Hardrive

I am having trouble with an old pc. It is a p4 that has a 120 gb hardrive on it that will not boot. I tried different os (linux and windows) but it just did not run on any. Now it gives the error: no such device (a bunch of numbers) and grub Rescue prompt. Any Linux experts around cause I don't know what that means. I checked the bios and it reads the hardrive which means it is not dead. Please help.

 

When you say it will not boot, are you saying there is already an OS on the HD or are you trying to install a fresh OS ?? Have you got the Boot Order correct, ie. first cd rom then HD. Is the Jumper settings set to 'MASTER' Is the computer reading the disk at all. Can you be a bit more specific plz.

 

Has the machine worked previously with that hard drive installed?
Some older machines had problems recognizing a drive over a certain size. Can't recall what the limitation was.

 

Ok guys sorry for taking so long work is taxing. I wipe the hardrive clean and was trying to install an OS. The error is "error: no such device (a bunch of numbers) and grub Rescue promp". I checked the bios and it reads both hardrives in order (as master and slave). Where can I find the info to do a bios reset or is it just pulling the cmos battery for 10 min?

 

As Halo says reset the CMOS using the Jumper next to the Battery change pins from 1 & 2 to 2 & 3 then reverse putting jumper back to 1 & 2 then reboot. If in doubt remove the Battery as you said.