HELP!

[slaphapy]

i can't get my other computer to start!

every time i try and turn it on, the hard drive starts up then stops then starts up then stops...... and on and on, and it never fully gets up it eventually gets to a blank screen and a cursur in the top left...

it also says press alt+s or f4 to enter RAID utility and it says that RAID isn't found or something, but my computer doesnt' have RAID

i dont' understand what's wrong with it, i've tried everything i can think of...... please help!

last time i was on it i shut it down improporly...... does that matter?

before when i had a similar problem because my sound card didnt' get loaded proporly it gave me an option to load with the last settings that worked ..... how do you do that?

thank you in advance!

[gryphon]

Can you get through your BIOS loading screen ?

If not could you disconnect all harddrives both the data [ IDE / SCSI ] cable as the power cable and see if you can get past it that way.

I you can autodetect your harddrives and see if it finds the failing drive.

[slaphapy]

yes it gets through bios loading screen (what it normally goes through) but then it comes with another screen that's not usual that says press ctrl + s or f4 to go to RAID utility..

then it waits a few seconds and then it comes up saying:

Primary Channel: Drive not found

Secondary Channel: Drive not found

and how do you autodetect your harddrives?

i only have 1 harddrive btw

[Andrew]

I'm no good at hardware problem solving, but am ok at software.

Did you install/uninstall anything recently before it screwed up?

Were you playing with the BIOS recently before it screwed up?

:)

[slaphapy]

nope, i have had probs with that before too.... but i didn't do anything before it screwed up, i think it's the hard drive, it has to be cuz i unplugged it and tried running the computer again, it got farther but because there was no hard drive it asked for a system disk, i tried a few but i gues they are the wrong ones or somin, should i use the system recovery disc?

[Nyarlathotep]

If you go in the BIOS, the first screen should state if the harddrive(s)/cdrom(s) are auto detected. With [page up] and [page down] you can change it. Set it to auto. Only then can you try other drives.

[gryphon]

Are you shure your computer doesn't have a RAID controler, mayby onboard on your motherboard ?

Try fitting another power connector to that harddrive aswell.

[slaphapy]

ok, err... your right, i thought i got a mother board without raid because i wasn't getting it but it does have a RAID on it.

and your speaking another language which ones are the power connectors?

and i also notice, so u know, there is the longer connector that is attached to the ribbon, well there is one in the back, and there is a plug in that one, and then there is an empty spot on the bottom of the hard drive for the same connector... and on the back of the hard drive there is an empty spot that originally had 10 brass or copper little connector thingies, but now has 2 plugs in it making it 8 (that's 2 rows of 4)

anyway i don't see any loose plugs and i've tried seeing if any plugs were loose, well there is one plug loose that goes to the fan on the outside of the case, but it did not fit in the little 2 rows of 4 area... :-X

anyway, as you can see I have almost no idea what u are talking about :-[

Nyar I didn't see anything like that... i did however go into something about hard drives, forget what exactly, and went into the primary drive settings and in there it says you have to press enter to detect it or something, but there is no options for it .... i think it's something else, but i dunno.

[gryphon]

You are doing ok sofar :)

This is the power connector of your hard drive.

The big ribbon is the IDE connector that is passing data along it.

They fit in at the back of your hard drive like listed below, where the power connector goes in the blue part and the IDe connector in the red part.

Most computer cases have one of those power cables as a spare [ although I am using all of them you most likely have one to spare ]. Try changing the one in your hard drive with one of the unused power connectors. Mayby the one in it now is broken, someting like that.

The things at the back of your hard drive are probably jumpers [ 2 rows of 4 pins ], just whatever you do, don't change them. ;)

The menu youwhere in at the BIOS is the correct one, when you press enter your BIOS should try to autodetect your IDE-drives. Try it and see if it really does find your hard drive.

Furthermore, when your BIOS screen is discplayed, it shows you the processor, memory and just below that the IDE devises like CD and harddrives, is that listen your hard drive and CDrom or just one of them ?

[slaphapy]

argh, stupid backspace bug!

ok my Bios has a bunch of options to go into

i went into the one that said hard drive settings... the IDE primary master is my hard drive there is no IDE primary slave, and the IDE secondary master is my dvd rom ( i have no cd rom just dvd) and the IDE secondary slave is my zip drive

i also switched with another power connector, it's the same...

and i tried detecting the hard drive, and it's detecting it, it doesn't detect the dvd rom, but i doubt it would...

[slaphapy]

ok the service people finally called back, after a day of waiting, they said the hard drive sounds like it just failed and they are going to ship another and it will be here in 1 to 2 weeks.... ugh >:(

[gryphon]

You mentioned it shutdown incorrectly the last time you have been using it, how did it shutdown ?

Booting up with the last know configuratino is only possible after the Windows OS has been booted, and as far as I know that is no the case as it can't even find your HD during bootup, let alone Windows ?

Which Windows version are you using, and have you got a bootdiskette ? Just to make shure you could you a bootdiskette to see if you can access the drive [ you will have to choose "boot from floppy" or "boot from CD-rom" in your BIOS for that ] and if the data is still on it.

[ the system recovet disk can be used as bootdisk ]

edit: think it is also most likely your harddrive that has crashed as the service people mentioned. You could still try the above, you might be luck ad retrieve some data of it. If not you probably have to waith untill your new disk arrives.

[slaphapy]

ok i'm using windows XP home edition

and i have a recovery disc

i'll try