Tech Support Forum - View Single Post - Disk Not Found, Insert System Disk And Press Enter

dhammaguest · 06-03-2009, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spike2me

Yes, try a different power plug. Try a different IDE cable. Make sure it is plugged into the motherboard tight and to the HDD. Get to the Bios and make sure the Hard Drive is being recognized. Listen to the HDD, is it making a clicking or scraping sound? If so that is indicative that the hard drive has failed. If the bios won't see the drive, either the cables are unplugged the jumper is set incorrectly or the drive has failed.

Thank you spike2me. I used the other adapter on the same IDE cable and now the BIOS seems to see the HD. So I hope that was the problem. (The reason I say i hope is that earlier it had come up twice without me doing anything (as stated in the main post) and so I hope this time it wont go down again.)

Here are some additional details of what happened.

I removed the IDE cable to the HD and in its place I used the IDE cable going to the DVD writer. Then the BIOS was able to see the HD, but it gave a Blue Screen with a message that it had detected a problem and windows was shutting down and some msg about dump. But at least the BIOS was able to see the HD.

Then I replaced the IDE cable going to DVD writer the way it was. And I tried using the same cable to the HD but the BIOS did not see the HD. Then I used the second adapter (?) on that same cable (ie the same cable which was connected to the HD earlier) that was not in use and connected it to the HD. This time again the BIOS was able to see the HD.
So, basically I used the same IDE cable as before but just used the other adapter on it. I am not sure why a cable would just go bad without anything being moved around, but I guess everything has a lifetime.

Again after rebooting, I saw the Blue Screen with the same message as above. It gave me two options -continue rebooting and Delete restoration file and reboot (or something like that). Not knowing what 'delete restoration file' meant I chose to continue rebooting but it again gave the Blue Screen. So after rebooting, I chose 'Delete restoration file' and this time it booted up properly. I am assuming that the restoration file was refering to the hibernation file, but I am not sure.

Anyway, for now the system is up and running. But it is not clear why UBD or XP CD were able to make use of the HD if the cable was indeed the reason the BIOS was not able to see the HD.

Thanks for your help spike2me! I appreciate it.