Homebuilt computer won't recognize HD

[trollcat]

Hi all,

I am trying to put a hard drive into an old Dell Dimension XPS desktop that has everything but a hard drive. I put the HD in, and plugged in the two cables (one 4-pin connector with multicolored wires coming out of the back, and one long, wide ribbon-like cable with many pins). It turns on OK, but after a brief boot-up screen it goes to the Windows Error Recovery screen, where it tells me that windows is having a hard time starting ("probably due to recent hardware or software changes"), and giving me two options: 1) Let windows try to repair itself, or 2) try to start as normal. Attempting to start as normal makes then computer go dead (it keeps running, but monitor goes black and it's light starts flashing, as though it were not connected). Attempting option #1 makes the computer run a recovery program for about 1 hour, tell me that it can't fix anything, and then go dead.

Does anyone know what the problem is here? I am hoping that fixing it will just be a matter of configuring the computer to recognize the HD. Any help would be much appreciated!!

 

[boiler1990]

I would check to make sure that the BIOS setting is set to boot to that hard drive first (Boot Device Priority).

After that, if it still isn't working and gives you that error message, I would say that something was corrupted on the hard drive. I don't really know what to do at that point.

 

[trollcat]

Best answer selected by trollcat.

 

[trollcat]

Thx boiler1990 - looks like you were right about the HD corruption. I tried a different HD and it worked fine

 

[boiler1990]

That sucks man. Corrupted hard drives are the worst.