Startup fails: "Non-system disk or disk error" - even with good disk

[RhythMick]

Start with the simple stuff. Reseat the cables.

<edit> Beaten by faster fingers

 

[MrJamie]

Interestingly and for reasons i cannot fathom, i have an ancient netbook that will not boot with a bluetooth dongle plugged in

I had a similar thing but with a phone that would make the pc stall on boot if it was charging, it required a USB feature to be disabled in the BIOS, I cant remember exactly but something like USB storage controller or some USB legacy thing, probably under Integrated Peripherals or similar.

 

[defy-one]

Your pc isn't detecting the boot blocks on your HDD for some reason. Use a DOS usb stick and then FDISK/FORMAT drive C:
Then install your OS of choice

 

[ian turner]

the disk mode isn't set as ahci rather than ide in the bios is it (mind you'd expect ubuntu to handle that but it might be a matter
of chipset support)