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Hard drive despaired?

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can't boot into windows, no hard disk detected,looked in bios no hard disk found,
tried to reinstall vista from disk a clean install . cant format no drive. no partition.opened case unpluged hard disk and pluged it back in still nothing.tried gparted,sysrescue disk form linux,tried got into the drive ubuntu c drive is now BOOT X.

10 replies

by seanferd

You could try slaving the drive into another computer to check for function.

You may look in BIOS for a drive testing utility, if available. Otherwise, download a test utility from your HDD manufacturer. Usually, your choices are to make a bootable CD or floppy with the utility, or run a version of the utility on another computer with your suspect drive connected as a slave. Just find the HDD manufacturer's website and look for the utility.

Since it does not show up in BIOS, the utility may not find the drive either, which would be another death certificate.

by rob miners

Check the cables and power by disconnecting and reconnecting them. IDE cables have been known to cause this problem and reseating them will fix it. If it is a Sata drive make sure that it is on Sata0 or Sata1 which ever is the lowest connector. Try another IDE/Sata cable.

Check the hard disk controller options settings in BIOS. Make sure that the settings reflect your drive and it is being detected. Check the Boot sequence. EG:
1. CD/DVD
2. Floppy
3. HDD or Hard drive

Try another Hard drive if one is available.

If the drive isn't detected it has probably gone to Silicon Heaven.

by .martin.

try plugging the hard drive into another computer as a slave, to see if it is the drive or the motherboard.

by u4mist

i'm going to try them all i will let you know what i find thank you all.

by u4mist

i like your avatar, vorlon, one of my favorite shows Babylon 5,hoping for a movie one day maybe about the 4 other babylon stations.

by johnaaaaaa20

I know the vast majority of HD failures are mechanical but I have seen a few that the board failed on. I save old drives and have been able to recover data from failed drives a few times by swapping the board.

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