Hard Drive boot problem - please help

[cardboardbox]

I've been putting my own pcs together for years but I decided to get one of those dell hot deals since the price was good. It seemed ok at first. Then I added a hd and cdrw from the old pc. Then the system decided to run very, very slow. I tried a couple games and they were more like slideshows (im running a p4 2.4, 256 ddr, gf4 mx, etc). So I took the extra hd out and tried to boot off of the hd that came with the system. No luck. I keep getting "Primary hard disk drive 1 not found" and the boot sequence stops. However, I can boot from a cd and begin the windows xp installation. Windows has no problems finding the hd. But when I try to boot to the hd I cant. I can use fdisk and format on it also. So I tried format c: /s and it wont boot like that either. I have the hd on the master ide connector with the jumper in the master position. I also tried cable select. Just to humor myself I tried using the middle connector on the ide cable with the jumpers in various positions. Still no luck.

Any ideas? I'm lost here!!

:disgust:

 

[cardboardbox]

shameless bump for help

 

[alm4rr]

try clearing the cmos jumper on the board
sorrry cant be more useful at the moment

 

[JC]

In fdisk, make sure your boot partition is active (startable). I dunno why the system started running slow in the first place, though.

JC

 

[sechs]

Have you tried putting the drive on IDE2? It's possible that IDE1 has gone kablewey.

 

[cardboardbox]

im not sure how to clear the cmos jumper... this is a dell board, they might not include that.

the first partition is active in fdisk

ide2? As in the secondary IDE channel? I havent tried that, although my cdrom and cdrw are using that at the moment.



I discovered (being the genius I am) that when I get "Primary hard disk drive 1 not found" during startup. I can hit F1 to continue and the system boots like normal. That error must mean something though.

thanks for the ideas.

 

[MrEnigma]

Sounds like your ide controller is gone flakey, I'd try the secondary connectors...or an add in card if possible....