Windows XP no hard drive found

I was asked to work on this old Dell XPS R350, it came with windows 98 but I don't have the original boot floppy so I was going to put XP on it instead. When I put the windows xp disk into the cd rom it boots and starts to install but than goes to a blue screen that says it couldn't continue there was no hard drive found and it has to quit. The hard drive is a Western Digital wd400 40GB, I got the no hard drive error trying to re install win98 too but that was before I realized I had to have the start up floppy to use it. Booting the computer normally says "no OS installed" and my computer has no floppy drive just so you know. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

I would start by downloading the DOS (bootable) version of Western Digital's Data Lifeguard and using it to test the hard drive:

http://majorgeeks.com/Western_Digital_Data_Lifeguard_Tools_d2855.html

Since the PC originally had Win 98 on it, the drive may be 10+ years old. If it tests bad, I'd replace the drive with one no larger than 120GB (older PCs and/or Win 98 may have issues recognizing or formatting drives greater than 137GB).

Good luck on solving the problem.

 

A couple of other things to try are to check BIOS to see if the HD is recognized. It think Dell is F2 to enter BIOS/Setup.

Check the jumpers on the HD are set to Master and the HD is on the end of the cable not attached to the middle connector. Jumper diagram should be printed on the label of the drive.

Maybe the data cable is bad. If you have another swap it out.

 

Ok thanks guys I tried downloading the WD tools but I can't get the DOS version it's just the windows version. I'll check out the BIOS and such today also.

 

The DOS CD version is available from WD http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=502&lang=en You have to burn the ISO as an image file. Imgburn will do it using "Write Image File to Disc" option.

Definitely check the jumpers since an older computer has probably had parts swapped out at some point.

 

The BIOS does see the hard drive and everything seems set up ok. It has first boot device as CD ROM and second boot device as hard drive.

 

Just to be sure does the BIOS give you information about the HD--list the model and/or size? I want to be sure it sees the actual drive no just has HD listed in the boot options.

I can't say where that would be but probably under General or some listing of Primary/Master.

 

Well it has 384mb of ram and the 40GB hard drive I know from the specs online that the computer wasn't shipped out with those from what I found anyway.

 

Hmm, Lost my post...

So the HD is shown in BIOS as 40gb. Is it listed as primary master?

Are the HD and CDROM on separate cables? Try swapping cables and seeing if you get the same result with the installation CD.

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Another thing to check is that whichever cable you have going to the HD, make sure it is connected to the IDE connector on the motherboard marked HD or Disk 0 or similar. There will be printing on the MB telling which slot is which. I think the innermost slot is usually HD but look for a label.

 

I ran into this a month ago, maybe two.

Letting the install program do a complete format of the hard drive fixed it for me.

The drive had previously been formatted with Partition Wizard.

 

Sorry everyone I had a few hectic weeks there, I downloaded and burned the WD diagnostic but the computer wont boot from the disk for some reason if I put in Win 98 or Win xp it does. cachehiker-how do I get the program to do a full format? sach2-The bios for this system is odd, the hd seems to be hooked up right but in the main section of the BIOS there is nothing about the HD at all. It has a few other things like the processor, cache, memory but nothing about the HD. I've looked all over the BIOS sections and I can't find it. It's really irritating me. Thank you guys for all your patience.

 

Try unplugging the HD and booting from the WD diagnostic disc. (Just to see if it boots--obviously you won't be able to run any diagnostic.)

 

If you have an external hard drive adapter (see example link below), I would pull the drive out and attempt to test it using Data Lifeguard's Windows version while hooked to a working PC:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...hard_drive_adapter_usb-_-12-119-152-_-Product

If the drive is bad, a new 80GB IDE at NewEgg is around $55. To save a bit (although you'll usually have no warranty except an immediate DOA exchange, depending on the seller's listed terms), you might check out the "Buy It Now" listings on eBay. A 30-40GB 2.5" IDE there will be about $25-$30 incl. shipping.

http://computers.shop.ebay.com/Hard...=1&_fln=1&_sc=1&_sop=15&_trksid=p3286.c0.m283

 

Ok so I took another peek at the hard drive and everything just to double check it was in the primary slot of the mobo and all that I seemed to over look that it was on the slave part of the ribbon cable as many times as I've cracked it open you'd think I'd have seen that sadly that's not the end, it boots but it goes to the start in safe mode, last known good config and normal. Anyone of those it just freezes, I ran chkdsk from the xp disk and it had no errors. I was going to just reinstall xp on the system but I've read I should use the WD low level format to wipe the master boot which is all well and good but I still have no idea why the WD disk i burned won't boot when winxp and win98 do on that computer. Also I have no clue where to get the winxp drivers for the dell xps r350 for winxp because dell only gives it to you for the os it came installed with. This is driving me nuts, any other suggestions for me to try? Or should I just try to wipe the hd and start fresh? I should buy you all cake for helping me so much lol Thanks so much guys

 

If it its PIII then you have a problem there. But if its PII it would be no wonder if it doesnt take XP. Might try to see if you can update the bios for it, but seriously consider linux. there are very light very fast linux distro that run superfast on these old rigs better than windows. Assumnig its a PIII you can have 768mb ram (three sticks 256) and it will run Ubuntu Ultimate Edition lite running with full gnome libs, far much better (looks and apps) than XP! On my PII, XP installs up to where it starts copying windows executive, then hangs terribly: on upping ram to 512-ish from 256mb it installs up to restarting to where it says 39minutes remaining, the blue screen appears instead.

