Major HardDrive Problem

Ok, so I was running a spyscan when I heard my computer strat to click. It freezed up and then went to a blue screen w/ white writing that said error something or another.
I rebooted only to find that my computer cant locate my hard drive. Setup utilities shows my primary drive and secondary to both be turned off. And I can't change them to anything else, there is not any options. I tried to boot from my Dell package disks and it still wont boot, nor will the drivers or anything load because it can't find my hard drive.
Is my hard drive shot? Do I need a new one? If so how hard are they to install? And what brand should I get?
I'm so upset right now, I just don't know what to do.:cry

Here's what I have:
Dell 4550 w/ Pentium 4 @ 2.66 GHz bought in 2003 New
60GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive 7200 RPM
128 MB DDR ATI Radeon 9700 TX
Windows XP Home

Thank You Guys!
Randall

 

I recently bought Seagate drives because they have a 5 year warranty. I have also used Maxtor and Western Digital drives with no problem. Click HERE for Dell's support page for your PC. You'll find good instructions there.

 

Hello Randall, interesting discussion with Chas in one of your other threads. A tip for getting the best out of Major Geeks forums - you can't provide too much information, only too little. Facts are good, - opinions less so. Don’t mix up the same problem in several threads

I have copied the full info over.

All this is very useful because it answers questions I normally have to ask Dell users who need to reinstall. Essentially you have what you need to reinstall I think your disks numbers 1 and 4 are the ones.

Dell bios are less than helpful and finding the ide setting is not easy. If the above is true then the 4550 will not recognise the CD drive either?
You will need to look inside the pc at the cabling to the drives and do some experimenting.
First make sure all the cables are properly seated. Are both the CD and the hard drive using the same data cable?
If they are and your hard drive is shot then the system will not see the cd either.
Your comment about the clicking suggests this may be the case.
To prove the working or otherwise of each of the cd and hard drive by setting their jumpers to master an trying them singly on the end of the data cable. There should be a label on each showing how to set the jumpers.
IDE drives can be two per channel. One is master and one is slave.
Dell use what is called cable select (CS) to distinguish. Jumpers are more certain.
Anyway with each physical arrangement of cable and jumper ( you can’t do any harm by the wrong one) go into the bios(stup) by tapping F2 at start and look at the channel entry.
You need to press return and select auto to get it to recognise the drive.
If this proves your hard drive is dead (it will also show no vibration of a running motor) then when you go to buy a new one bear in mind that your system will not recognise drives bigger than 137 GB. You can get a bios update from dell for this.

Once you have got a recognised hard drive follow my reply to your original thread for full instructions on how to reinstall a Dell

If you have any questions remember to post before you do something, preparation is important when you do this.

Take heart the last 4550 I had to fix suffered a lightning strike. The ISN connection was blown off the wall new mobo, memory and keyboard required. The hard drive was intact though.

Studio T

 

Ok, I,ve checked my conections and the IDE cables. Even switched them around and I still get the same problem. And yes, your right. My Cd-rom and DVD-ROM are not found either. Set up Utilities say they are turned off as well. Can I conclude that my hard drive is shot?

If I do have to get a new hard drive, how would I obtain the BIOS update from Dell if I cant even get online to download it? If I'm going to get new stuff for my computer I want to upgrade to the best I can get. I would love to have a hard drive of 200GB or more If I can get it. I was going to upgrade my RAM too while I'm in there.

Randall

 

Hopefully you are actually entering the bios, not Dell utilities?

At power up the screen says Dell bla bla
F2 for setup
F8 or F12 for boot preferences

F2 is your man.

Until you can get the pc to recognise something as master on the one of the ide channels there is no point even thinking about the hard drive. (it's still possible yours is ok).

How did you get on with the jumpers?

Studio T

 

Ok, So I switched the ribbon cables around trying the slave conections and master. Even unplugged the cd-rom cables and plugged them into the hard drive. I switched the jumpers around a number of times. I don't get anything but an annoying beeping and scratching sound made by the harddrive, like its searching for something. But louder than usuall.
Oh, and yes I have been going into F2.

Randall

 

One of your CD drives must be master. I doubt if all the hard drives and cd drives failed at once. That leaves a motherboard fault, with the ide controller chip. this happens sometime but you need special equipment to test for it.

What happens when you connect only one cd, set beyond doubt to master, no hard drive?

What happens when you enter the bios scroll down to the ide drives and click enter?

Studio T

 

I just wanted to say thanks for the help! And sorry I didn't get back sooner. My g/f's brother in-law got wind of my situation and helped me out. I forgot about him, he's an IT tech.
Unfortunately though my hard drive did crash last night. I got another one that is over twice the size of the original and more ram as well. I'm back up and running again. Thankfully I backed up my precious music and pictures or I would have lost them all. I'm not upset about the hard drive loss, it was almost full w/ my music and pics and I wanted to upgrade anyway. And hey guess what else. I'm running Firefox now too!!!!

Randall

 

Very glad you ar sorted now.
I recommend you partition the new hard drive and store your data (tunes etc) on another partition from Windows and programs. This will not only safeguard your data next time you have a crash, but will also help windows run faster. Ask your IT expert relative to help.

Happy geeking

Studio T

 

Cool deal, I'll ask him about that. As for now though I always copy all my tunes and pics to my laptop as well. So if either one goes out, I still have them on the other.

Again thanks for the help, it was very much appreciated.
Randall