HDD does not appear in bios, Disk Boot Failure

[Chamwiz]

Hey, I'm working with a HP Pavilion 754n, it has an 80GB HDD in it. I was trying to fix a buddies pc with, so I took out his HDD and connected it in the hp. I tried to boot it, and now the hp's HDD does appear in the bios. I then took a freshly formatted HDD and put windows xp on it. Connected it properly (I checked the connections several times now), and the new HDD does not appear in the bios as well. However, using the same cables, I was able to connect the dvd/cd writer. The dvd drive appears in the bios, but no HDD does. I was wondering if anyone has had this problem and could help me with it.

On a side note, the HDD connect through IDE as well as the dvd/cd writer.

 

[Stick'o ram]

Make sure the slave/master configuration is set up right, also see if you can make the bios retry in their auto detect function. You can also try resetting the bios.

 

[Samstoned]

new to techspot
do searchs first may find posts related to your issues
welcome in Chamwiz
the information you have given leaves me saying

dah what did you do and in what order did you do it
never mix to broken systems when trying to fix one
you end up with 2 problems or more and or can make another problem happen.
most xp versions can not be installed on 1 machine and moved to another
so I'm left confused as what was done where and in what order you did it

 

[Chamwiz]

yeah I have checked the slave/master config, but I just can't seem to find a hard drive in the bios. Though I am curious as to how you would reset the bios, if it is just a simple shut off the pc and turn it back on, then that hasn't worked yet.

Also, I've searched for a while to find a similar problem, although i have had no luck. And the hp was in great working order until I tried to connect it to the other pc and fix it.

The order that I did things was, I first tried to insert the xp setup disk to computer A(the original problem), however, it wouldn't read that. I think decided to try and connect the HDD to computer B(the hp that did work), however, once I connected the two HDDs, computer B crapped itself. I checked all connections when I originally set the two up together, but for whatever reason, the computer B just seemed to have died out on me.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Samstoned]

all connected should be done with the PSU unplugged from wall or if it has a switch turn that switch off.
older drives tend to be a little delicate treat gently
that said
get manual for the MB and find cmos/bios jumper placement
should be on 1-2 move to 2-3 for about 30 to 40 sec's then move back
again the power should be completely turned off
now the cd should be able to boot the disc
1st channel ide master drive at end of cable slave in middle of cable
there are jumper setting on the drives
go back to bios and again reset the bios here to optimum default settings

it has happened that both systems have reverse broken condition
one has bad MB the other has bad drive

 

[Chamwiz]

well, I tried reseting the cmos/bios...what kind of made things worse... now when i try to boot up the pc, it says there was an error with the cpu fan shuts down almost instantly. Also, I haven't been able to find my xp discs yet to try to repair xp, although I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to get it to that stage.

 

[eljan81]

What could be happening if Nothing is detected? HDD, CDROM, Floppy Drive, etc.

The Case, I got has one SATA tipped wire hanging from the power supply. Does that mean I should have a SATA HDD or should I still be able to use a IDE HDD?

 

[Eddy Rassy]

What could be happening if Nothing is detected? HDD, CDROM, Floppy Drive, etc.

The Case, I got has one SATA tipped wire hanging from the power supply. Does that mean I should have a SATA HDD or should I still be able to use a IDE HDD?

Eljan
Your problem does not seem to be associated with this thread. You should have started a new thread and you should provide more details from the start to the end. Then somebody can help you. And what do you mean by tipped wire

 

[pdyckman@comcas]

I took a look at these posts and am confused. It would help if whoever knows what's happened in the order that it happened, there would be a better chance to troubleshoot this situation. I think that much of the problem (at this point)...is that it's hard to understand the problem.

 

[raybay]

Microsoft shut you down, thinking you were part of an illegal copying scheme.
The problem likely boils down to the fact that the Windows on the drive that was moved and tested elsewhere detected that it was suddenly in a new hardware mix that was not part of the original install.
Thus, it shut down everything just like Microsoft told it to do.
You will have to use your HP recovery/restore discs to get it right, and that will likely wipe out your data...
So start by putting that drive that is refusing to work into another computer as slave, then save all your data to the main master drive.
Then use the HP recovery/restore disc set, or the hidden partition, to reformat and reinstall Windows.

 

[eljan81]

Eljan
Your problem does not seem to be associated with this thread. You should have started a new thread and you should provide more details from the start to the end. Then somebody can help you. And what do you mean by tipped wire

My bad, I missed one key word in the begining of my sentence.

What could be happening if Nothing is detected in BIOS? HDD, CDROM, Floppy Drive, etc.

It seemed to me that Chamwis post related to my problem. But, I'll try and gather as much info as I can. I just don't want to be a member who makes mindless topics, that go unnoticed, and don't solve anything.

@Raybay. Are you basicly saying that Windows, shut down the hard drive? My brother tried to lend me his HDD with Windows on it.

 

[Tedster]

you cannot use windows XP configured and installed for 1 system on another.

1. It's illegal
2. Windows self-checks and configures for each installation. Drivers and initialization will also be different as well as an online piracy check.