 

It's a Pentium 2, I was considering linux I've never used it before and I'm not sure who would be using it once I get it fixed are there any linux programs that are GUI based like windows that would run ok? I managed to hopefully copy the win98 boot files to my USB drive I haven't tried it yet though and I have a win98 cd but doesn't windows take up a lot of hard drive space?

 

Do you know how much RAM this PC has? It came with 128mb.

I've run XP on a PII but it would be unbearable with 128mb RAM and a 350 processor.

 

It has 384mb of RAM, the guy who asked me to work on it told me nothing about it when he gave it to me just that it didn't work when I opened it up the jumpers on the mobo were set on management mode and the hd was on the secondary slot on the ribbon cable. After that I thought I'd figured it out until now with the winxp freezing on the last good config/start normally screen. I don't know what version of windows xp is on the system but my computer has 512mb of ram and xp still slows it down even though it came with xp on it. So I'm guessing xp is just too much for it but with windows 98 not supported by microsoft anymore won't there be security issues with viruses and such? I have 1GB of ram from my moms old computer which is about the same age as the DELL i'm working on and it had the same 168 pin sdram as the DELL so maybe if I switch the ram out it'll improve it? Will the system auto detect the ram?

 

The motherboard maxes out at 384mb. It will only recognize up to 3 modules at 128mb each. So no increase possible there.

Yes, I was thinking about other options for OS. The problem is that that unit is so old that it can't really be upgraded.

Win98 is as you said is obsolete and if the computer was given to someone they would have problems installing and running most programs. You have to remember that XP has been dominant for almost 10 years.

It could be OK for just internet in XP or Linux but even Firefox can eat up all available RAM when you are talking about 384 total.

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I wouldn't spend a great deal of time repairing the current XP. Chances are that machine will run much better with a fresh install.

How much free space is left on the HD? (It might be wise to try to squeeze an extra installation of XP on the HD to see if it will install OK with your discs and accept your license key.)

 

Leave the current windows xp on there and start another? How would I find out how much space is left without being able to get into windows?

 

Yes, I was thinking if you had say 5gb free you could partition the HD and put an install on the 5gb partition. Then test it out. See if you could find drivers that sort of thing. If it worked ok you could then wipe the HD and put just one install on it. It is just a thought.

On the other hand since you changed the location of the HD on the cable perhaps XP install will work OK now and see the HD. As long as you know your license key will work then you can delete the existing partition during the install. Then let it install on the new unallocated space. Be sure to do a full format rather than the quick one since it is an old HD.

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You can see the space used from the XP CD command prompt with the dir command. It will tell you how much space is used/free on the drive.

 

The OP might use Hiren's bootable CD (which has the easy to use Mini-Windows program) to look at the HD
.

 

You might find this useful
http://www.roberthancock.com/dell/etherdude.htm

and this
http://www.roberthancock.com/dell/xpsrproc.htm

 

Thank you guys for all your help So far nothing has worked so I thought i'd try a repair install of windows xp since I don't know what's on the HD so i wanted to save whatever files were on there everything copied fine and it rebooted with no errors but now it has no screen and gives me 1 long and 2 short beeps which I've read a few different reasons for this code motherboard or graphics card. Either one isn't good but I did everything right I'm half tempted to tell this guy it's not worth fixing and to take the HD out and install it in another computer if he wants the files or hook it up to mine and get them off for him. Sadly I really would rather not admit defeat just yet any suggestions to where to go from here? Reset the BIOS? Try another video card? Tinker with RAM? Any or all of that? Try another Hard drive? I have a 40GB Maxtor drive from my moms old compaq I wanted to use in mine as a slave drive would that make any difference? If I had another desktop I'd give him mine lol This is really just driving me up a wall.

 

I have found that some Dell's don't give an obvious hard drive recognition, so it may just not show, anyway
phoenix/dell bios codes
http://www.bioscentral.com/postcodes/dellbios.htm
Other Dell Bios codes
http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/phoenixbeep.htm
I would check that a video card has not been installed as against an on-board,
If it has two vga ports on the back- try the other one, as one of those 1-2 beeps seem to indicate a periphial problem 9card of some sort) could be worth changing, if that is the case, to the on board video, and then change to the add in after booting, through the bios.
Of course, it does not always make sense, if you had video, before trying repair, but strange things do happen.
I would be inclined to think the hard drive is either near, or is defunct.
If you attach it as a slslave to yours to get his data off- you can look in computer disk management to see if it shows there- if it does not, then you know its gone.