Cannot detect harddrive

[Jim Richards]

I am probably in the wrong forum. If so, someone please advise me the
correct one for this problem.

Using XP Pro w/SP2. Two days ago my PC started failing to detect the
harddrive and as of right now I am unable to use it. I am on my spare (BU)
PC. I have tested it with Tuff Test Pro and it said the drive was OK. The
problem was intermittant for awhile (and when it did finally detect the
drive and booted to Windows) I setup the CheckDisk for that drive and then
rebooted. CheckDisk found no problems. I recently flashed my BIOS but it has
worked for more than a week after that. I just replaced the HD with a spare
on that I had on hand and it will not detect that one either. Any
suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Jim

 

[Rich Barry]

Jim, I would try swapping out the white power connector and the ribbon
cable. In my system the power supply has one
white power connector that works intermittenly but since I have a few
extras I avoid using it.

 

[Jim Richards]

Thanks Rich, I will surely try that but that's my newest 80 channel cable.
Will let you know what I find and thanks for the prompt response. Jim.

 

[Jim Richards]

I think that did it. I had a brand new cable that came with one of my
harddrives and it was still in the sealed celephane bag and it contained a
smaller bag with the 4 screws to mount the drive. I have shut down, waited
about 30 seconds, and then rebooted it 5 times and it hasn't missed a lick.
Appears to be working fine, at least it has worked fine on the five times
that I have tested it. I also have a white connector but am not using it. I
have so many connectors that I have stuffed some of them into the empty
bays. I removed the 80 channel cable and replaced it with a standard 40
channel one. Thanks so much for your suggestion. Jim

 

[Anna]

Thanks Rich, I will surely try that but that's my newest 80 channel cable.
Will let you know what I find and thanks for the prompt response. Jim.

Jim:
I suppose there's no harm changing your IDE data (ribbon) cable connecting
your HDD (and we are talking about a PATA HDD here, not a SATA one, right?)
and changing the Molex power supply plug (I'm assuming that's what Rich was
referring to as a "white power connector"), but on the chance that the
problem you're experiencing is not with your data cable nor your drive's
power supply...

1. I take it there's no problem with your BIOS update going awry and causing
your problem since you say there was no HDD recognition problem for at least
a week following the BIOS flash. That's right, isn't it?

2. Was it just a coincidence that you flashed the BIOS shortly before
experiencing this problem? Why did you update the BIOS in the first place?

3. When you say "Two days ago my PC started failing to detect the harddrive
and as of right now I am unable to use it.", what *exactly* happens? This is
your boot drive we're dealing with isn't it? Do you get some sort of error
message during the bootup? Just a black screen? Please be precise.

4. And you add that you've installed another HDD but get the identical
problem. Also a boot drive? So you're experiencing the *identical* problem
with two different hard drives - is that right?

5. So notwithstanding the BIOS update flash there were no problems with the
system, right? Absolutely none, right? You didn't make any hardware
changes/modifications just prior to the problem, right? And there's no
reason to believe that any software changes you may have made would cause
this problem, would there?

6. Have you tried connecting the HDD to another IDE channel?

7. What happens if you attempt to boot to the XP installation CD? Seems to
go OK and you can get to the usual initial screen? Is that how you ran
chkdsk - through the Recovery Console?
Anna