Hard Drive and Bios problem

[jonny1974]

I have a Compaq EXD Desktop, P3 866 processor, 10Gb hard drive, 192 MB of RAM running W98 SE. The other day the machine froze up and had to be rebooted. On reboot I got a message along the lines of "configuration changed press F1 to continue". It seems the bios had lost the hard drive and was seeing a new configuration with the CD Drive as the primary drive. The only was to get the bios to see the c drive is to change the jumper settings on the hard drive from master to cable select. the next time I rebooted the pc did the same thing so I then had to change the jumper settings back to master. And so on, everytime I switch on the machine or reboot I have to change the jumper setting.

Can anyone help?

 

[Accessdabbler]

First you should do a virus scan. There is a free one at

http://www.grisoft.com

called AVG.

Next, try putting the CD and HD on different IDE channels and set them both as Master.

If you don't have another cable for this, remove the CD and run with only the HD. Does the problem go away? If so, the CD may be causing the problem.

 

[firewolfrl]

check the CMOS battery on the motherboard
Compaq computers use cable select cables only (the drives can only be cable select on the jumpers)
buy a standard ATA 66 cable. Then use the master/slave setup

 

[paparazi]

Replace the cmos battery anyway, usually CR2032 lithium button as they only cost a couple of dollars.
Try two IDE cables (this is the prefered configuration anyway) one is used for cheapness, use Ultra 80 wire for HD
Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[HddGuru]

If your drive is a Fujitau MPG3102AT it's probably the drive that has failed. If you cann afford £300 to recover your data you could try

http://www.easydatarecovery.co.uk

Mater tua criceta fuit, et pater tuo redoluit bacarum sambucus
Magnus frater spectat te...

 

[danUK]

Hddguru is right, Your drive has failed. Ring Compaq and check the warranty. They will replace the faulty drive. Restore from backups once drive has been replaced.

 

[Snickle]

Compaq is good about not including the hidden partition on the new drive/s, containing the bulk of the restore files, should ask for the 2-CD set if you don't already have it.

The meaning of
"Mater tua criceta fuit, et pater tuo redoluit bacarum sambucus."

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.