Boot problems - help!

[NigelCollins]

Hi,
I have just returned home after a couple of days and found my PC with a message "reboot and select a proper boot device....". I leave my PC on as use it for streaming music. The pc has an ASRock P55 motherboard with 2 x 1TB Samsung HD103 drives

I tried to boot from CD as well but BIOS not recognising boot disk or DVD drive but is recognising 2nd drive. Have tried swapping the Sata cables between drives and that then allows BIOS to recognise the DVD drive. Puting windows 7 disk in tries to re-install operating system as it obviously can't read the boot drive.

Does this mean that boot drive has failed or is there anything else I can try?

Thanks

Nigel

 

[kurjack]

Do you by any chance have a second computer you can plug your disk you think is dead into, then you can check the SMART status of the disk to see if it has failed. In most cases if you cant see the drive at all and have changed the sata cables and power cable then the drive is probably dead.

 

[price_th]

Drive may have failed or possibilly a disk controler failed. Test your drive on another computer with vendor dianostic tools you can download. That way you can rule out the drive.

 

[xtreme5]

reset CMOS.

 

[NigelCollins]

reset CMOS.

Thanks all - I don't have access to another pc but do have a laptop and a USB to sata adapter - will that work?

 

[xtreme5]

no.

 

[kurjack]

If you really wanted to test the disk you could buy a external enclosure for it and plug it into your USB port on your laptop. In most cases if you can plug other drives into that SATA port on your computer and it recognizes them then the drive in question is probably dead.

Edit: good luck with your hard drives.

 

[price_th]

Yes a USB to SATA adapter will work. It may depend on what tools you are using to test the drive however.

 

[NigelCollins]

Thanks - will try the adaptor and see what happens

 

[NigelCollins]

Well I have used the sata to USB connector and tried running diagnostics but they can't read drive. Drive boots up initially, runs for about 10 seconds then stops spinning. Is there anything I can do or do I just replace drive? I have backed up drive but not sure how a reinstalled windows will recognise the backup on my second drive.

Also any recommendations on best 1 TB internal drive - or I will just replace with another Samsung.

Thanks

Nigel