harddrive wont show up on brothers comp

qwe · 08-09-2005, 07:46 PM

the error message says "disk boot failure, please insert system disk"

in BIOS, for master disk theres nothing there

i went to the bootup section
all of the fields that show the data for the harddrive say 0 (incl. size)
i tell it to search for the hard drive and it says SEARCHING and when its done nothing happens

when i put in xp prof. cd, after it loads everything it says cannot continue because there is nothing to put the OS on

so... the bios wont see the HD. what can I do? buy a new HD? im going to check to see if the HD is connected properly soon

Tumbleweed36 · 08-09-2005, 08:43 PM

Hi,

It may be as simple as the hard drive is not connected properly. You need to check the following:

Motherboard.........(ribbon cable)..middle connector......end connector
IDE Slot on motherboard................slave drive................master drive
Jumpers........................................set to slave..............set to master
.................................OR...............set to CS.................Set to CS

Do not mix cable select and master/slave settings.

If the drive is a Western Digital and is alone on a ribbon cable, take all the jumpers off the drive and put it on the end of the ribbon cable.

~~whodat~~ · 08-09-2005, 08:55 PM

also after you do tumbleweeds check

try unplugging the computer, taking the side off, and popping out the button battery for 20 minutes [minimum]to reset the cmos, then of course put it back in and try it.

this isnt a new build, is it?

post back

qwe · 08-10-2005, 01:31 AM

im not exactly sure what you mean by new build

its a very old compaq (several years old)

08-09-2005, 07:46 PM	#1 (permalink)
qwe Registered User Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 14 OS: Windows XP	harddrive wont show up on brothers comp the error message says "disk boot failure, please insert system disk" in BIOS, for master disk theres nothing there i went to the bootup section all of the fields that show the data for the harddrive say 0 (incl. size) i tell it to search for the hard drive and it says SEARCHING and when its done nothing happens when i put in xp prof. cd, after it loads everything it says cannot continue because there is nothing to put the OS on so... the bios wont see the HD. what can I do? buy a new HD? im going to check to see if the HD is connected properly soon

08-09-2005, 08:43 PM	#2 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 Asst Manager Hardware Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 19,633 OS: XP Professional	Hi, It may be as simple as the hard drive is not connected properly. You need to check the following: Motherboard.........(ribbon cable)..middle connector......end connector IDE Slot on motherboard................slave drive................master drive Jumpers........................................set to slave..............set to master .................................OR...............set to CS.................Set to CS Do not mix cable select and master/slave settings. If the drive is a Western Digital and is alone on a ribbon cable, take all the jumpers off the drive and put it on the end of the ribbon cable.

08-09-2005, 08:55 PM	#3 (permalink)
~~whodat~~ Register user Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 5,931 OS: XP	also after you do tumbleweeds check try unplugging the computer, taking the side off, and popping out the button battery for 20 minutes [minimum]to reset the cmos, then of course put it back in and try it. this isnt a new build, is it? post back

08-10-2005, 01:31 AM	#4 (permalink)
qwe Registered User Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 14 OS: Windows XP	im not exactly sure what you mean by new build its a very old compaq (several years old)