No Hard Disk

Found this site when looking to see what the fault is on my main computer so hopefully you may be able to help a me. On turning on computer it comes up with no hard disk and express gate error code 8c00002 then it comes up with Asus Screen which gives option of setup or tab for message. Message is No Hard Disk Info, reboot and select proper Boot device or insert Boot media in selected Boot devices press any key.
I have no knowledge of how computers work so have no idea what to do. Can I do the setup, or will it wipe out all my programs/files on the computer? What does the setup do, is this to install the hard drives, Will all my info still be intact? Used the computer all day yesterday with no problems. Specs are
Asus PQ Pro P45 ATX
Intel Q9550 2.8GHZ Core 2 Quad Processor
XFX PCI-X 2.0 GTX280 1GB xXx
Team Dark 4GB DDR2 1066MHz CL5
Pioneer DVR 215BK 20x SATA DVD-RW
Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB SATA 32mb cache Hard Drive - Progams/Operating System Vista Ultimate
Seagate ST31000340AS 1TB Sata II Hard Drive - Files

 

Setup will just take you into the BIOS/Setup menu. The BIOS is Basic Input Output (System?) it is the tiny operating system that lets your computer find the keyboard, monitor, memory, hard drive etc. so it can get up and running and read the hard drive to begin loading the operating system(Windows).

Your problem is that the BIOS is not detecting your HD so it can't start Windows. If it just happened out of nowhere it is probably that your HD has failed. One thing you could try is unplugging the computer and letting it sit for several hours to completely cool down. Sometimes a bad HD will start again if it is given time to cool down. If you can get it to start you should move any important personal data over to you 1TB drive to save a copy. Most likely you will have to replace the bad 500gb drive and reinstall Vista and your programs.

 

I was rather hoping it would be something simple, it is only 10 mths old. Oh well I guess I shall have to take it back to the store when they open. Thank you for the assistance.

 

Might also check out the cables to ensure that there is a good solid connection. Have been known to work loose when moved or bumped.

 

Well I went in and disabled Express Gate, and now cannot get into BIOS at all entering delete just comes up with initialising and then No Hard disk Drive. I didn't realise that this would prevent me from getting back into the BIOS. Oh well thanks for the help anyway.

 

Well now we are moving into territory that I do not know anything about, I don't know where the cmos battery is or what you mean by reset the jumpers, so I shall say thank you all for your help, I will use this site again for any other problems that I may have in the future, it is very helpful and I appreciate the assistance offered which is only tempered by my ignorance about how computers work. Cheers and thank you.

 

The CMOS battery is about the size of a quarter and looks like a watch battery on steroids mounted on your motherboard.

 

Ok I found the battery, couldn't find the jumper's but I turned power back on and the screen displayed auto detecting SATA and USB etc down the bottom; CMOS no date and time, F1 run setup and F2 load default values and continue. I read the How To and it said select one similiar to factory settings, so hit F2 it went momentarily blank and then came up with Reboot and select proper Boot device or insert Boot media in selected Boot devices press any key. So back to where I started I think. So turned it off. So if I try again what will F1 do, will it run a setup or does one have to enter values of some sort?

 

To answer the immediate question...

F1 will give take you to the Setup screens and allow you to enter values (basically values like the correct date and time or whether or not to look for a Hard Drive etc.--choosing defaults is fine). The defaults should have searched for available HD, CDROMs etc. Setup is still not recognizing your HD.

["Setup" is just a marketing term for BIOS. It is the same thing but "Setup" was determined to sound friendlier than "BIOS"]--Changing things in BIOS will not effect your HD or the data stored on it. The question remains whether or not your HD can be accessed.

 

I took battery out replaced restarted, Asus screen came up hit delete to enter, I now have up on screen
Auto detecting SATA 5 CD Rom
Auto detecting SATA 6 CD Rom
SATA 1 ST3500320AS SD15
Ultra DMA Mode 5 SMART capable & Status OK SD15
SATA 2 ST31000340AS MOD 5
Ultra DMA Mode 5 SMART capable & Status OK SD15
Auto Detecting USB Mass Storage Devices
Dev 01 Generic Flash HS-CF
Dev 01 Generic Flas HS Combo
00 USB Mass Storage
Please enter Setup to recover BIOS Setting
CMOS Date & Time Not Set
Press F1 to run Setup
Press F2 to load default values and continue

Now to my thinking SATA 1 and SATA2 are my two hard drives. So does this not mean it at least knows there are hard drives there.
When I hit F2 before it didn't work so if I hit F1 will I need to know values to enter, because I have no idea what to enter.

