Hard drives not recognized

I came home from class one evening to find the POST screen on my monitor and "drive not found, insert system disk and press enter" waiting for me. I restarted the system a few times and tried to run it in safe mode, but it would not work. I decided to buy a new hard drive, 160 GB and install it and transfer all the documents from the old drive to the new.

The problem is that the BIOS does not detect the drive, the utility cd that came with the drive does not detect the drive, and I cannot use my OS restore cd because there is not a drive detected to save it to....
I have made sure the jumpers and cables are properly set, the power supply cables are in place, and have even changed the cable connecting the MB to the new drive. The system will detect the secondary drives, not the primary ones. This is very frustrating. The system was running fine before I left for class, and when I returned it was it this sorry state.

Does this sound like a BIOS upgrade problem? A MB problem? I appreciate all help, thank you.
Theresa

ok. let me get this right. only your Master IDE devices are not showing up.

First question. have you tried jumper settings, setting all IDE drives to cable select.

Second, how many IDE devices do you have connected?

Third, umm is the new hdd an IDE device, or SATA, most IDE hard drives do not come with an install/drivers cd...

What motherboard are you using and is your boot drive PATA or SATA.

Only master drives are not showing up. I tried cable select setting on the drives. Both drives are IDE. I have only the new drive connected. I was worried about losing all the information on the old drive, but tried hooking it up amidst the process, it was not recognized either; actually, that is why I bought the new drive, it was not recognized by my bios when I found my computer in this mess.
My motherboard....good question, I have been searching for that info for hours. I have an emachine T2260 and I cannot find any specifics for the MB...the company seems to have forgotten to list this information on their website or in the product handbook. The boot drives are PATA......

Thank you for your replies

Let me get this straight, u said in the first post "The system will detect the secondary drives, not the primary ones." and u said in the second post "Only master drives are not showing up." Which is the right one? or both? is it ur primary master drive which isn't detected? How about the primary slave?

I once got the same problem, but it's for the secondary (both master and slave). It seems that the M/B is the culprit and the secondary slot was broken somehow. U can try using ur HD in different slots, in secondary master and slave for example, if u're sure u've set the jumper right, then it's gotta be the M/B.

As for knowing what M/B u're using, the easiest way is to open ur casing, the brand and the type of the M/B is usually printed on it.

I was referring to the primary master and slave positions....I am only connecting one drive (the new) to the system at a time, which is why I called it 'master.' The secondary positions are recognized by the BIOS.
My MB is an AM37.
If my MB is faulty, what action must I take to determine which component needs replacement? Are there any particular diagnostics that I can run?

Thank you again...

I replaced a mobo in one of those a few months ago. It was damaged by a faulty power supply. Bad PS's seem to be pretty common in that series of eMachine.

If the PS is at fault, how is it that the secondary drives are receiving power?

If the power supply is at fault, does that mean that it has damaged some of my MB components? or is their some way to determine which parts of the MB can be individually replaced (if compatible)?

thanks for the info, I am much obliged for the insight everyone has provided...

If it's true the M/B has been damaged, i don't think there's much u can do but replace it with a new M/B. A good new M/B is less than $100, and u can buy one with a SATA HD slot.

Nothing on the motherboard is replaceable except the CMOS chip and battery. It may just be a bad mobo. That board is only available through eMachines and they charge $150 for it. You may be able to find one on Ebay.