Confirmation - will POST show even if hard drive is dead?

[Tranq]

Recently I've posted about my system not booting - not reaching POST nor slowing down fans. I tried hooking up my hard drive into my friend's SATA 2 slot with his HD and my hard drive couldn't be detected for some odd reason. I don't believe that it is dead, but if it is; could this be a reason for the system not booting or should the computer at least reach the POST stage even without an HD?

 

[altheman]

Yep, your PC will POST without a HD. (Unless something else is wrong)

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

It will POST, but then will not boot into an OS, giving a message like "Boot error. OS not found. Please insert appropiate disk and retry" or something like that. BTW, if u've set the CMOS to automatically detect all available drives, it might not POST at all in that case.

 

[Tranq]

Will the hard drive still be available for backup if the repair doesn't work? As in, if the repair fails, can I still use an SATA to USB adapter and/or hook it up as a slave and retrieve the data afterward?

 

[Tranq]

My new motherboard has come in...a response to my last question would be appreciated...i really want to get this over with

 

[altheman]

If you hook it up as a slave drive, then you should be able to retrieve data from it.