HD recognized by scandisk but HD not recognized by BIOS

[monstifer28]

I have an old PC (Compaq Presario Desktop 7470 ) that i purchased from a yard sale. I removed the old HD and replaced it with a quantum 30gb at Lct 20 HD that had Windows ME OS on it. I booted the pc and it booted fine except windows booted up in 16 bit color. I shut down and booted again. same thing. i shut down a third time and checked BIOS settings, then set them to default. Now BIOS doesn't recognize the HD or the CD-ROM drive. I have checked all connection, reset BIOS, removed the CMOS battery, I literally have tried everything I can think of to get things going on this old PC, but I am at the end of my rope. I will say that scandisk will recognize the HD and says it is OK. I have also taken the HD out and hooked it up to another PC and it boots up Windows ME just fine. I have also tried every jumper setting on the HD and Cd-rom to no avail and the only drive that shows up in BIOS is the 3.5 floppy drive which will boot up a Windows ME Boot Disk. I don't have a problem installing a fresh OS but want and need the PC to recognize the drives before i can do that correct?
I am ready to pull my hair out!! Can anyone please help me?!!!?

 

[Rolfman]

probably the booting sequence is wrong due to the fact that you told the BIOS to load the preferred defaults. If you have a standard BIOS:

*go to advanced BIOS settings.... your going to see a big list of options .

<< check this picture for visual example>>

*take a look at the first , second and third boot device and change them to:

1- HDD - 0
2- HDD - 1
3- HDD - 2

Alternate them accordingly.

**probably the reason why your pc booted up at 16 bit the first time , may be
because you haven't installed the drivers for your video card yet.

 

[monstifer28]

Tried to access the advanced BIOS to change/check settings and the screen i have access to looks nowhere near what you posted as an example. i figured it should look somewhat similar. am i wrong in assuming this? my screen only shows the following: POST setup, Power loss management, PCI Devices, Bus Options, Device Options. Let me know if i am not in the right place. thanks.

Also wanted to add that at the top of screen it reads Compaq Computer Setup Utility and doesn't say anything about BIOS.
My newer Compaqs do look similar to what you showed as an example though.

 

[Rolfman]

Does it looks like something a little bit more like this:

Heres the support link from where i got it ...:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...t&cc=it&dlc=it&docname=bph07110#bph07110_Boot

Because if it does then you should go to BOOT menu at the top an center and select
Boot device priority , then rearrange the order in which your booting sequence is settled.

Make sure that , the very first booting device that you are going to select is the HD drive that contains your operative system.

If you only have one hard drive , it should be either HDD - 0 or HDD -1.