Everything fine then 'Primary drive o not found'.

DomTwan

Honorable
Dec 8, 2013
3
0
10,510
Hi everyone.

This is my first post, but I found lurking this forum very helpful during my recent first pc build (new gaming pc), so thanks for this great resource.

I have an old Dell Dimension 3000 that I use for office tasks/internet. A few weeks ago I installed a new WD IDE hard disc as the primary drive. Since install the pc has been working fine with windows xp.

Today however on boot I get the message 'Primary drive 0 not found'. In the BIOS Drive Config the Primary Master drive is listed as Unknown Device. Last night the drive seemed to be making a different noise that usual. I have checked the cables and all seem secure.

Any help with further diagnosis would be much appreciated. Thanks
 
Further diagnosis will be difficult, maybe impossible, if the drive itself cannot be accessed. My assumption is that the drive has failed, but the only way to be sure is to test it with WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostic for DOS.

Click on the following link for a direct download of the ISO CD Image:
http://support.wdc.com/download/dlg/Diag504cCD.iso

Burn the ISO file to a blank CD-R using the free IMGBurn: http://www.filehippo.com/download_imgburn/

Then boot your faulty PC from that CD and the diagnostic utility should appear after a minute or two depending on the read speed of your optical drive.
 

DomTwan

Honorable
Dec 8, 2013
3
0
10,510
I am getting the message

NO DRIVE FOUND

ERROR STATUS CODE 0120

(The hard drive activity light does light up tho). After the error message screen goes to A:\>, tuping dlgdiag5.exe just goes back to error message.