Computer Turned On-drives Not Detected

[Dominnica]

HEY-NEW TO THE BOARDS! First what happened....cousin and I were on his computer(that's been having some problems) when all of a sudden it just restarted. Then it read Auto Detecting Primary etc. etc. and after each auto detect its stated-not found. Then it runs through some other stuff and says insert boot disk into drive A. What could be the problem? Bad harddrive?
So confused and eager for help...

Victoria

 

[vegasgmc]

That sounds like a hard drive failure. Open the case and make sure the IDE cable and power cable are secure. Then go into the BIOS and see if you can auto detect the hard drive. If it has failed you may be able to hook it up to another computer as a slave and get any important data off it.

 

[Bobcat1132]

it very possibly could be bad hard drive there are a number of things that you can do but you need a windows disk. you may try to reinstall windows altogether if you have a disk and see if that works to save money on a new hdd although you run the risk of having the problem later on again. you could partition the hard drive and try to install windows on the part of hard drive past the problem or you can just buy a new hdd. could you give the specs on what it was auto detecting by the way thanx

 

[Dominnica]

What The?

First thank you guys for your replys-your just awesome! I am leaning toward the harddrive failure but a funny thing just happened....I turned the computer off and let if sit for a couple of hours and then turned it back on. It booted up but went to a screen that listed: Safemode etc. Or boot in Normal Mode. Of course I choose Safemode and now it's up-for the time being. I'm sure that once I shut it off it will do the 'NOT FOUND' garbage. Earlier while working on it I checked all the IDE cables, power cables etc. and they were good. There isn't anything on the harddrive that they want and don't care if it's wiped out. The other problem-we don't have an XP disc(XP is on it) but I do have a copy of ME. It would try to auto detect primary-not found, cdrom-not found, etc. Any advice is good advice :bounce:

Victoria

 

[Bobcat1132]

safemode comes up whenever windows is powered down incorrectly which means that whenever you powered down last it just cut the power. do you know what the specs on the computer are because it could be going into sleep mode or standby mode and be slow enough to lag when you try to wake it up and that may be where you are getting your frezzing from bobcat

 

[Bobcat1132]

my bad wrong forum sorry about that ignore that last message that i had

 

[Dominnica]

More Info...

No Problem Bobcat. Just after I posted my last message the computer in question began to beep and then restarted-doing what it did before. This is what comes up:

AUTO DETECTING PRIMARY MASTER<ESC>TO ABORT
-NOT DETECTED
AUTO DETECTING PRIMARY SLAVE<ESC>TO ABORT
-NOT DETECTED
AUTO DETECTING SECONDARY MASTER<ESC>TO ABORT
-NOT DETECTED
AUTO DETECTING SECONDARY SLAVE<ESC>TO ABORT
-NOT DETECTED

Then it goes to another screen and you see this after the boxed info:

RPL-ROM-ADR:0007 95FE 5893
RPL-ROM-IRQ:11
RPL-ROM-PIO400
RPL-ROM-FFC:5 NOT FOUND
INSERT BOOT DISKETTE IN A:

And that's what happens......

Victoria

 

[Bobcat1132]

how many hard drives do you have installed in the computer? and if you have multiple ones is one set as the master and the other set as slave on the jumpers? and do you have access to another computer or anyway that you could save any files that you may want saved on that hard drive? if so i would say go ahead and do that if you havent already done so.

 

[Dominnica]

Thanks Bobcat. Nope just one HDD and there isn't anything on the HDD that they want. What should we do?

Victoria

 

[Bobcat1132]

i would probably try to partition the hard drive and see if you cant install windows on the second partition and if that doesnt get you past the problem. what that does is it would make you hdd a little more stable and still give you full access to you hdd. im not familiar with the problem as i have never seen it before but it cant hurt to try right now. where you choose to put the partition is up to you. i would probably do it in the first 5 gigs so you have a 5g hdd and whatever else and then install windows on whatever is left. when you enter the setup it will ask you what you want to do and if you press c i think is what it is it will allow you to create a partition and if you do something you dont want d will delete it and you will have to confirm the deletion before it takes place. if the partition doesnt work i would probably try to get another hard drive. good luck and keep me posted