'operating system not found'

scheming_gypsy

make sure they're in ok and follow the thick grey one back down to the motherboard and make sure that's in ok.
Then power it up and listen for the drive to spin up.

Personally i wouldn't bother taking it to a computer engineer. They'd probably charge £30 to look at it, you can buy a hard drive for about the same amount and fit it yourself.

albertross_2

the bios is hold down f2 at boot, or del, then you get into some config screens - you need to make sure that the 1st boot device is set to auto.

is the hd spinning?

duff = broken, faulty, dead

teenage_Drama

i dont understand...im not much of a computer expert.so i dont know much

the hard drive spinning?

it makes a little noise when turned on sort of a scraping sound. and i think it stops spinning

albertross_2

What model PC is it?

teenage_Drama

DELL dimension XPS T600

albertross_2

I am assuming that you have already taken the cover off, and checked that the grey ide ribbon cable is securely seated in the back of the hard disk (the grey metal box), and that the white plastic power connector with 4 coloured wires is also seated correctly. You also need to check that the ribbon cable is seated correctly in the motherboard (the big green thing, with lots of stuff soldered onto it)

If so, you need to check that the bios is setup to detect the hard disk correctly

When you boot it up, it should say hit a key to enter setup (del), hit it..

This should take you to a blue screen. (the bios settings).

right arrow to advanced
down arrow to ide configuration
press return
down arrow to primary ide master
press return
change type to auto using +/- keys
hit f10 and save settings

Newer Dells have a diagnostic screen, which allow you to checkout the hardware, F12 (or F11?) at boot.

teenage_Drama

the primary IDE Master type is already set to 'auto'

albertross_2

Does it say primary hard disk not found at bootup?

Does the bios pickup a drive type, or does it say none, next to primary hard disk?

If you have checked all the cables, It is sounding like a bust hard disk. Can you try it in a friends PC?

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