Help, hard drive problems

mustbemad

Grrrr, my son's Dell 4700 has packed up and from what i can gather its the Hard drive that has completely gone

When the PC is switched on there is a message saying Boot device not found strike f1 to try again or f2 to enter set up. I have tried to run the diagnostics from the resourcecd but it is getting stuck when checking SATA something or other, i've switched it off now but if being more specific about where it is getting stuck would help i will run it again.

I cant get into safe mode or access the recovery partition so i think its completely knackered!

If i was to buy a new hard drive, how do i find out which one would be compatible?

Thanks for any advice offered!

MBM x

Browntoa

if you click on F2 does it show the hard disk as detected in BIOS ??

mustbemad

I'm really sorry to be so stupid but how do i find out if the BIOS is detecting it?

MBM x

Browntoa

you should get a screen like this, it will be the primary master

mustbemad

hmmmm, ours doesnt seem to look like that?

I dont know if this is the same sort of thing but this is what i found:

Drive 0: SATA - 0 click on this and it brings up the following,

Controller Details
*Controller = Serial ATA
*Port = SATA-0

Drive details
*Drive ID = Maxtor
*Capacity = 6Y160M0
*BIOS = This drive is controlled by the system BIOS

sorry if that is completely irrelevent!

I really appreciate your help!

MBM x

mustbemad

Shameless bump, sorry!

I'm getting desperate here, can anyone help?

MBM

albertross_2

Can you hear/feel it spinning? Has the PC been moved?

These are some diagnostics, but if the PC can't see the HD, they probably won't work:

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.3c67e325e0a6b1f6294198b091346068/?channelpath=%2Fen_us%2FSupport%2FSoftware+Downloads%2FView+By+Category%2FDesktop+Storage%2FDiamondMax+Family%2FDiagnostics&downloadID=113

--

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/111854/rb/22267846574

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.3c67e325e0a6b1f6294198b091346068/?channelpath=%2Fen_us%2FSupport%2FSoftware%20Downloads%2FATA%20Hard%20Drives&downloadID=57

mustbemad

yeah, there seems to be power and i can hear the fan going but it wont even attempt to load windows... just a black screen with 'no device found, strike f1 to try again or f2 to enter set up'

if it is the hard drive that is knackered, how do i find out which type to buy?

Angela x

Browntoa

you will need the operating system (windows Xp) as well , unless you have the Dell restore disks...

any SATA drive will do though

albertross_2

see the ebuyer link.

mustbemad

thanks for the links albertross I'm embarrassed to even ask this, but would there be anything suitable at PC world? I dont know how much more of my son's aimless wondering around i can stand, we need a quick fix! Plus i would probably need someone to install the harddrive, i'm not very technical at all

Angela x