This would be fun if it wasn't so terrifying

 

I hit F1 and entered setup adjusted time and date, does one enter the time as 3.00.00pm or 15.00.00pm I have the correct date it was say 2001, The two hard disk drives are displayed as are the two DVD drives, Now what else do I need to do please.

 

Good that the HDs are recognized. Don't worry about the exact time. Hit ESC and look for Save Changes and Exit (or similar wording). Reboot and see if you get the same error or something different.

 

Well I saved changes and it momentarily shut down and restarted came up with Marvel initializing then No Hard Disk info No HDD and then blank screen, so this means I will have to take the battey out again to get back into the BIOS as now when the ASUS screen comes up hitting delete will not enter the BIOS. So when I do this what other steps should I take when I get it going again. Thank you for help so far. I am ever so relieved that it isn't fried well at least not yet.

 

I have restarted the computer and going through BIOS have found Boot Device Priority it states
1 Boot Device 1st Floppy Drive
2 Boot Device SATA PM ST 35003202A
3 Boot Device CD ROM 3M Pioneer DVD-RV DVR-21
Disabled

On entering each of these I changed 1 to SATA 2 to CD ROM and 3 to Floppy went F10. (It does not have a Floppy Drive at all) Computer shut down restarted and came up with express gate error code and under that Express Gate not installed or incomplete, and some other wording which blinks off so fast not able to read it all. I was able to get back into the BIOS but don't know what to do. Did I do the right thing as per above? I thought that I had disabled Express Gate so not sure what or why it came up with that. I entered todays date and correct time, Date enter in 12hr sequence. Should I do it all again? :cry

 

I think you have to disable ExpressGate in the BIOS again. Each time you take the battery out you go back to defaults which is probably ExpressGate is enabled.

So Reboot and disable Express Gate and set the boot order to sata>CDROM>Floppy and see if you get something besides the Express GAte error.

 

Took battery out, restarted, Asus Screen came up, F1 enter setup, fixed date and time, disabled express gate and set boot device order to SATA-CDROM-Floppy, hit F10. Computer shut down briefly restarted and ASUS screen came up, then message No Hard Disk curser moved down about 5 lines on a blank screen then message, Reboot and select proper Boot device or insert Boot media in selected Boot devices press any key. So no joy yet.

 

I'm not sure what is going on here. It sure looks like your PC is seeing the HD. However, if there was a problem with the Operating System I would think the error would be No OS not No Hard Disk.

At this point I think it may be worth downloading a Live Linux disk(a large download about 700mb) like LinuxMint, burn it to CD as an image file and boot from it. It should load to a Desktop very similar to Windows. Double click Computer and see it it sees your HD.

If downloading such a large file is not an option, I'll look around and see if I can find something specific about your BIOS that might give a clue to how it lists the HD as an option to boot but then says the drive isn't found. The situation is confusing.

 

On reading the latest advice I was having one last go at the BIOS and sat there looking at the Boot Device config, decided to put SATA 2 as 1st Boot device. It worked, I don't know why because SATA 1 is supposed to have all the operating system and programs.
On looking at D Drive there is a msdia80.dll, BOOTSECT.BAK, and gammab.txt, gammag.txt, gammar.txt files as well as users file which has all my data files. There are no programs installed on D Drive. So I don't know whether any of these files were what was needed I don't know what they are for or how they got there as I never put them there. Perhaps the BOOTSECT.BAK was what was needed. I apologise for misleading info in believing that SATA 1 was the Drive that was required. I really thought that everything other than my own files should have been on C Drive. When the computer was built I asked that all OS and programs be on C Drive and D for all my personal files.
So a BIG THANKYOU to everyone for helping, I certainly appreciated the help and advice.