Computer not detecting hard drive - HELP PLEASE

My mothers computer has stopped detecting the hard drive on boot up. Nothing has been changed (except for installing some new software for a digital camera).

On start up, it goes through the bios screens but then fails to find any boot up files - It finds the floppy and cd rom drive but not the hard disk.

It has an AMD K7 series motherboard with AMI dual Bios. Part number is GA-K7ZX. The processor is a duron 800MHz. I can't remember the size of the hard drive but i think it is about 20mb.

Looking in the BIOS settings it seems to have 'lost' the primary master hard drive.

Trying autodetect simply comes back with "not found".

Any ideas?

Thanks for any help.

Ben

 

Are your jumpers set correctly? Is the data cable and power cable plugged in firmly and all of the way?

Also, do you have an antivirus? You may have gotten an virus.

I am assuming you cannot boot into the OS. Boot from the CD, and do a repair installation of the OS you have.

It obviously sounds like you cannot boot into the OS, but If you CAN boot into the OS (doesn't sound like you can) Scan for viruses. Also, Go to Start>All Programs>acessories>System Tools>System Restore. Restore back to a point where this wasn't happenening. Back up all files first.

 

MR PC Dc - You are right - I can't boot into the OS becasue I can't get past the first few screens. Bios runs but it does not detect the HD so it can't find any boot files.

Will reinstalling the OS solve this given that the computer does not appear to know that it has a HD? I had assumed that this was a BIOS problem rather than a OS one.

As far as whether the connections, jumper's etc are OK, this PC has been working OK for about four years and nothing has been changed. I don't really want to try to explain to my mother how to get inside the PC so do you you think that this is really likely?

 

it looks that you have the same problem I just experienced with my computer , it could be the ide controller that might be going bad , wait a few minutes and try to reboot to see if it detects the hd , if it does and you are able to get into the os check the device manager to see if there is a problem with the ide controllers, also update your antivirus defenitios and scan your drive to be on the safe side

 

Computer/ still not working. I've run a virus scna and updated to bios. Whenturned on the red hard drive light stays on permanently.

Any ideas

 

Go to the HD manufacturers site and d/load the diagnostic tools for the drive.You usually need to d/load the files to your desktop then put them on a floppy by double click on the file,then put the floppy in the puter with the prob and reboot. It may be able to find and fix the prob.

 

Hi,

IF the drive is not recognised in BIOS then:-

Try a new IDE ribbon cable, surprisingly easily damaged and undetectable except for dead p.c.
New BIOS battery
Reset BIOS to defaults

hth

Ceri