Why won't my computer detect my HD?

This is a bit of a problem, the cabling inside my computer is bundled up so I don’t know what goes where, and I don’t think I have even one single direct connector cable in the bunch.

[li]Disconnect ALL other devices from the power supply, leaving only the HDD, floppy and mobo i.e. disconnect all other hard and/or optical drives.
[/li]>
[li]Fish out your win startup diskette. You do have one, don’t you?
[/li]>

Ummm, no :oops: I haven’t used a diskette since I switched to Win XP. Could I create a diskette on another XP computer and plug it in?

[li]Stick the diskette in the drive, stick your ear close to the HDD and power up the machine
[/li]> [/ol]

Whilst powering up, you should hear the drive startup. If you do, then the electricals are probably OK. If you don’t hear it, then the drive is probably shot. To be certain, switch the power connectors and try again. If nothing, the drive is dead. Period.

If however, the electricals are OK, then you should grab you latest mobo BIOS, boot from the startup diskette and flash (even if it IS the most recent BIOS you already have) it again. Now press the DEL before the POST completes, go into the BIOS, select all defaults, save, exit - rinse, repeat the above.

At this point, you’ve already determined either that the drive’s electricals are OK or they are not. If you had a bad sector, BIOS would still detect the drive but give you an error. Since BIOS can’t even see the drive, it does not exist. Causes for this are as follows. The first item being the most likely culprit.

[ol]
[li]Dead drive
[/li]> [li]PSU running out of juice
[/li]> [li]IDE cable problem
[/li]> [li]Drive type (master or slave) problem
[/li]> [/ol]

Now for the bad news. According to Fujitsu, you have a discontinued drive model. And if thats the case, a drive failure of this type is normal.

BUT before you write it off, download the Fujitsu HDD diagnostic tool and run it from a floppy. In my experience with these tools, they can usually detect the HDD even if the BIOS cannot.

A sincere thank you for what has probably been the best tech support in my life. Now I feel compelled to buy your next game :) I’ll try your suggestions tomorrow, it’s getting a bit late here. I’ll get back to you and tell you how it went.

God I hope you have backups.

I do, but not a full backup sadly.

Also, make sure your hard drive is jumpered as master, and make sure it’s the only one on the primary IDE chain. (IDE 0).

It could just be a jumper issue and a picky mainboard.

Not to worry. Tomorrow when you open the machine, don’t touch anything. Just grab a piece of paper and a pen, then write down what cable goes where. You should be able to tell.

I’d also need to know what devices you have in your machine. e.g. how many HDD, optical drives (CDROM, DVD), floppy etc. The cables are pretty easy to determine, so don’t worry about this part. Just make a note of what goes where and how.

If you don’t have a direct power connector, don’t worry. Just unplug ALL devices from the PSU (Power Supply Unit) except for the floppy and HDD that we’re pissing around with. Don’t remove the PSU parts connected to the mobo though :D

Ummm, no :oops: I haven’t used a diskette since I switched to Win XP. Could I create a diskette on another XP computer and plug it in?

No biggie.

[ol]
[li]Go to www.bootdisk.com
[/li][li]Click on the first bootdisks link
[/li][li]Choose the Windows 98 SE Custom No Ram Drive one
[/li][li]Download it
[/li][li]Run the EXE and install it to a fresh floppy disk
[/li][li]Sneaker net it over to your problem machine and boot
[/li][/ol]

A sincere thank you for what has probably been the best tech support in my life.

No biggie. I do this for a living. And this is what being part of a community is about. Its not all about flame and games you know. :D :D :D

Now I feel compelled to buy your next game :)

uhm, cool. cheers, but really, you don’t have to. But if you must, wait for BCG. I make a lot more on that product than I would if you bought BCM now. :D :D

I’ll try your suggestions tomorrow, it’s getting a bit late here. I’ll get back to you and tell you how it went.

No worries. In a pinch, you can give me a holler (954-358-6851) or catch me on ICQ (158435) tomorrow anytime after 7.00am EST.

I do, but not a full backup sadly.

Well, don’t worry. Even if the drive is as dead as a doornail, there are remedies. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. ;)

Damn, it seems like Derek missed his calling. Derek, abandon your crazy dreams about making games and help us all with our broken computers!!!

