Unable to boot from device.

Ok sorry, not a CoH specific problem really, but i'm mindboggled atm.

My graphics card died in a blaze of glory (or more of a smonkey stink) so i went out to get a new one and a new PSU too since my old one wasn't powerful enough for the card.

Transplating the PSU was tricky, as i had to take out everything to get in inside the box. Which meant removign the mainboard.
I tried write down where all cables are and such, but i was a bit nervous i was gonna break it and when i was trying to pull out the mainboard the SATA cables were still attached so i yanked em out before something happened.

I fiddled it all back together and lo and behold it booted (eventually, for some reason i had to power on and off like 5 times before anything showed up on monitor).

Once it got past the BIOS thingie, i see it detected my HDD and DVD, but then i got a message "Unable to boot from device" or somesuch.

I've not done anything with the harddrive aside pulling connectors out and in.

I popped in a windows cd and tried rebooting the computer but i had to run to the bathroom while it booted and i saw it had booted to windows and it worked.

Great i think, i pop the CD out, installed the graphics drivers and rebooted.

Same error, "Unable to boot from device".
I pop the windows cd back in, i let it skip the DVD boot and it starts loading windows again.
the heck?

The computer will not boot from my harddrive unless i have a bootable DVD/CD in the DVD reader and then NOT boot from the CD, then it skips and boots from the HDD.

I tried changing the boot sequence in the BIOS, so it's HDD first then CD. but same error.


Does it have anything to do with which SATA port on the mainboard the drives are connected to? I got six of em, and HDD going into SATA1 and DVD is going into SATA3. (i think it was setup like this before, but unsure).
the mainboard is a ASUS P5N32-e SLI PLUS.

Anyone have any ideas how to fix this?
It's just really annoying having to put my windows cd in to restart the computer.
I'm just amazed this is the only issue... i'm really stoked i manage to replace the PSU and graphics card on my own


Please help!

I tried putting the HDD into position 2 and DVD in position 4 and same thing. reversing the order, DVD into 2 and HDD in 4 the comp won't boot i get nothing on the monitor and it beeps some.


Annoying ><

Which version of Windows do you have?

XP?
Vista?
Win7?

It's possible you cornholed your Master Boot Record and simply need to restore it.

Another, possibly nastier option is you've cooked something on your poor mainboard too. So let's take a look-see at restoring the MBR.

XP:
Boot from your Windows disk into the recovery console.
FIXMBR
It'll ask you if you're really, really extra-mega-super special sure you wanna do this. Answer Y(es).
Reboot.


Vista/Win7:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b/927392/en-us

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

Check in your system bios and make sure the hard drive is set as the first boot device.

edit: hmm I re-read your post and I see that you already tried this.

*EDIT* My post is pointless as I apparently failed to read the entire OP. Just ignore me.

<slinks back into obscurity>

also, do i use bootrec /fixmbr or bootrec /fixboot or both?

Okay, if you're on vista, follow the instructions on the MS website I linked to.

Blowing the MBR will not result in scragging the drive. Merely an unbootable drive. The data volume will still be there and readable by other systems.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

The Master Boot Record is a file in a specific location on the drive (so that the BIOS can find it). If it gets corrupted, the disk is still usable to store data, but you can't use it as a boot device.

The MBR in turn will point to where the actual OS "startup" files are located - when you put the Windows DVD in, the MBR on there is what's getting you going - you just then tell the system that no, you really would prefer loading the OS from the hard drive, not the DVD.

If the MBR fix does not work, the alternative is to purchase another hard drive and reinstall the OS onto it. Hook your existing drive up as a secondary (data) drive. You will probably have to reinstall any apps you use, but their data files will still be intact.