Primary hard drive 0 not found

[GeneralB]

Hi all,

I am new and daring enough to get myself into trouble, but would rather seek your help.

I have a "dell optiplex gx150" Windows 2000 Pro. I just installed Trend Antivirus and when I rebooted my system said "primary hard drive 0 not found" and directed me to go to setup utility. Well, I'm not sure what goes here: Primary Drive 0 is unknown and Primary Drive 1 is off. So is Secondary Drive 1.

I only have C drive installed. (Before the reboot, I had a few externals attached via USB but immediately disconnected and tried to restart again.)

What can I do to see my C drive again?

Thanks much.

 

[kimsland]

The Dell Optiplex GX150 is now very old

It is highly likely that either the HardDrive has in fact failed, or you have an internal connection problem to it (in most cases caused by dust)

I'd say, open the case up (power out, and adhering to all ati-static recommendations, in the manual), remove all internal dust, then reconnect all connections to do with the HardDrive

 

[Tmagic650]

The hard drive indeed has failed...

 

[almcneil]

Get a copy of the hard drive diagnostics for this drive from Dell and run them. It will tell you whether ot not the hard drive is toast. If it is, you may stil be able to get yoru files off it.

Repost once you have tested the hard drive.

Best,
-- Andy

 

[Tedster]

try using a usb to IDE or SATA cable (whatever applies) to retrieve data.

 

[almcneil]

Tedster, that won't work if the hard drive is dead. The person needs to test the hard drive first.

-- Andy

 

[Tmagic650]

Get a copy of the hard drive diagnostics for this drive from Dell and run them. It will tell you whether ot not the hard drive is toast. If it is, you may stil be able to get yoru files off it.

Repost once you have tested the hard drive.

Best,
-- Andy

You don't need the computers manufacturers software. I really doubt if Dell has any. With a computer this old the drive is an IDE drive, probably an old Western Digital or Maxtor drive. The Western Digital or Seagate download sites will provide the drive testing software

 

[almcneil]

Dell probaly does have the manufacturer's diagnostic software. If not, Dell will have a URL to their site for it.

I do this for a living. I have The Ultimate Boot CD which contains all the diagnostic software for all the hard drives.

W're saying much the same thing, just in different ways


-- Andy

 

[platycat]

bickering aside, if the drive spins the data can be retrieved, a no-detect error is typically a board failure, replacement boards are widely available on ebay Match the make and model of your drive, remove the old board, attach the new one and wallah, there's your data... of course this is a headache and drawn out process that we should all avoid by backing up our information regularly. I have to perform this procedure for clients once or twice a month. usually after a scare like this they'reready to learn to backup properly.

 

[Tmagic650]

Dell probaly does have the manufacturer's diagnostic software. If not, Dell will have a URL to their site for it.

I do this for a living. I have The Ultimate Boot CD which contains all the diagnostic software for all the hard drives.

W're saying much the same thing, just in different ways


-- Andy

You do this for a living so you should know that the most common hard drive manufacturers like Western Digital and Seagate (Maxtor) diagnostic software will work on most all other manufactures drives. The installation software is a different story though. You might get a message like "there are no Seagate drives detected". The Ultimate Boot CD might be a little dificult for a novice to use or understand. This may go for using the diagnostic software too

 

[almcneil]

You do this for a living so you should know that the most common hard drive manufacturers like Western Digital and Seagate (Maxtor) diagnostic software will work on most all other manufactures drives. ...

Sorry to tell you Tmagic, but that's not true. Not only do I fix computer for a living, I used to be an engineer and developed diagnostic software for hardware. They are NOT all the same!! Sorry to pull "one up" on you, but I can safely speak on this one!

Hardware is manufaturer specific. If you used another manufacturer's diiagnostic program on another's, it wasn't performing any harware specific tests.

-- Andy

 

[Tmagic650]

I have successfully run Seagate diagnostics on Western Digital, Fugitsu, and Quantum IDE hard drives. If the SMART readouts have any errors or "red" flags, the drives are shelved... Some of the older Seagate/Western Digital diagnostics worked better on other brand drives. Noise is another rejecting factor, even though the drive works. I'm pretty good at spotting a bad hard drive too, so don't be so high and mighty, Mr. Smarty Pants. I worked for IBM, Shugart in the 70's...

 

[almcneil]

Still disagree on the point that one manufacturer's diagnostic program cannot test the *HARDWARE* of another's. Yes, you can use the other diagnostic tests for the filesystem (that's really software) but when it comes to the nuts and bolts, you must use the manufacturer's own diagnostic program. Using another's, at best, leads to inconclusive results.

I know this because I developed hardware diagnostics when I worked in high tech. I had to take the specs from the hardware manufacturer and write my tests sometimes because they didn't provide any. Not all hardware, even though they do the same thing in the end, do not work identically.

-- Andy