[kyo.]

So I turned on my computer the other day and nothing came up on the monitor. After rebooting 3-4 times, it comes up with the message, "Reboot and select proper boot device, or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key". Whilst this is occurring, my CPU is making a strange razoring sound. This is a relatively new PC (1-2 years). Does anyone know what's wrong?

[awdark]

There is a slight possibility that your power supply died and the computer is unable to spin the drive up and power up the rest of the system anymore because it needs more power.

I suppose you should try to put in a XP disk to attempt a XP repair install before going out to buy some hardware, otherwise a "razoring" sound is not a good sign at all. When you say razoring, I think of a metalic scraping sound and that would indicate epic failure of your drive! O__O like the drive head is scratching up the surface of your disk....

[ketchup]

As far as I know, HDDs don't die in just one day. I've only read a lil bit about the subject though.. And they say the first sign of HDD failure is a certain clicking noise.. you can google these and compare the sounds.. Your problem does not seem like a HDD failure though..

[mori]

there are a few:

- it's possible that the hdd is corrupted
- your os is corrupted and cannot boot up windows
- check that ur cables are not damaged and/or ur power supply is running properly

ANYWAY. go into your bios and see if the boot is directed to your HDD - the one that uve installed windows
- if it is, then it could be that the computer doesnt recognise windows, so either go back to the bio and change the boot startup as the cd/dvd drive, save, put the windows (watever xp. vista) cd and do what awdark has mentioned - either repair or reinstall.

otherwise, im fresh out of ideas. and that razor sharp noise doesnt sound very nice either.

[KTZ811]

Ahh I think I'm having the SAME problem! >_<
Nothing shows up on my monitor anymore and the fan on my computer is louder than ever. How can you reboot if the monitor isn't showing anything??? HELP!

[aznfishyfart]

just do wat awdark says....hes like God of computers

As far as I know, HDDs don't die in just one day. I've only read a lil bit about the subject though.. And they say the first sign of HDD failure is a certain clicking noise.. you can google these and compare the sounds.. Your problem does not seem like a HDD failure though..

lol thats what you think
im sure there were some minor signs of it starting to wear....but it can basically stop working over night.....

[tommy96814]

we do this at work : try another sata port or ide port. sometimes the port fried.

[kyo.]

Thanks for the suggestions you guys! really appreciate it. i've actually misplaced my xp cd (the beauty of moving houses) but i'll definitely check out your suggestions once i find it. im leaning more towards mori's corrupted idea. does this mean that i've lost all of my files?

[aznfishyfart]

Thanks for the suggestions you guys! really appreciate it. i've actually misplaced my xp cd (the beauty of moving houses) but i'll definitely check out your suggestions once i find it. im leaning more towards mori's corrupted idea. does this mean that i've lost all of my files?

not necessarily
depends on what part of the drive got damaged
there are some decent recovery programs out there
ive had a hard drive where the directory thingy got messed up, but i still had ALL my files, jstu couldn't access them, but i ended up being able to recover them

[kyo.]

Okay so being the computer illiterate person that I am, I couldn't fix the problem on my own. Ended up taking it to the computer store and turns out the motor was screwed. Got it replaced for $80 - complete rip off but anyways. Thanks for the help you guys

[tommy96814]

try another ide or sata port. it is possible that the current one is busted. we have this happening often at work because of these really old computers.