Primary Hard Disk 0 Not Found

Hello Everyone,

I seems like i have run into some HD problems. When I woke up this morning, my laptop was dead...it kept saying "Primary HD 0 not found, F1 to retry, F2 for setup".

But the very next time I tried to boot, it doesnt show that message anymore, instead it shows these application errors:
1) services.exe failed to initialize properly (0xc015000f). Click OK to terminate app.
2) lsass.exe failed to initialize properly (0xc015000f). Click OK to terminate app.
3) It repeats 1) & 2) one more time.

Now, when i enter the BIOS, on the 1st page it shows: Primary Hard Drive: 40GB. I can also enter the screen where it prompts you to start in safe mode or last known good config, but it doesnt really go anywhere from there.

I have a Dell Inspiron 1150, BIOS version A07. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

tanger

 

Welcome to MG.

Certainly the error messages you are receiving are not good news. Have a look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341 as a re-install may be your only way out.

 

Hi tanger, Welcome to Major Geeks.

At best you have some corrupt files on your hard drive, preventing startup.
At worst your hard drive is on its last legs.

This is harder to fix as you can't remove the drive and slave it to another pc unless you have special adapters.

So you need to control the laptop from another operating system.

You can boot the laptop to the recovery console using by placing the Dell operating system recovery CD in the drive and powering up.

Watch the bootup and hit a key when prompted or it will try the hard drive again.

When the pc enters setup, accept the M$ blurb (F8)
Hit R to repair an installation using the recovery console
system will ask which windows to repair
select 1
System will ask for administrator password.
Use enter if you don't have one
at the > prompt
typein
chkdsk /r (enter)

This may be enough to restart windows.

If you have Norton or Panda antivirus CDs you can use these to check the disk instead of the Dell OS disk.

Let us know how you get on.

 

Both of the above posts are spot on, but one thing was left out.... It's been my experience with the entire Dell 1100 series that the motherboard IDE controllers have been known to get flakey, and/or completely die, and/or crash hard drives. Your laptop should have a service tag number. Go to the Dell site with this number, enter it in the Downloads/Drivers section, and see if they have a full diagnostic for your PC. Most Dell PC's have the diagnostic, but some don't.... it's a VERY thourough diagnostic and it should be able to tell you if the hard drive is the only problem, or if the controller is going out also...

hd2k

 

chkdsk is running right now, it is only 62% complete. Ill let you know what happens when it is done.

Thanks guys

 

when chkdsk completed it said it found and fixed more than one error. I rebooted but still no luck.

I had a similar problem before and I was able to do a system restore through the recovery console. Im no expert but thats what it seemed like. Would it work in this case? here is the link of what I did from Microsofts support page http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

 

Try safe mode again, it can take an hour or two to complete its stuff.

The registry recovery will only work if that is your fault and not corrupt system files.

Yargy may be right that a repair install is the next thing to try - this will not loose your data, but service packs and some programs will need to be reinstalled.

To acomplish a repair install do not choose the recovery console from the setup disk.
Proceed to install windows.
At the next screen you will be offered a choice of full install (enter) or repair install (R).

If you have space, you can also do a full install of windows to a new folder on the hard drive, without formatting it, say Windows2.
This will put an operating system on the hard drive from which you can effect a repair or copy the data off safely.

 

I will try safe mode again and leave it for a couple hours. Is the registry recovery worth trying here? OR is my problem completely different.

 

The registry isn't located in one place. there are (up to) 5 bunches of files, called Hives.

When you first install windows and whenever system restore creates a restore point it stores a copy of the current registry i.e.all the hives.

When you install a program and do some other stuff new entries are added to the registry, that were obviously not present in any earlier (stored) versions.

So if you replace the hives with older ones recent progrmas will not be recognised.

The M$ proceedure described in your link will replace the existing, perhaps corrupt, hives with older versions, so some programs will cease to function. The process can go all the way back to the original installation and the first registry.
However as the data is spread out over all the hives you have to replace them as a set.

At the end of all this if the (system) files they refer to have changed or are no longer present the process will fail.

So all in all you are very very lucky if registry replacement works.

 

I tried the registry replacement and I dont think it worked but I was able to see the welcome screen in safe mode, something that didnt show before. Then a message popped up and said that explorer has encountered a problem and nothing happens after that. If I try to bring up the task manager I get the same message: encountered a problem and needs to close. If I leave it a screen saver comes on. it seems like its working but I see nothing but a black screen

What should my next step be? What Yargwel suggested?

 

Yes method 2 is a longer version of what I described in post #7.

 

I did a repair install and after it finished copying files it prompted me to restart and the reinstallation would begin. After I rebooted it went to a black screen. I can move my cursor but thats it. I think it should be at the blue windows installation screen.

 

If a repair install hasn't worked you will eventually have to do a full clean install. Unfortunately it's not guaranteed.
This means wiping the hard drive and starting again.

The only question remaining really is have you any data on the drive you need to recover first?

If so you will have to either find a way to slave it to another via an adapter or install windows again onto the drive in a new folder as I mentioned before.

It is also possible that your drive isbecoming unreliable you should certainly consider replacing it at this point to avoid recurrence of the events.

 

I also think a fresh install is the only way out now...I do have some data on the HD i would like to save if I could. How do I install windows in a new folder and what do I do after that? Will I have 2 OS? Could you please explain to me how I can do this?

Thanks for all you help so far...It's greatly appreciated

 

Install Windows from the CD in the normal way.

BUT

When setup starts

Choose new installation

Accept the licence

At the options screen choose advanced
designate a new folder to install (eg windows2) to setup will create it
make sure the source is the CD


DO NOT choose format at any stage.

You will have 30 days to finish the job / activate Windows.

This thread from someone in a similar position is instructive.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=130156&highlight=boot.ini

 

I installed windows into a new folder and was able to access all my data. Thank you studiot for all you help!

 

Thanks for the feedback. We need a warm glow smiley but this will have to do.