Boot Disk Error

Each of the computer system contains a bootable device. The priority for the first boot device is given in the BIOS – Basic Input Output System. BIOS is usually embedded in the motherboard and holds the information of the hardware devices that can be connected to the computer systems motherboard. It is this - BIOS that holds the information about the booting devices. The first booting device is the floppy device by default in the BIOS. The second is the hard disk drive and the third is the CD drive and the other devices like the DVD drive etc.

Whenever the computer system is started the BIOS looks up for the booting device and boots the computer system from that device. The computer system’s hard disk drive normally loads the operating system. It is the secondary memory device that contains the operating system. Mostly the hard disk drive is responsible for the loading of the operating system. The disk boot error normally happens when there is no booting device present inside the computer system. The computer system is unable to load the operating system from any of the devices.

The floppy disk drive being the first boot device should contain a valid bootable floppy disk in it. The Disk Boot Error message is also prompted if the floppy disk does not contain any bootable files. Sometimes it is also possible to boot the system and leave it at the command prompt. At the command prompt the computer can function as it has a DOS – Disk Operating System. Consider the case where in the floppy disk containing the booting files prepared from the Microsoft’s Windows operating system is used for the starting up of the computer system. This booting floppy disk is actually called as the start up disk. This start-up disk can be prepared at the installation of the operating system itself. Else in the control panel there is an option for the preparation of the start up disk.

The start-up disk can also be prepared by right clicking the floppy disk drive in the explorer and clicking on the properties. There are several options like the scandisk, format etc. Along with these options there is also the option for the creating the start up disk. Whenever the start up disk is created, the floppy disk is usually formatted and the all the contents are erased. Only the files that are related to the booting of the computer are present. When the computer is started using such a floppy disk; then the DOS commands and files are loaded to a virtual drive called as the RAM drive.