Hard Drive not Recognized! Help!
Hello, I found this site via google while searching for answers to my problem and you folks seemed like a helpful bunch so I am hoping you can help me.
Here is the problem:
I was using my computer normally just clicking along, then all of a sudden a blue screen pops up telling me about restarting in safe mode or something, but then the screen goes black before I can read it all and the system shuts down.
After I restarted it my computer gave me the error "Operating System Not found" on a black screen, indicating a problem with my hard drive.
After this I tried to re-install windows, but to no success, the Windows boot CD could not "find" the hard drive.
To make a long story short, I bought a new hard drive and it gave me the same error when trying to install Windows.
I even downloaded Knoppix 4, an operating system that boots from my CD/DVD drive, and it worked just fine. But when I went to install Knoppix directly to the hard drive, it could not find it, even though it is plugged into my computer.
I then took my computer to a specialist who told me that while my new hard drive could not be loaded up, his old one could. The specialist then told me the problem was my hard drive and that I needed to get a new one. (The thing is, his hard drive already had an operating system installed on it prior to being put into my computer.)
I thought that this could be a solution, considering that both of my hard drives--the new one and the one that broke-- were from the same manufacturer. I went out and bought a completely different brand and surprise surprise, it wasn't recognized by any of the operating systems I tried to install.
I believe that if I install an operating system to my hard drive before I put it into my computer it will read it just fine, but I do not have the means to do this and I can't figure out for the life of me why my computer would be behaving this way. It seems like the CPU can read the hard drive, but the CD/DVD drive does not have access to the hard drive, but it can access everything else--RAM, my graphics card, sound card--everything BUT the hard drive!
I've wasted 300 dollars on crap that I can't use and my brain is wracked trying to figure out what is going on.
Does anyone have any ideas on what the problem could be?
Here is the problem:
I was using my computer normally just clicking along, then all of a sudden a blue screen pops up telling me about restarting in safe mode or something, but then the screen goes black before I can read it all and the system shuts down.
After I restarted it my computer gave me the error "Operating System Not found" on a black screen, indicating a problem with my hard drive.
After this I tried to re-install windows, but to no success, the Windows boot CD could not "find" the hard drive.
To make a long story short, I bought a new hard drive and it gave me the same error when trying to install Windows.
I even downloaded Knoppix 4, an operating system that boots from my CD/DVD drive, and it worked just fine. But when I went to install Knoppix directly to the hard drive, it could not find it, even though it is plugged into my computer.
I then took my computer to a specialist who told me that while my new hard drive could not be loaded up, his old one could. The specialist then told me the problem was my hard drive and that I needed to get a new one. (The thing is, his hard drive already had an operating system installed on it prior to being put into my computer.)
I thought that this could be a solution, considering that both of my hard drives--the new one and the one that broke-- were from the same manufacturer. I went out and bought a completely different brand and surprise surprise, it wasn't recognized by any of the operating systems I tried to install.
I believe that if I install an operating system to my hard drive before I put it into my computer it will read it just fine, but I do not have the means to do this and I can't figure out for the life of me why my computer would be behaving this way. It seems like the CPU can read the hard drive, but the CD/DVD drive does not have access to the hard drive, but it can access everything else--RAM, my graphics card, sound card--everything BUT the hard drive!
I've wasted 300 dollars on crap that I can't use and my brain is wracked trying to figure out what is going on.
Does anyone have any ideas on what the problem could be?
0
Comments
Please list the brand and model # of your Hard Drive(s) (list all of them) and Motherboard. Are these SCSI, IDE or SATA drives?
A quick description of other hardware in your computer might be helpful too.
Since your CD/DVD drive obviously works, how is it connected?
What have you done in the BIOS regarding boot sequence, hard drive detection, and checking onboard drive controller settings?
You might also take a little break from seeking advice from your "specialist". If he talked you into taking an old drive off his hands without explaining to you why a newer drive wouldn't work, it makes me wonder what else he might tell you.
Answer the questions listed above as completely as you can and I am pretty sure that we can help get you going.
Ok, the first one that broke was a Seagate Momentus 100gb 7200rpm that was Ultra ATA/100 model #: ST910021A
The next one was: Seagate Momentus 5400.2 100 GB Ultra ATA/100 5400 RPM model #: ST9100823A
The last one was a Hitachi 60GB Hard Drive 5400 RPM Ultra ATA-100 model #: HTS541060G9AT00
motherboard: Intel® 915P PCI-Express Chipset
memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 533MHz - 2 x 1024MB
processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 670 Desktop Processor w/ HT Technology 3.8GHz 800MHz FSB 2MB
video card: 256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7800 GTX
sound card: Intel® High-Definition Audio
My CD/DVD drive is internal, it is not connected by USB or anything like that if that is what you mean.
I have changed the boot sequence to load my CD/DVD drive first, I have pretty much left it that way as I can't load up my boot cds otherwise. I tried to change my bios to autodetect drives, but I did not see that option anywhere, and as for checking onboard drive controller settings, I don't know how to do that, my bios only has a few options I can use.
I actually bought a brand new hard drive from a different computer store, but his drive loaded up on my computer with an operating system already installed to it.
Could you please try to help me fix this, or just diagnose what exactly is wrong with it?
As a guess, I'd say that you are possibly in need of a BIOS update. There may also be a setting in the BIOS which will force the laptop to look for hardware changes.
It is an Alienware Area-51® m7700
The BIOS is a Phoenix cME FirstBIOS Pro Setup Utility
I think the verision is: V146 1.00.06
and the build date is 09/21/05
Do you know how I could update the BIOS? The tech support at the manufacturer has not been helpful. I have seen no settings which allow me to look for changes, but I could be mistaken as I cannot access some options because I am not the "System Supervisor" and I don't know where to log in as one, god forbid the tech support actually tells me anything useful. I bought this piece of junk I should be able to access all the features :mad2:
If you've never flashed a BIOS before I would strongly urge you to ask for advice before you just dive right in. It's not complicated, but if it's done wrong you are going to have even more problems than you do now.
Make sure you change the BIOS setting of both the secondary master and slave to Auto first, if you use the secondary IDE channel.
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