Hard Drive Not Detected - Tech Support Forums

WilliamRyan · October 29th, 2002, 07:25 PM

Have Pent III 500 mhz. 2 hard IMB hardrives. Has been working well but wanted to increase RAM from 512 to 1025mb. Installed 2 more 256mb rams but system only shows 128 mb each. ASUS P2B-F m/bo. Asus says I needed 256 double-sided. Returned my rams for 256 d/s ram. System keeps hanging up so I returned and resinstalled 1-256 and 3 128's for 655mb total. Now I can't boot up up windows.
BIOS doesn't see to recognize my two hard drives, but does recognize my two cdroms. I go into BIOS setup main memu. Primary Master and Slave show (auto). I hit enter on AUTO Primary and my disc shows IMB etc and all sector info. I save and exit and reboot. BIOS msgs shows detecting Primary hardrive and then displays (NONE), same for Secondary which displays (NONE).
I have tried booting up from startup disks but since my hard drive is not being recognized, that isn't working. I'm ready to FDISK and reinstall everything but can't get past IDE hard drive detection failure.
Should I try another harddrive. Should I manually enter the settings for the harddrive.
Help, i'm getting frustrated.

Brainchild · October 29th, 2002, 07:45 PM

welcome to TechIMO

I would try clearing the CMOS, see if that helps.

woodbutcher · October 29th, 2002, 08:01 PM

Have you tried going back to your original mem cofiguration.

cstierhoff · October 29th, 2002, 08:04 PM

I know when I have replaced memory befor I pulled my HD IDE cables out just enough to cause problems. Try reseating them on both the mobo and at the drives. Also try booting up with just 1 stick of memory installed.

Good luck,
cstierhoff

WilliamRyan · October 29th, 2002, 08:09 PM

Thanks for the response. I'm checking the P3B-F manual. Please explain 'clearing the CMOS'. If I undersand, I need to reboot from the original or updated mobo BIOS that I should have created as a bootable floppy disk. If I can't find it, try finding the source somewhere and use that to boot from. This process uses the Flash Memory Utility Writer (AFLASH.EXE).

woodbutcher · October 29th, 2002, 08:22 PM

Sounds there as your reading the bad flashing of bios section.
Your board may not have a Clear CMOS option. Look in the manual and see if you can find a "JP" for clearing the CMOS.

WB

uethello · October 29th, 2002, 08:28 PM

I'd take it down to the minimum with the RAM, first thing, take everything but one stick (a known good stick, if possible) of RAM and then try hunting the problem. If you boot, etc with no problem, it's memory related.

WilliamRyan · October 30th, 2002, 06:20 PM

Thanks for the advice. I replaced the 256mb ram that was showing only 128 mb with a 128mb ram. Then pulled drive cable and reseated the connection. Disconnected my Prim Slav and rebooted. My BIOS setup showed the Prim Mast drive and windows installed fine.

Patricia_paragon · May 15th, 2008, 12:25 PM

My brand new Dell inspiron 1525 isnt reading the HD and i cant figure out why .. I't new like i said .. i havent even made the first payment on it and it just stopped working!
can anyone help me figure out why this isnt working or reading the HD anymore... I don't want to lose everything on there.
I havent had time to backup anything due to it being so new.
I'm being sent a new HD but thats not the point... I'm also wondering how long this new one will last.
I'd hate to return the whole computer.
HELP!!!

Patricia_paragon · May 15th, 2008, 12:28 PM

My brand new Dell inspiron 1525 isnt reading the HD and i cant figure out why .. I't new like i said .. i havent even made the first payment on it and it just stopped working!
can anyone help me figure out why this isnt working or reading the HD anymore... I don't want to lose everything on there.
I havent had time to backup anything due to it being so new.
I'm being sent a new HD but thats not the point... I'm also wondering how long this new one will last.
I'd hate to return the whole computer.
HELP!!!