Non-system disk press any key...

I have an Alienware M14x R1 laptop with a Crucial M4 SSD as my primary drive and the stock Seagate in the optical drive as my secondary drive. I recently tried to update the Seagate's firmware and now everytime I boot up I get this message that says, "Non-system disk press any key to continue". What do I do to fix this?[/FONT]

I have tried to get an answer for this question on three different windows forums and no answer...

Not sure if this will be of much help either but approaching this logically, can you remove the auxiliary drive to remove it from the equation? Confirm that your BIOS sees your primary drive (Crucial SSD) properly? Can you boot from installation media and possibly use Bootrec.exe to address possible issues with the boot files (fixmbr, fixboot)? How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows.
Is it possible that the "attempted" firmware update intended for the Seagate has somehow corrupted the firmware on the Crucial Drive? Seems like it would be an unusual happenstance but I guess it might be possible if both drives were present in the system when the flash took place..

Originally Posted by Trouble

Not sure if this will be of much help either but approaching this logically, can you remove the auxiliary drive to remove it from the equation? Confirm that your BIOS sees your primary drive (Crucial SSD) properly? Can you boot from installation media and possibly use Bootrec.exe to address possible issues with the boot files (fixmbr, fixboot)? How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows.
Is it possible that the "attempted" firmware update intended for the Seagate has somehow corrupted the firmware on the Crucial Drive? Seems like it would be an unusual happenstance but I guess it might be possible if both drives were present in the system when the flash took place..

So I tried using Bootrec.exe and then /BootRbd or whatever the command was to rebuild as well as fixmbr and fixboot but none of the commands were recognized?

You will get that type of error message if the system is looking at the wrong drive to boot. If you were have changed the drive order in the bios, or had a bootable flash drive, or some other change in drive configuration, you might see that message. Having worked on your DVD drive, the bios boot options may have been changed. Are you running a second hard drive along with the SSD?

Also, if for some reason, the boot files had become corrupted, something along that line might show up.

To run these commands, you need to boot to the Windows 7 install DVD, or the Recovery CD. After you do that, you can try a startup repair, which is probably what the link Trouble provided explains. That is supposed to run several of the recovery utilities and attempt a repair, but doesn't always work. If it does not work, and it may take 3 attempts with reboots in between, you can try opening a command prompt and use the commands below.

Other commands you can try from the command prompt are:
bootrec /scanos

bootrec /rebuildbcd

bcdboot C:\Windows

These commands may be able to replace something corrupted in the boot files. The bcdboot command, which replaces the BCD store with a new one, may be your best bet. But make sure and check the boot order in the bios.

Originally Posted by Saltgrass

You will get that type of error message if the system is looking at the wrong drive to boot. If you were have changed the drive order in the bios, or had a bootable flash drive, or some other change in drive configuration, you might see that message. Having worked on your DVD drive, the bios boot options may have been changed. Are you running a second hard drive along with the SSD?

Also, if for some reason, the boot files had become corrupted, something along that line might show up.

To run these commands, you need to boot to the Windows 7 install DVD, or the Recovery CD. After you do that, you can try a startup repair, which is probably what the link Trouble provided explains. That is supposed to run several of the recovery utilities and attempt a repair, but doesn't always work. If it does not work, and it may take 3 attempts with reboots in between, you can try opening a command prompt and use the commands below.

Other commands you can try from the command prompt are:
bootrec /scanos

bootrec /rebuildbcd

bcdboot C:\Windows

These commands may be able to replace something corrupted in the boot files. The bcdboot command, which replaces the BCD store with a new one, may be your best bet. But make sure and check the boot order in the bios.

Yes I have a Crucial M4 SSD as my primary and the original HD as well which replaced my optical drive. I believe when I tried to update the firmware of the HD it messed up the boot order. I have ran the startup repair and it didn't find anything but I will try the rebuild bcd command you provided

If you have another hard drive on the system with an active partition, the system will try to boot to it, if it is listed first in the bios. Have you checked the bios, or use an f12 key or some other boot device option F key?

Originally Posted by Saltgrass

If you have another hard drive on the system with an active partition, the system will try to boot to it, if it is listed first in the bios. Have you checked the bios, or use an f12 key or some other boot device option F key?

I ran the four commands you showed me and it appeared to fix it! It is weird though because it claimed that there wasn't any windows installations found but it did fix it!

Glad it fixed it. But to make sure of your configuration, could you open the Disk Management utility (diskmgmt.msc) and use the snipping tool to take a picture of the graphical display and attach using the paperclip on the Advanced replies. It should look something like my attachment. But yours will not have the same partitions mine does.

Originally Posted by Saltgrass

Glad it fixed it. But to make sure of your configuration, could you open the Disk Management utility (diskmgmt.msc) and use the snipping tool to take a picture of the graphical display and attach using the paperclip on the Advanced replies. It should look something like my attachment. But yours will not have the same partitions mine does.

Here you go I just took a screens shot