Hard drive not found, but works

[mkirros]

Dell Precision 530A workstation, running Win2K Pro, Quantum Atlas 10K2-TY184L SCSI hard drive (17GB). When booting the computer, I get the message "Primary Hard Disk Drive 0 not found" and a prompt to hit F1 to continue or F2 for setup. If I go into setup, it shows that the main (only in this case) hard drive is unknown. If I hit F1, the system boots normally. I reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled the OS, with no change in behavior. Any ideas on whether this is actually a bad hard drive or something else (bad controller, for example) would be greatly appreciated.

Data loss is not an issue in this case, as all data is stored on network servers rather than on workstations.

 

[G0AOZ]

Is the SCSI controller built into the motherboard, or are you using an add-in controller card? The message suggests that the BIOS has this or some other previously installed drive, incorrectly detected. You could try resetting the BIOS to manufacturer's defaults, i.e. load setup defaults, and see if it straightens itself out...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[krusifix]

might make sure that the bios is currently up to date as well, ive had that problem in the past with all functions working with the hdd and show incorrect in the bios, flashing the bios can help by updated it. as well as what G0AOZ had suggested with using default setting in bios as well.

 

[mkirros]

Thanks, guys - after reading your posts and thinking a bit, then checking another computer in the office, I figured it out. Hard Drive 0 should be set to OFF in setup - it was looking for an IDE drive and not finding it.

 

[ProfessorP]

I also own a DELL and had a similar problem. I had just purchased a new DVD burner since a CD burner is all that came with my DELL. When I installed the DVD burner I, too, got the message, "Primary hard disk drive 1 not found. Press the F1 key to continue. Press the F2 key to run the setup utility." I could press the F1 key and Windows would load so I knew it had to be a BIOS problem. I went into BIOS and set the Hard Drive 1 to OFF and now it works PERFECT.

ProfessorP