cannot detect hard drive

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

win xp home

My friend is having problems with his pc and asked me If I could help. He
has a rather outdated 350mhz 6.4 gb 256 RAM machine with xp home sp2, he has
broadband connection as well.

He first called me when he was having problems with OE not being able to
recognise his Windows Adress book, later on that day he couldn't open his e
mails although he could still receive them. I went away to do some research
on potential causes and then he called me up to say that he had restarted
his machine and it wouldn't boot into windows. I had a look and it wasn't
detecting any sign of the HD, I even got a set of xp boot disks from the MS
site and they said that there was no HD.

I opened up the machine and found that the only thing I could physically see
that could be wrong was that the main power supply fan was not working (but
why would that have an effect on the bios not recognising HD?)

I have researched google with this problem and it could be one of many
problems, ie boot sector virus, damaged HD, faulty power supply, etc etc.

What do you guys suggest? My friend runs our village mag and has all his
publisher files and contacts etc on the c drive and cannot really afford to
lose them.

 

[john]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Timax45 wrote:

> win xp home
>
> My friend is having problems with his pc and asked me If I could help. He
> has a rather outdated 350mhz 6.4 gb 256 RAM machine with xp home sp2, he has
> broadband connection as well.
>
> He first called me when he was having problems with OE not being able to
> recognise his Windows Adress book, later on that day he couldn't open his e
> mails although he could still receive them. I went away to do some research
> on potential causes and then he called me up to say that he had restarted
> his machine and it wouldn't boot into windows. I had a look and it wasn't
> detecting any sign of the HD, I even got a set of xp boot disks from the MS
> site and they said that there was no HD.
>
> I opened up the machine and found that the only thing I could physically see
> that could be wrong was that the main power supply fan was not working (but
> why would that have an effect on the bios not recognising HD?)
>
> I have researched google with this problem and it could be one of many
> problems, ie boot sector virus, damaged HD, faulty power supply, etc etc.
>
> What do you guys suggest? My friend runs our village mag and has all his
> publisher files and contacts etc on the c drive and cannot really afford to
> lose them.


Replace the power supply if you want but if the BIOS doesn't see the
drive its probably toast as well. But it could be the motherboard or
disk controller or even a bad cable. A comp. can always be resurrected
but at what cost in hit and miss parts replacement? Unless you have a
store of parts to try out either take it to a shop that can do actual
testing or tell your friend to get a new comp. is probably the best
advise you can give.

John