non system disk or disk error - even without any media???

[haifisch]

Hello everyone!

I have an old HP Compaq nc6400 notebook which has this problem:

It does not have a hard drive and the optical drive is missing too, so I wanted to boot into a puppy linux live usb to see how this badboy works. It says the above mentioned "non system disk or disk error" whenever I try to boot from the usb stick. I know that the usb stick is good because I can start it on other machines. I also double checked that the boot order is correct. The funny thing is, that if I don't even plug in anything, there is no hdd or odd or usb or anything, it still says the same error.

So now I'm stuck here, and don't know what should I do. Thank you for your time and help in advance

 

[R-T-B]

I'd poke around the bios and see if it has any settings related to "legacy USB support" or similar. It will need that to boot from USB.

 

[haifisch]

I'd poke around the bios and see if it has any settings related to "legacy USB support" or similar. It will need that to boot from USB.

I forgot to mention legacy usb support is enabled.

 

[CJCerny]

Lots of older hardware with USB ports can't boot to USB devices. If supported, option will be present in the BIOS and needs to be enabled. Option might not be present in your BIOS.

 

[haifisch]

Lots of older hardware with USB ports can't boot to USB devices. If supported, option will be present in the BIOS and needs to be enabled. Option might not be present in your BIOS.

It's supported and enabled, also when I plug in the usb and start the notebook, press f9 to enter boot menu I can select the usb (and it only shows the availabe options at the time)

 

[MrGenius]

Does it work with a HDD?

 

[Steevo]

Some supported it though floppy drive emulation CD/DVD, or hard drive emulation, so you will set the USB as an emulated drive, and set it as the first boot disk.

 

[haifisch]

Does it work with a HDD?

I have another notebook here, so I pulled the hdd out of it(there is a win 7 installation on it) and tried to boot from it. It does boot from the hdd but it gets bluescreen at startup probably cuz its for another pc with completely different specs.

 

[CJCerny]

What is the option you are referring to in the BIOS called?

 

[MrGenius]

I was also wondering, does the USB work with the HDD installed? Just something I would try.

 

[Jetster]

Is it formatted Fat? Try another Flash drive

Then try a memetest flash install or any other flash boot device (to make sure you can boot off that USB)

 

[kn00tcn]

should also confirm that it's in the MBR format, not GPT (or something along those lines, this is about the bootloader on the usb)

what i would do is make a DOS boot stick, the kind used for running wdidle or possibly memtest or atiflash, something known & designed to boot on decades old mobos

 

[haifisch]

I was also wondering, does the USB work with the HDD installed? Just something I would try.

no, it doesn't. I made a windows 7 installation usb stick and that one does not work too while on another pc it works fine. driving me crazy.

 

[haifisch]

Is it formatted Fat? Try another Flash drive

Then try a memetest flash install or any other flash boot device (to make sure you can boot off that USB)

gonna try it now thanks

 

[haifisch]

gonna try it now thanks

wow, I just tested, I could boot memtest

 

[haifisch]

I re-created the windows usb and it works now, gonna try with the puppy linux later again

So basically it works, thank you everyone for helping me out