer possible solutions.

Missing Operating System

This error indicates problems in the master boot record or partition table entries. The partition table entries might be pointing to a sector that is not the actual beginning of a partition. This can also be caused by invalid BIOS settings, in some cases resulting from a dead or dying battery. In fact, in my experience, corrupt or improper BIOS settings—such as incorrect geometry (cylinder/head/sector) or LBA mode settings—are the leading cause of this problem. Another cause can be virus damage to the MBR. This error also can occur if no active partition is defined in the partition table.

The normal solution is to correct the invalid BIOS settings. The BIOS settings for drive parameters and LBA translation must be set to the same values as when the drive was partitioned and formatted to read the drive correctly. If the MBR on a FAT drive is damaged or virus infected, you can try FDISK /MBR to repair it. Use FIXMBR with an NTFS drive. Other types of damage require more sophisticated use of a disk editor utility or repartitioning and reformatting the drive to start over.

NO ROM BASIC - SYSTEM HALTED

This error is generated by the AMI BIOS when the boot sector or master boot record of the boot drive is damaged or missing. This error also can occur if the boot device has been improperly configured or is not configured at all in the BIOS. In this case, data in the partition might be valid and undamaged, but no bootable partition exists.

IBM systems in this situation used to drop into a built-in BIOS version of BASIC, but most non-IBM BIOS manufacturers did not license this code from Microsoft. So, instead of dropping into BASIC, they displayed this cryptic message. Because the most common cause of this type of error is a failure to set at least one partition as active (bootable), the typical solution is to run FDISK and set the primary partition as active. If this is not the problem, the solution is to repair the damaged MBR or correct the improper BIOS settings.

Other possible problems include corrupted or missing drive parameters in the BIOS Setup.

Boot Error Press F1 to Retry

This error is generated by the Phoenix BIOS when the hard disk is missing a master boot record or boot sector or when there is a problem accessing the boot drive. This has the same meaning as NO ROM BASIC does on an AMI BIOS. The most common cause of this message is having no partitions defined as active (bootable). See the previous section for more information.

Invalid Drive Specification

This error occurs when you attempt to log in to a drive that has not been partitioned or for which the partition table entry has been damaged or is incorrect. Use FDISK to partition the drive or to check out the existing partitions. If they are damaged, you probably should use a data recovery utility such as the Norton Utilities to correct the problem. Such correction might require manual editing of the partition table with the Disk Edit program included with the Norton Utilities. Another solution is to repartition the drive from scratch, but this causes any existing data on the drive to be overwritten.

Invalid Media Type

This indicates the partition table is valid, but the volume boot sector, directory, or file allocation tables are corrupt, damaged, or not yet initialized. For example, this is the standard error you would receive if you tried to access a drive that had been partitioned but not yet formatted. The FORMAT command is what creates the volume boot record (VBR), file allocation tables, and directories on the disk.

The repair typically involves using a data recovery utility, such as the Norton Utilities Disk Doctor, or redoing the high-level format on the drive. Because high-level formatting does not actually destroy the data, one technique to recover is to high-level format (OS Format) the volume and then immediately unformat it using the unformat utility included with the Norton Utilities.

Hard Disk Controller Failure

This message indicates the hard disk controller has failed, the hard disk controller is not set up properly in the BIOS, or the controller can't communicate with the attached drives (such as with cable problems).

The solution is to check out the drive installation and ensure that the cables to the drive are properly installed, the drive is receiving power, it is spinning, and the BIOS Setup definitions are correct. If all these are correct, the drive, cable, or controller might be physically damaged. Replace them with known-good spares one at a time until the problem is solved.