My computer has recently stopped working for no reason that I can see. I have tried booting from XP pro CD and into DOS but Hard drive cannot be seen by either of these. All appears OK in BIOS. I swapped in another Hard Drive. BIOS noticed the change but DOS still cannot see it. What should I try next?
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Cannot see Hard drives
- Thread starter MaryTibbs
- Start date
Can you hear anything from the hd when you turn the power on? Does it make any clicking sounds or none at all? I suspect your drive has bit the big one. When you turn your pc on, do you get any error messages after a few minutes?
Also double check the data cable and power connector to make sure they are both firmly in place.
Also double check the data cable and power connector to make sure they are both firmly in place.
I realize this may sound stupid, but have you checked to make sure that the master/slave pins haven't been messed with? I play tricks like that all the time with friends, and while cruel it's funny as hell. You may also want to try booting with only one hard drive, and or trying a new EIDE cable.
- Thread starter
- #4
Have swapped cables and also tried two different HDs. Even put both in at once. BIOS recognised both master and slave but when get to DOS nothing. Have tried a different cable. I suppose both HDS could be goners but if thats the case it must be a really bad week! What have I done to deserve that!
davidmichel
Technical User
Let's see, it was working and then just failed.
Neither the GUI or DOS can see the hard drives.
Different cable, and hard drives.
You can try a utility like fdisk or a 3rd party utility,
but if the above don't see it why should they.
Could be a problem with IDE controller built into the mainboard.
Did the system come with diagnostics?
If not there are some that you can have a friend or co-worker download for you.
There are add on IDE controllers if that is the case.
Neither the GUI or DOS can see the hard drives.
Different cable, and hard drives.
You can try a utility like fdisk or a 3rd party utility,
but if the above don't see it why should they.
Could be a problem with IDE controller built into the mainboard.
Did the system come with diagnostics?
If not there are some that you can have a friend or co-worker download for you.
There are add on IDE controllers if that is the case.
Probably not the problem but I had this same issue before and then someone kindly remind me that DOS can only see partitions with FAT32 file system and cannot see the new NTFS, so if those partitions on your hard drive are NTFS you cannot see them in DOS. Probably not the problem but I guess its useful for people to know who don't.
good luck
Do you think your friend could feed my cat? Heisenberg wasn't sure. ~ Erwin Schrodinger talking of his revolutionary paradox
good luck
Do you think your friend could feed my cat? Heisenberg wasn't sure. ~ Erwin Schrodinger talking of his revolutionary paradox
- Thread starter
- #8
- Thread starter
- #10
Ok. Have got an old Windows 98 boot disk and thsi sees the drives - have managed to install Windows 98 on one of the drives. ( this takes me back) Everything OK but still cannot get XP to install. Stops at Starting Windows screen. Do not want to play with other HD as that has data on it that I want. Obviously have some sort of conflict on Mother board preventing installing/running of XP. It did used to work. Will concentrate on making sure ahve all the latest drivers for everything and have another go. Cannot cope with 98 for much longer. Jibber jibber!
Had similar problems with HD's. Sometimes XP did not see some of my 10 drives but they still showed up in bios. Finally after much frustration traced it to slightly oxidized drive power cables. Even with the drive power disconnected the bios could see the drives but of course the OS could not acess them. Cleaned the 4 pin power connectors and squezed the contacts together. No more problems. Good luck.
Jurgen
Jurgen
- Thread starter
- #13
Don't have any spare but I do have 2 lots of 256Mb in - I will take one out at a time. Or is it likely that both have gone? Computer running fine on Windows 98. Just having a few networking problems on my home wireless LAN. Things are so much easier with XP!
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