SATA HDD NOT DETECTED by BIOS

[firewolf]

hi. recently my pc has started malfunctioning. windows will not boot! when i enter setup (bios) i cant see my hdd. sometimes its there and sometimes not! when i boot to repair disk (when the hdd is detected) and run startup repair it shows like this : "root cause found : the partion table does not have a valid system partition". and sometimes (when hdd is not detected) it shows: system repair cant resolve this issue. in diskpart i cant see my drives. anyway i decided to run super fdisk to correct my partion table. but when i boot to it, it does not detect a hdd. also i did a change in the bios i changed the sata controller from ACHI TO ATA. but when i tried ACHI it does not detect my hdd. currently i have a cd with super fdisk loaded. ready to boot. but cant see my hdd. what to do?

 

[Murissokah]

Here is what I would try:

1. Clear CMOS.

2. Make sure the SATA controller is enabled on the BIOS.

3. Leave the SATA controller in AHCI mode. Fiddling with this will not fix anything and might cause additional problems.

4. If the disk still cannot be formated through a windows repair utility, try a live boot repair disk. Hiren's is a good choice (http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/)

5. Try another HDD, or try your HDD in another computer, to help pinpoint the issue.

6. As a lest resort, zero-fill the disk. Hiren's boot disk should be able to.