Weird start-up problems...

Rancid

Sometimes when I start my computer, it won't boot and tells me that the hard drive has been changed and to enter set up to check it, or press F1 to continue.
If I press F1, it tells me it needs the system disk to boot from, and to insert it and click Enter.
That doesn't work.

To get it to start, I have to change the First Boot device to cd rom in Bios settings then restart and insert Windows disk at the first screen.

Now... this only happens occasionally. So more than 90% of my start-ups are normal.

I've a P4, 3.0GHz, with an Abit IC7-G motherboard.

Any clue why this is happening?

Rancid

.... or..... what exactly can make a BIOS "forget" a hard drive?

BoB_BoT

Have you tried updating your bios? Perhaps it's a glitch and updating/flashing might fix it.
READ ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST BEFORE FLASHING A BIOS!

Dalamar

Either the NVRam that stores the BIOS settings is failing or you have a bad clock battery. if you think it's the battery (all settings are changed back to default), then you should be able to get it replaced, but it's unlikely to be the battery.

unkel

You're not using a fairly old hard disk by any chance? If so you can delay hard disk detection in most BIOS's