detecting array error

[kollio]

The other day the power went off in my part of town and later that day i went to start up my pc and it hangs at the start saying " Detecting array..."
I noticed the little red light on the front of my pc isnt flashing either, usually when the hdd is loading.
I'm not geared up on knowledge about my bios, but i went into them and i saw in my standard cmos features something like...

IDE Channel 0 master None
IDE Channel 0 slave None
IDE Channel 1 master dvd drive etc
IDE Channel 1 slave cd drive etc

i tryed to get my hdd to auto detect, but nothing happened.

I really hope my hdd hasnt failed, as my computer is only 1 year old and i would hate to have lost the last 2 months data which i should back up more often .

Cables seem to be attached to my hdd fine and my computer specs are:

Gigabyte ga-k8n pro sli socket 939 mb
Athlon 64 x2 dual core 4400+
2 gig memory
6800 ultra 256mb
520watt psu

Any help would be great, as theres nothing worse than having my hdd fail

 

[tipstir]

What did you do? Did you configure the BIOS or does it see the drives in the BIOS. You got to start there. Install one device at a time. Make sure HDDs are in CS mode, you could make them Master/Slave also the same method for CD/DVD too.

 

[kollio]

I've had my computer for 1 year now and when i went to boot up my system a few days ago it just said "detecting array" and doesnt go any further on startup.
i went into my bios and it doesnt seem to be detecting my hard drive, but is for the dvd and cdrom drives ive got installed.
I'm not sure what cs mode means sorry ?

 

[tipstir]

HDD - have CS (cable select automatic mode), Master and Slave you change the pin (manual select mode)

But mmm, you say 1 year old do you know what happen and who makes the PC? HP? Open the case and listen to the HDD are they spinning or making a loud clugging noise? If you don't hear anything then either the HDD controller is gone bad or the HDDs are not working.

1. Check the power cables make sure they're tight
2. Check the ribbons make sure they're connected at both ends

Try it again, if they don't show up in the cold boot.

1. Unplug each HDD both power and ribbons
2. Connect one at a time make sure connector 0 is in the HDD you want to boot-up. The ribbon should be marked.

Try it again if that doesn't work try the second one, if that doesn't work? Ask a friend to come over and see if he has a spare HDD that works you can try out just to see if the PC boots up to the HDD. If the spare HDD doesn't work then the problem is with the MOBO (mother board onboard Controller) You could save the MOBO and get a Promise card that would replace the onboard HDD Controller but the promise card are sometimes and mostly buggy. Kinda of a catch 22 when they work they work, then they don't..

 

[Phantasm66]

Did the power outage mean that your BIOS reverted to defaults? Do you have a RAID controller on your board that's been normally switched off? If so, that's why it says "detecting array.." and not finding anything, the controller is now back on, looking for disks but there aren't any.

If your BIOS says anything about onboard RAID IDE controller then turn it off.

Check this before opening the machine and messing with its insides.

 

[tipstir]

SATA drives on RAID, but didn't this user say IDE.. If he or she has HP the onboard controller are known to be problemic..

 

[kollio]

Did the power outage mean that your BIOS reverted to defaults? Do you have a RAID controller on your board that's been normally switched off? If so, that's why it says "detecting array.." and not finding anything, the controller is now back on, looking for disks but there aren't any.

If your BIOS says anything about onboard RAID IDE controller then turn it off.

Check this before opening the machine and messing with its insides.

Hi again, sorry for confusing you hardware techs, im a bit of a newbie when it comes to hardware probs and the naming of certain things

I just saw your post after i had fixed it Phantasm66, thanks anyway!

I just about had enough, when i went into my bios for the last time and saw all those raids beside some things on some of the options, i disabled them
and vola! my pc is back to normal yay! only thing was i had to update my clock on my pc and everything seems normal.

So for some weird reason when the power went off at my house it some how made my bios go back to the defaults?

Making a massive backup now of all my data!

thanks a lot for your help guys, appreciate it.

 

[Phantasm66]

So for some weird reason when the power went off at my house it some how made my bios go back to the defaults?

Yes, that's happened to me several times. That's why I reckoned that would be the problem - BIOS back to defaults so disabled RAID onboard controller is back on and looking for disks.