No hard disk found ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deanna
  • Start date Start date
D

Deanna

My computer was on and i was away from it and i guess it tried to reboot
itself which has never happened before.

It then said "not a system disk" so i put in my XP System Recovery disk in
to try and just get windows going again....and pressed a key. It then said
" No hard disk found"

Does this mean my hard drive is fried? Not sure what caused it but it is an
older computer. Is there any way to save it?

Thanks for any help :(
 
I would make sure first that it still comes up (shows up) in the Bios
(usually DEL or F1 on boot gets in). If your Battery went dead and the
drives are not set to be auto-detected in the BIOS, then it may not show
up or register as a drive on boot.

If the BIOS sees it and it still comes up as "No hard disk found", then
I would see about getting access to another PC and downloading the
manufacturers (Western Digital, Seagate/Maxtor, etc...) utilities
program. These usually can detect a drive and test them from a floppy
disk or CD (as long as the PC allows you to boot from a CD drive). Run
that and see if it can repair or detect the drive.

If that doesn't work, then it may be gone (unfortunately). Hope that helps.

RJC
 
Deanna said:
My computer was on and i was away from it and i guess it tried to reboot
itself which has never happened before.

It then said "not a system disk" so i put in my XP System Recovery disk in
to try and just get windows going again....and pressed a key. It then
said
" No hard disk found"

Does this mean my hard drive is fried? Not sure what caused it but it is
an
older computer. Is there any way to save it?

Thanks for any help :(
Click to expand...

If your system has SATA hard disks, the message can mean that the driver
isn't installed.

Regardless, your best effort at this point would be to back up your data.
Simply remove the drive from your system, attach it to another (perhaps
using a USB2 drive case) XP system with enough drive space, and copy the
files off.

HTH
-pk
 
Hi Deanna,

As well as the other suggestions, try removing the flat cable that goes
from the motherboard to the drive and reinstalling it a couple of times.

Quite often one of the many pins on the cable just loses a good
connection after a few years.

---==X={}=X==---

Jim Self

AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

Experimental Aircraft Association #140897
EAA Technical Counselor #4562
 
Sorry about this but my Intel motherboard with no SATA disk was still giving the
messsage - "no disks found" and I have floppy I need to use - it is marked
IT8212 ATAPI. To use that I have to hit F6 early in the setup. I then get the
chance to use that floppie - later in the installation I need the Raid Driver
and if I install any further SATA's I still need to use the first floppie again.

So it is the motherboard that needs to know in the first place.

B|rge in sunny Perth, Australia
Click to expand...

In addition, I have looked at the BIOS and find that SATA is seen and the
message is SATA AHCI MODE ENABLED but that message is greyed so presumeably it
is the use of the floppies that has impressed the message on the BIOS and the
fact that the SATA Raid is installed that made it go grey.

B|rge in sunny Perth, Australia
 
Thank you all for your help !!!

I tried a couple of the suggestions (except unplugging cables which i'll
try tonight) and I am actually not that literate when it comes to checking
BIos and all that, in fact i didn't know what the heck you were saying lol
...however...

I did the DEL thing when it starts up and got into the Bios thingy. I have
two choices BIOS and CMOS. I went into both of them and eventually found the
place where you change which drive it boots from first. It is booting from
my cd drive first. I put in the Windows XP Recovery Disk and it says "Not a
system disk". Do I have the right one? It says right on it "to restore your
operating system". I'm thinking my cd drive or the actual disk is a problem
now. My floppy(A) is totally uslesss so i can't use it for any reason. I
also went in and changed it to boot up from HDD 0, HDD1, HDD2 and HDD3.
Nothing worked. I went in to one of the options where it says" check hard
drive" and did that. It said it was checking then nothing happened after.

I didn't see anything about SATA and I explored for a while. I'm afraid to
change anything else as i am not exactly a programmer ! Although anything
would be better than what i have now, which is NO windows.





"
 
Thank you all for your help !!!

I tried a couple of the suggestions (except unplugging cables which i'll
try tonight) and I am actually not that literate when it comes to checking
BIos and all that, in fact i didn't know what the heck you were saying lol
..however...

I did the DEL thing when it starts up and got into the Bios thingy. I have
two choices BIOS and CMOS. I went into both of them and eventually found the
place where you change which drive it boots from first. It is booting from
my cd drive first. I put in the Windows XP Recovery Disk and it says "Not a
system disk". Do I have the right one? It says right on it "to restore your
operating system". I'm thinking my cd drive or the actual disk is a problem
now. My floppy(A) is totally uslesss so i can't use it for any reason. I
also went in and changed it to boot up from HDD 0, HDD1, HDD2 and HDD3.
Nothing worked. I went in to one of the options where it says" check hard
drive" and did that. It said it was checking then nothing happened after.

I didn't see anything about SATA and I explored for a while. I'm afraid to
change anything else as i am not exactly a programmer ! Although anything
would be better than what i have now, which is NO windows.
Click to expand...

Be careful - do not change but have a look at ADVANCED/DRIVE CONFIG. Click on
that and you should see SATA configuration and see if it is set or as in my case
greyed.

B|rge in sunny Perth, Australia
 
If your system has SATA hard disks, the message can mean that the driver
isn't installed.

Regardless, your best effort at this point would be to back up your data.
Simply remove the drive from your system, attach it to another (perhaps
using a USB2 drive case) XP system with enough drive space, and copy the
files off.

HTH
-pk
Click to expand...


Sorry about this but my Intel motherboard with no SATA disk was still giving the
messsage - "no disks found" and I have floppy I need to use - it is marked
IT8212 ATAPI. To use that I have to hit F6 early in the setup. I then get the
chance to use that floppie - later in the installation I need the Raid Driver
and if I install any further SATA's I still need to use the first floppie again.

So it is the motherboard that needs to know in the first place.

B|rge in sunny Perth, Australia
 
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