New Hard drive won't work

Hello fellow geeks,

I know this is tough to do, but I'm trying to help my sister-in-law via the phone on installing a new hard drive and we've got problems you might be able to help with.

She has a DELL 4600 with XP/Home edition and had a hard drive go south on her. She bought a Western Digital 80 gig H.D. and is having problems. It comes with "Lifeguard" a software utility that I understand can be helpful if all you want to do is to "Mirror" your old drive to the new one. This isn't her case as she lost everything and is starting from scratch.

QUESTION: Does she have to run this "Lifeguard" utility to configure the H.D. before it will work? She's tried setting and re-setting the jumper and feels sure she's got it right but she still keeps getting messages indicating "no hard drive found". Now what's interesting is she's got the O.S. reloaded and can even get on the internet BUT it's like "safe mode" and it doesn't allow her to adjust the graphics. How can she get the O.S. to work at all if she still gets this "no hard drive" message? She said the instructions told her to go into the BIOS to acknowledge the new hard drive and she's done that but it only gives you 2 options which is AUTO and something else I can't remember but it hasn't solved the issue of not recognizing the h.d.

Hopefully, this is enough info. for some expert out there to help us solve this dilemma.

Any HELP will be appreciated.

Thanks!

JimU

 

Is the origjnal HD still hooked up? Is that what she is booting from?
I suspect it is not and you are booting from the new one.

The BIOS does have two options, AUTO and OFF.
If the BIOS is set to AUTO on a bus that has nothing connected to it, than you will get a prompt saying it cannot find the Hard Drive, and to press F1 to continue. To stop this, only set AUTO to the bus that has the hard drive connected, which should be Primary 1. There will also be a PRIMARY 2, and a Secondary 1, 2, etc. Secondary 1 should be your CD/DVD drive. If the others are set to AUTO, and nothing is connected, this is why you see the message at startup. Change the ones that say "UNKNOWN" to OFF.

Your other issue may have to do with the video driver or settings. What are your choices when trying to change the display settings?

 

Thanks for the reply. She only had the one hard drive and she has it set to "Auto" on the Primary and still "nada". I think her other choices are "none" and "manual". Would either of these make any sense to use?

Do you know anything about the Western Digital software that she got with the new drive? It kind of sounded like there is some "configuration" process she must do before loading the O.S. Not sure I've ever had to do that however.

Still buffaloed.

jnulr

 

Make the others NON, except for the one that lists her CD drive.

There shouldn't be anything you need to do with the software that came with the drive, they likely for special configurations or diagnostics.

 

Hi Krazy Karl,

Thanks! for all your help. We did get a hard drive up and runnig (she traded the w.d. drive for a maxtor and had better luck). Problem still remaining is what she had originally which is the graphics adapter not allowing her to change resolution etc. Basically, she's looking at "Safe Mode" type of graphics but she's getting her mail and surfing. She's got a DELL 4600 desktop and it's got an Intel 3D ASP graphics adapter but it's "integrated" and thus a part of the mother board. So, far any DELL disk she had for "drivers' doesn't help. You go into DEVICE MGR. and it doesn't even show a "Display" adapter. Not sure what to do at this point. I'll be seeing her this weekend and maybe while I'm there I can figure out more than what I can do over the phone.

Again, thank you.

JimU

 

fyi, you don't need the lifeguard software! i don't know what all is on there besides helping you partion it, etc. i had added an extra h/d (western digital) on my home computer (windows me), but everytime it told me to reboot, my computer would lock up. i've also got go back, so i basically did a system restore (to an earlier point). i finally figured out that i had it set to run upon reboot, so that was my problem. once the 2nd drive was configured, etc., i just deleted the software. i'd say that was like 6-8 mos. ago? - sosaman

 

Download the latest version of the intergrated video driver from Dell's website. Enter the service tag of the system and choose your OS, it will give you the exact version you need. If you need further help, call Dell, its free.

Good Luck.

 

Call dell for help Hah! Ive had numerous problems with different pc's and my laptop over the past few years and there had not been one instance where they actually helped me. Twice they told me i had to reformat my HD and when i laughed in their faces and looked elsewhere for help i found that reformatting was not even an option.

Look for help elsewhere before asking dell thats my motto.

 

Do what Krazykrl said to. The site is http://www.support.dell.com. I would install all the drivers

And to Sagem, I hate any technical support over the phone. I did have a good time with the "GeekSquad" at BestBuy. I went in, explained what I did, and asked if the techie would do anything other than what I already did. He even printed out an invoice to give to my friend (I was fixing a friend's computer).

 

Many "Thanks" to "Krazykrl", "Sosaman", "Sagem" and "the master Josh" for your replies and of course your help.

I got my sister-in-law's Service Tag number for the Dell website and found the right video driver (I think. I won't be trying it until tomorrow when I see her and I'll install it). I downloaded it to a CD. The hard drive problem I think isn't a problem any longer as she traded the W.D. drive for the Maxtor and got it hooked up o.k and no more error messages. Now she can at least get her email and surf. It's just right now she's looking at "ugly" safe mode type resolution.

I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Thanks again!

jnulr

 

Sounds like the problem w/ her computer is a UNWANTED VISITOR. I had a similar prob w/ a troigen. I could not remove him. So I took my comp to a Microsoft Certified Tech to get it cleaned. Cost me $112.50 and was will worth the money. Make sure she has all the anti virus & spyware removal programs she needs. There a lot of freeware at MG site. I was allowing Norton for all my Protection. That was my downfall. Good Luck!! ODIE