Disc Boot Failure

How many of you have received the dreaded Disk Boot Failure notice the moment you open your personal computer? You could shut down and restart your PC, and everything suddenly seems to be all right. But the very next day you get palpitations when you see the same message. If by some stroke of luck your machine boots, you can run system diagnostics, but I assure you this will rarely find the root cause of the problem.

To rectify the problem, get into your BIOS settings. For this press F2, Delete or F10 as soon as you power on your PC. For older machines, it is usually the Delete key. For newer PCs, it is F2. For some others, it is F10.


Once you are in BIOS settings, I suggest you ensure that it is recognising each drive correctly on startup. The best way to do this is to restore everything to their default settings. Look around your BIOS settings to find out where you can do this. Once you find it, do not forget to save before exiting.


Boot failures can also occur owing to faulty cables. Shut down your PC completely. Remove the side of the case so that you get access to the drives and start with reinserting the cable to the drive and to the controller which plugs into the motherboard. It would help a great deal if you could get hold of a different IDE cable to see where the fault lies — with the cable or the drive itself.


Often boot failure could be because of a bad hard disk. Make sure you have at least a year’s warranty when you buy a disk. Formatting will rarely solve the problem because the disk could be damaged and full of bad sectors. If you are under warranty just get it replaced. Most vendors and manufacturers will tell you to only format the drive. Don’t believe them. If anything, formatting removes the chances of recovering your data from the drive.


Another reason for boot failure could be the power supply. Try replacing your power supply — maybe it is defective. Power loss to a hard disk also displays disk boot failure and the system hangs from time to time. Even if you format your disk several times, your problem will not disappear if the power supply is defective.


Guide to filenames


When you are deleting files from your computer using Windows Explorer, there are certain files you should never delete. Files with any of the following extensions must be retained: EXE, DLL, DRV, VXD, COM, INI, 386, CPL, INF, OCX, SYS and some others. The exceptions are the installation files. Once you install a program, you can delete the downloaded installer file.


Help files usually have the extension HLP or CHM. It is a good idea to keep the help files; you never know when you might need them. The other files you should keep are your fonts files which are usually kept in the Fonts folder. They have extensions like TTF, TTC, FON or OTF. Those that are elsewhere — that is, not in the Fonts folder — are not available. Delete them or place them in the Fonts folder.


Files with the extension ICO or ICL are usually icons or a library of icons. I prefer to keep them.


Files that can be safely deleted all come with the extension TMP (temporary) or DMP (Dump). Some DMP files, however, may be useful for debugging. You can blindly delete the contents of a Temp or TMP folder. Always make it a point to delete the contents of your Temporary Internet Files folder.


Delete all BAT files and INI files if the size is more than 64 kilobytes. By definition, they must be less than 64K. INI files have the same mandatory size limitation. Files that come with the extension LOG can also be safely wiped out. Open them in Notepad and see their contents. If you think you need them keep them; otherwise just trash them. Do not forget to empty your Recycle Bin after you have cleared the trash from your computer.