Window cant detect hard drive

[eduzmi]

Hi all, my compaq deskpro pc (1Ghz, 256Mb, 10Gb, I know its outdated buts its what I can do with as of now :-\) fried the psu. I got another one. Problem is when I powered it on, windows could not start, so I tried installing it afresh. i tried to delete the partion but got the message "setup cannot delete specified partition, press f3 to continue (or sth of the sort). On later trials, windows cannot detect the HD! I plugged and unplugged and swapped the cable in vain. What could be wrong and how can I fix it? please help, responses will be greatly appreciated

 

[hang-the-9]

Sounds like you need a new hard-drive, maybe the drive controller on the motherboard also went. Power Supply issues can cause these things when they die.

 

[me 1]

Related to the "setup cannot delete specified partition" , U can also try formating, deleting or adding a partition with the recovery console.
Boot from win cd, press r, 1, enter (or type password)

For format:
format X:\ /q
(X is the drive U want to format)

Deleting or creating a partition:

for that you have the diskpart command.
See here:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/termsd/p/diskpart.htm

If that doesn't work, I agree with my upstairs neighbour.