 -Tom

When you are done with him Derek, could you explain to me how to change the little battery in my motherboard? :D

ahaha!! You’re kidding, right? If not, then…

[ol]
[li]Unplug machine
[/li][li]Open case
[/li][li]Look for battery and slide it out. It is usually secured by a small retention clip which you can either lift or slide sideways with a flatbed screwdriver
[/li][li]Pop in replacement
[/li][li]Close case
[/li][li]Plug machine
[/li][li]Fire 'er up
[/li][/ol]

:D

Curses! Derek’s UIN is 14k lower than mine. I feel like I’m less of a man now :(

UIN? Wot UIN?

/me just knowing I’m missing something :D

EDIT: Oh, that UIN! heh, yeah, I got mine just when the craze was about to reach frenzied limits.

Going from under 200 000 to 81 million was a big blow to my ego. I have a very fragile ego :)

Well I’ll be damned. The computer works again.

And I still don’t know what was wrong.

I followed Derek’s advice, unplugged everything but the HDD and the disk drive, and this time the HDD was detected. I plugged everything back in and it still worked.

Argh!!! Two days frustration, two days of looking for errors and suddenly everything works.

The upside is that I’ve gotten some hands-on experience messing with the inside of my computer, something I am otherwise very hesitant to do.

First thing I’ll do tomorrow is to shop for CD-RW discs and then I’ll be doing a lot of backups.

Thanks for the help everyone. Any suggestions on what could have been wrong with the drive?

Forgot to log in.

the previous post was mine

You killed the magical elves that make the computer go. It took a couple of days for them to be “restocked.”

Yes. Loose connectors. It can happen.

If you are doing CDR backups, I highly recommend that you get good software to go with it. I always recommend NTI Backup.

I thought I was in the clear. This morning the computer was dead again, just like the last time. In fact exactly like the last time. I turned it off in the evening as usual only to find it dead in the morning. After finding that somehow my HDD was detected again yesterday I made several reboots just to make sure it wasn’t just a lucky coincidence. I booted up the OS, rebooted, then repeated the procedure a couple of times. It worked fine so I sat down with it for a couple of hours, played SMAC, turned it off and went to bed. And now I find that the HDD isn’t detected, again.

Derek, I booted up the machine with a boot disk today and ran the fujitsu diagnostic program you suggested, but that didn’t find my HDD either.

Argh! Since the HDD did start up fine yesterday I think it is not the source of the problem, nor is it dead for good.

I think the problem is power. Your HDD is definitely on its last legs. Keep fiddling with the connectors and try to get it back up. And once its up, do NOT turn the machine off for ANY reason.

Backup your stuff, buy a new HDD, attach is a the slave, copy all your stuff over and go from there.

In fact, I just remembered that I have a machine with a similar problem here in my lab. The machine and all its peripherals are connected to switch unit. If I turn on the unit’s master swtich and then turn on the machine right away, one of the optical drives (a Creative Labs 12/10/32 CD/RW) would not be detected. I have to wait a few mins - with the power unit on - before turning on the machine itself. I never could be bothered to figure out what the heck that was about, even though I did check all the connectors one day when I was in there pissing around with something. So, I just accepted the fact that this was happening and forgot about it.

I guess I have no choice, a new HDD it is. You say the problem is the power, could there be something wrong with the power cables/unit too?

Yeah, it could very well be the power supply as well… I’ve seen similar symptoms twice: Once it was a Maxtor drive dying (very sad to see their three year warranty go away – it’s paid off for me twice), and once it was a power supply starting to crap out.

Can you buy a power supply from a local shop that takes returns? Try that, and if it doesn’t solve the problem, return it for credit and buy a hard drive instead?

But if it’s the power supply, wouldn’t it affect more than just the HD? I mean, if there’s something wrong with the power supply I shouldn’t been able to turn on the computer at all, or have I misunderstood something?

If the power supply is not putting out enough juice, the drive may not spin up at boot time… It’s the thing with the motor in it, so it tends to have a big power draw.

That said, it’s likely that it’s the drive. Just throwing the power supply out there since I’ve had similar problems and the cause was different between the two occurrences.