Hard Drive not detected

[dave1962]

Hi, I have a mesh pc with a sata hard drive, I was useing xp media edition sp2 I believe, all of a sudden my hard drive disapeared. when I start up the pc all i get is a black screen with the intel logo in the bottom right hand corner, and the writing "press del to run.set up. press TAB to display BIOS POST Message, if i press del the screen freezes on Entering set up the last line is Auto Detecting 3rd Master...., if i unplug the hard drive it will go into set up but will not detect hard drive, I have felt the drive and as far as I can tell it is running, but wont do anything if the drive is plugged in, I am very unknowledgeable so please talk in newbie language,any help will be much apreciated.

[Dalo Harkin]

It sounds like the Hard drive has died - you should have more that one port for the cable on the motherboard - please try it in the other port and see if you get any life.

Have you changed anything recently - software or hardware?

How old is the PC?

 

in regards to the 3rd master - error - this is implying you have 3 hard drives - unless you have 2 dvd/cdrom drives that are SATA too

[dave1962]

Thanks

 

Thanks for your speedy response, I havn't changed anything, software or hardware, the other two messages read Auto Detecting Pri Master ...APTI CD-ROM

Pri Slave APTI CS-ROM

[dave1962]

BIOS

 

Dont know what I did but I have managed to get into BIOS set up if that will help, i wont turn pc of till I get a reply.

[Goku]

Our hardware expert has gone offline for some time Dave so please shut down the computer and wait till he gets online. He will advise you appropriately as soon as possible so keep checking back for instructions at regular intervals. Thank you for your patience and co-operation. :)

 

-- Goku

[dave1962]

Thanks again

 

Will do, the one thing I have done is swap connections on motherboard. Thanks everyone for you Birthday wishes.

[Dalo Harkin]

Ok - so you seem to have 2 cdrom or dvdrw drives on the IDE channel and the SATA disk as the 3rd MASTER -

when you go into the BIOS there will be an option called boot device priority - you need to check that the HDD is number one in that list

 

what connections did you swap?

[dave1962]

hdd

 

Hi, the connection i changed is there are four ports on the motherboard only one is used for the hdd, hdd is second on list at moment how do i change it ? sorry for being thick.

[Dalo Harkin]

4 ports on the MOBO - do you mean SATA ports - BIOS's and MOBO's are very particular about changing parts round - if you remember what port you moved it from, try it back in that one and see if it boots.

If you can't remember do the below steps.

 

it should tell you at the bottom of the BIOS screen on that page - normally page up/page down and when the HDD is the first one on the list make sure you SAVE and then EXIT :)

Edited July 21, 2008 by Dalo Harkin

[dave1962]

new hard drive

 

Hi, Guys,I hope it'sokto carry on where we left off?. I have bought a new hard drive ( sata hitachi 32g) it is recognised in bios but not found when i try installing xp ? message reads windows could not be installed because no hard drive was found, make sure it is properly connected etc, any advise is welcome Thanks.

[Dalo Harkin]

32GB SATA?? - you sure its not PATA?

[dave1962]

32g

 

Sorry in my haste i didn't check what i'd written, it's a 320gb sat hard drive.

[Dalo Harkin]

ah ok - goto control panel and then admin tools - computer management and then disk management - it will show the disk there - right click and then activate :)

[dave1962]

Thanks for your reply, but I don't think i explained properly... the hard drive is a replacment for the dead one therefore doesn't have an operating system installed so i can't get to control panel. the error accurrs after set up has apparently installedthe drivers but then says windows will not be installes because there is nohard drive. hope this helps better.

[Tony D]

Sounds like you need to install the SATA drivers.

 

During the installation, there's a point where you press some button, I think it's F6. The installation process will halt to allow you to install the SATA driver. You'll need to locate the drivers and install them. There are others here who are more knowledgeable than I on this matter.

[dave1962]

Thanks for advice Kelly, but I have watched the drivers being installed and the sata drivers are there.

[dave1962]

Thanks again eveyone, I have managed to get to the partition screen, but after I press "c" to create partition I get the message (set up cannot access this disc), once again any advise is welcome I'm tearing my hair out now.:confused:

p.s I'm sending these messages off the laptop in case anyone wondered.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

This is indeed strange

 

Your definitely trying to load XP as NTFS and not FAT32 Dave yes?

[dave1962]

Sorry I'm a bit thick but not sure what you meen, is there a way to tell ?

[dave1962]

sorry, but just tried again and am back to no hard drive detected.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Have a look here and scroll down until you see the blue screen shots on the left hand side, how far do you get in those installation pictures?

 

XP Clean Install

[dave1962]

Hi I sometimes get to this screen http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPpro3setup.jpg

 

and the next message I get is the disc can't be accessed, yet another time (like now) it says windows cant be installed as there is no hard drive detected,

[Tony D]

If I'm reading this screen correctly, it's showing only 5 GB of you 320 GB drive. What happens if you delete this partition and then create a new partition?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

I think that screen is just an example Tony.

[dave1962]

Your correct the picture is just a copy from the site you directed me to.