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Hard drive not detected

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15 replies

by ffrench

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Following a virus infection my pc will not detect the hard drive. I do not believe the hard drive has failed - what can I do?

15 replies

by sgt_shultz

what os? file type? assuming windows98/fat you can try to fix the master boot record with fdisk /mbr. or maybe diskprobe to copy the boot sector?
if you boot from a floppy, can you see the drive then?

by thechas

1. Is the hard drive detected by the BIOS at startup?

If not, check BIOS settings to verify that the IDE channel is set to autodetect the drive.

It is possible that you were hit by a virus that attacks either the BIOS or the HDD boot sector.
You need to verify which virus, and how to remove it before proceeding.

2. If the BIOS detects the drive, you need to re-configure the drive.

From a write protected startup floppy, run fdisk /mbr

Reboot, and Check if your partition has been recovered.

If not, run fidsk again, and partition the drive as desired.

Re-boot, and re-install Windows, your device drivers, and applications.

Chas

by tubok

I would suggest reformatting your drive(s). This will insure the removal of any lingering bug.

by tearley

if possible goto the HD's makers web site and download the latest firmware. Also may not be any harm to flash you PC's bios at the same time with the latest version, as the virus may have damaged it.

by tearley

More of a remark to cglrcng@excite.com.
1. Flashing Bios is a very safe procedure and allways backup's the previous version, and the lates version usually can fix a few bugs found in the last version, also who knows what the installed version is.It could be 2 or 3 versions behind the latest.

2. If the the bois isn't detecting the HD installing the latest HD firmware should confirm if that HD is installed and working or not, and may fix one or two other problems at the same time. See the following web page for an example.
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/deskpro/us/download/9255.html. I am not saying this will solve the users problem, but it's certainly better than telling them to format their harddrive and start again. Plus it's one more avenue to lookup.

by cglrcng9

All good answers previous but save the BIOS flash as a last ditch attempt, if you are not experienced in flashing a ROM BIOS chip, find someone who is well experienced in doing so and backing up your previous first! As flashing it improperly is a hardware killer.

I read these posts all the time and troubleshooting desktop PC answers seem to mainly consist of 2 standard answers (except from some that are well experienced such as CHAS), Reformat the drive or flash the BIOS.

Sometimes the actual answer to a problem is much easier to solve w/ a little investigation first. I don't rip up the carpet if someone tracks in a lil dirt, I first get out the Vac. cleaner, then the carpet cleaner, maybe a lil spot cleaner. If all the above fail, then we replace the carpet last but not least.

Good Luck.

by cglrcng9

Sry, my advice probably didn't help the poster of the question, but I don't want him to do something he's not used to doing and just make his problems worse before he begins to investigate the solution. Do what The Chas said first....then see if theDrive is recognized. Really hard to reformat if the drive isn't recognized first.

by ffrench

Hi,

many thanks for your reply. I still cannot get my hard drive to work. i have purchased a new one and the PC is working fine, without fklashing the BIOS.

Also, I have added my problem drive to the new system as a slave drive and still the drive cannot be seen.

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