Hard Disk undetectable

Question

Hiya fellas,

I'm not quite sure if this is the right place to post this question but it's somewhat seemed related to my issue.

I've got an Inspiron 2000 and the problem I'm facing is that the BIOS doesn't seem to recognise my hard disk. The hard disk is working fine when I put it into another notebook. The problem seemed to be in the BIOS itself. I can't get the pointer to highlight on "IDE Adapter 0 Master" or "IDE Adapter 1 Master". I can highlight & change the "System Time" & "System Date" afterwhich it jump down to "PS/2 Pointing Device"and everything else below it completely bypassing the IDE potion.

I've flash the BIOS with a recent version but it was no help. I hope someone who knows any solution to this matter can lend a helping hand here.

Thank you.

dspman · Answer

Bios on my i5150 (ver A35) doesn't permit access to the IDE channel fields either, but displays what is there.  Everything works normally.  This permanent autodetect option is probably characteristic of the Dell notebook bios.   If machine boots OK, everything is normal.  I assume this is not your case.  Try to run Dell Diagnostics from floppy or the Dell drivers/applications CD (just boot it) to determine if there is a hardware problem. Message Edited by dspman on 09-29-2004 10:28 PM

siakap · Answer

Hi, I am facing the same problems with my Inspiron 500m. My bios doesn't recognise there is a hard disk present. This occurs if I have switched off the machine for more than half an hour. If I boot it around 10 minutes after I have shutdown, it will boot up nicely.    If it is a cold boot, I have discovered that after leaving the machine on for about 5 minutes, i.e. leaving the screen showing no boot device recognised, I can boot up to XP. Firstly, when I called tech support, I was informed that my HD was faulty and should be replaced. I was thinking if my HD was faulty, I would never be able to boot up nor would I have all my programs and data present. I then discussed this with a friend and was told that the reserve battery could possibly not be giving 100%.  I took out the reserve battery and tested it, it showed more than enough voltage.   I have also flashed it with the latest bios.   I have ran diagnostics during the time it won't boot up, only showed there is no HD present. So the problem can't really be the system board.   Bios also won't allow me to highlight the HD portion unlike desktop bios which allows us to detect the HD present.   I am looking for further suggestions before shelling out some money on it. The machine is only 15 months old, thereby just exceeding the warranty period.   Thanks.

dspman · Answer

Siakap, can you hear the HDD spin up while not detected by BIOS? It does seem like the drive may be going bad. Recommend backing up any valuable data if you can get it to boot up again, as it might fail entirely.

Achilles, another possiblity is a corrupt master boot record (MBR). You might try fdisk /MBR on the desktop to fix it, or there are Linux utilities on the web that can rebuild the MBR. If you can back up your data, then you might just reformat.

If you borrow or pick up a cheap 2.5" drive, you can try it to see if the problem is on the motherboard/BIOS.

Message Edited by dspman on 10-14-2004 10:15 PM

siakap · Answer

Thanks for your help. I swapped with another laptop (compaq) HD, Inspiron bios straight away detected HD. Only I couldn't boot further to OS due to conflict of drivers.

I put Dell's HD into Compaq, and the BIOS couldn't detect the HD.

So, have to order a new HD.

Regards

dspman · Answer

Siakap, sorry you have to replace the drive. If any solace, there are some good ones around, like the Hitachi Travelstar 7k60, etc. Hope you didn't/don't lose any valuable data. Good luck.

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Hard Disk undetectable

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