BIOS Error Code I9990301

[bob12953]

I'm looking for help on my Thinkpad 600. When I turn it on (either with the battery in or just with the AC power plug) I get the normal IBM and Thinkpad logos, then in the upper left a 2-3 second flash showing "I9990301" and then the screen shows a strange diagram or chart that looks like it was built with Visio or something. The computer does not respond at that point to anything other than CTRL-ALT-DEL, which just sends it back through the same boot sequence with the same result.

I gather this is a BIOS error message that means my hard disk is either failing or cannot be accessed, but....I don't know what to do about that.

Any ideas on how to proceed and, if the hard disk has failed, can it be resurrected enough to retrieve some stuff that has not been backed up.

Any help greatly appreciated.

[RRHODY]

I9990301: Hard disk error.
1. Check that the operating system is installed in the hard disk drive. If not, install the operating system.
2. Reseat the boot device.
3. Check the startup sequence for the correct boot device.
4. Check that the operating system has no failure and is installed correctly.