SATA Hard drive problem

I am working on a vista machine that will not boot. Specifically, upon startup, the bios gives the "primary hard disk error, press f1 to resume." So naturally enter the bios setup. HD is detected properly, showed a 750gb hd on SATA1. I have attempted to use the recovery cd that came with the system, and the cd does not detect a hd. I have also tried a XP install CD with the same results. This was a perfectly working system a few days ago. So after some playing around, I pulled out my Ubuntu 64 bit cd and done a live boot. I can see and access the vista partition of the drive.

I thought this HD was toast, but after seeing and accessing it with Ubuntu, doesn't seem to be the case. I've tried fixing the MBR using bootrec.exe and various other things. No luck. The only thing I haven't tried is actually installing Ubuntu along side Vista. I went through the install process far enough to know Ubuntu detects the vista partition and allows me to create a new partition for the Ubuntu install.

Why would Ubuntu recognize the vista partition, but a system recovery cd wouldn't? I'm stumped. Thanks for any help.

 

Does BIOS no longer give you the HD error message?

An XP CD before SP2 might not see a SATA drive without loading drivers.

The Vista disc you are using is an installation disc(not a factory restore settings disc)? It does the loading files and comes up with the usual Microsoft install screens but finds no HD? [If not here is a Vista recovery disc available that is basically the installation disc without the actual OS files so it has a repair menu. The torrent version is free http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/]

 

Yes the BIOS still gives me the error. The vista disk is a manufacturers recovery DVD. A system image. The XP install CD I tried is SP3. My main confusion is why Ubuntu recognizes the hd, but I can't use a system recovery image that came with the system.

 

Good question. I don't understand either. Especially since BIOS is giving an error, I can't understand how Ubuntu is reading the disk.

Let's see if someone comes along with an explanation or idea on fixing the problem.