BIOS will not detect hard drive

Question

When I try to boot my XPS 400 running Windows XP, just after the initial windows screen opens I get the BSOD and a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA report and error stating that my ntfs.sys file is missing or corrupted. When I attempt to repair the OS using an XP installation disk I receive a note that there is no drive detected. After rebooting I also notice that the primary SATA hard drive is not being detected by the BIOS on startup, although the slave IDE disk which is connected through a PCI card is detected.

I have run the complete set of Dell Diagnostics on the system and there are no errors, including the SATA hard drive, which is detected and passes all tests. I have reset the BIOS and checked the cables (also tested fine during diagnostics). I haven't tried a new disk yet, but plan to head to the store this afternoon.

I was researching a IRQL error at the time the other problem occurred. Cannot remember what I did to make the hard drive crash.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

TC

Message Edited by tclemons on 04-15-2008 12:47 PM

tclemons · Answer

I'll give it a try tonight.  I've been doing some further research and I think this might do the trick. Thanks, TC

EBSIT · Answer

You need the SATA drivers to load XP onto the drive. Copy this to a floppy: http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R82876&SystemID=DIM_PNT_P4_8400&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=7548&devlib=0&typecnt=2&vercnt=2&formatcnt=1&fileid=108901 and when the XP boot disk starts to load, look for and press F6 to load additional drivers, insert the floppy and select the driver you need and it will recognize the SATA drive and see the XP partition you are having problems with so you can perform a repair. SATA drivers are not included on the XP disks.

tclemons · Answer

Able to retreive my hard drive by changing bios RAID default to SATA from ASHI.  After some ginding bythe hard drive, my system booted.  Loading the driver above didn't work, neither would the driver recommended by the driver download help.

mattspc · Answer

I have a smilar problem with my XPS 400 running XP Media Center and config'd with RAID 1 (Mirror).  I downloaded the drivers from the DELL XPS 400 web site for RAID and after booting from the DELL CD and then loading the drivers (f6) I still can't see the hard drives.  They both check out fine using all the diagnostics from DELL.  ANy ideas??

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BIOS will not detect hard drive

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