Potentially kaput HDD

Hi all, and thanks in advance for reading my tale.

So a friend of mine's computer won't work (a Dell Dimension 4400 - complete tech details below), and he asked me to look at it.

On power up, the Dell logo appears for a moment, then a DOS-like screen appears with the intimidating message:

"No Boot Device Detected:System Halted"

Well, my first guess is that he has a bum HDD. Following the advice of several posts here at MG, I checked the BIOS settings as best I could, and apparently the computer does not recognize the drive. I took the HDD out of the Dell and connected it to my testbed computer and tried to check the drive out there. Again, went to BIOS and no drive was detected. I tried the Auto-Detect option to no avail.

I put the drive back in the Dell and went back into the set-up screen to see if I missed something. Here's a quick description of what I did:

1) On power-up, when the Dell screen appears, hit [Tab]
2) Hitting [Tab] takes me to a DOS-esque Screen with a very brief description of the BIOS config, processor type, memory, etc. It has two options - [Tab] for set-up and [F12] for boot-list. I can never get it to respond to [F12], so I hit [Tab]
3) Now I'm in a definite DOS screen (ah, memories) with several "Tabs" (Main, Advanced, Security, Boot, Power and Exit). Navigating to the Advanced 'tab,' there is a setting for IDE controllers. Highlighting the IDE Configuration field takes me to another screen with a list of drives/controllers. The "Primary IDE Master Field" says 'Not Installed,' as do the "Primary IDE Slave" and "Secondary Slave" fields. The Secondary IDE Master field displays thje name of the CD-ROM drive.
4) I highlight the Primary IDE Master field, wich takes me to a config page for that drive. It says Not Installed, so I change the field to "Auto".
5) Save and Exit, the computer reboots and after the splash screen, the "No Boot Device Detected" message appears again.

So, I'm thinking this is a dead drive. Have I missed anything? Is there anything I might try?

As always, I appreciate your help. You guys have answered a bucnh of my questions, so here's holding out hope you'll come through again. My friend has some important stuff and I really want to help him out. Yet another example of why it's important to back up your files!

Thanks!

 

Crap - forgot the technical info. Here it is, just in case:

DELL Dimension 4400
BIOS A05
HDD: Seagate ST340016A ATA

 

check and makesure your hd didn't become unplugged.

 

hugh -

Thanks for the quick response. I checked all the connections. I'm assuming it's not a cable problem since a second machine did not detect the drive, but that might not be the best criteria.

Nevertheless, all the cables are snug. It sounds like the HDD is spinning, so it's getting power.

Any other thoughts?

 

is the hd still under warrenty?
if it is contact it's maker and try to get it replaced.

 

Sadly, I think the warranty has expired. I'm not all that concerned about the drive itself - drives are dirt cheap these days. Rather, it's the data on the drive that I'm trying to get. I'm guessing that my options are limited at best.

Any thoughts?