HDDs 'not found'

Question

I have a big problem. I have a Dell 8200. I wiped both hard drives after a major crash (virus driven) and thought I could just put in my Win XP CD to reinstall and begin again fresh. Well this isn't what happend.

Now it says: "Primary hard disk drive 0 not found" and next line is "Primary hard disk drive 2 not found"

In the Bios (version P13) under both 0 & 1 primary drives it says "unknown device". How do I get them to register again? I don't know what to do, please help.

Thanks Diane

sawaddi · Answer

Create a floppy disk with the SATA drivers on it  and use 'F6' early in the XP install process.

schmidd · Answer

Thanks I'll try that - but I don't think they are SATA drives - my PC is from 2002... a custom build.

shesagordie · Answer

schmidd The Dimension 8200 does not support SATA drives, only IDE. Try clearing the NVRAM and see if it makes a difference, go HERE Bev.

schmidd · Answer

OK.. I went thru these steps: * Click Start- Turn Off Computer- Restart * Watch the keyboard lights. When they flash, tap the F2 key * The message, Entering Setup should appear * Press the [Caps Lock], [Scroll Lock] and the [Num Lock] keys to light up all three lights on the keyboard * Press the [Alt] and :emotion-57: keys at the same time * The computer issues a beep * Press the [Alt] and keys at the same time * The computer issues a beep * Down arrow to Onboard or Integrated Devices [press Enter] * Set everything to On except for USB Emulation which should be set for NO BOOT * Press the [Alt] and :emotion-22: keys at the same time * The BIOS saves settings and the computer restarts*

When the computer reboots it just starts with only one line "strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility". F1 does nothing but bring up the same message. F2 shows Primary Drive 0 & 1 as "OFF"

So I tried changing the Primary 0 & 1 drives to Auto and rebooted. Now my [collapse]original message comes back: Primary hard disk drive 0 not found; Primary hard disk drive 1 not found.

So I then repeated the first series of steps, This changes the Primary Drive 0 to unknown Device, Primary Drive 1 to OFF, Secondary Drive 0 to CD-ROM Reader, Secondary Drive1 to OFF. Rebooted and I now get "Performing automatic IDE configuration... Secondary Master: CD-ROM Reader, Secondary Slave: CD-ROM Reader and below that "strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility". If I hit F2 it now shows the Primary 0 & 1 Drives as "OFF".

So I am back where I started... any other suggestions???

Help please! Diane

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Storage, Drives & Media

HDDs "not found"

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