Computer help forum: Primary HD not found,No boot device avalible,please help!!!

1.) Can you restart in Safe Mode? If so, from a command prompt, type this:

sfc /scannow

This command will have XP look at all the critical and system files for any that are missing or corrupted. You'll need the XP CD if the program asks for it.

2.) If you/she has the XP CD you can boot from it and do a repair install.

Wayne

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If all is well, the CD is the boot device, and it shoot be found. So I see 3 possibilities:
1. The boot sequence is NOT defined as first CD, then harddisk (with possibly the diskette in between). Although it should try the CD if it can't find a hard disk, so it strange anyway.
2. You can't only reach your hard disk, but the CD is unreachable also. That's either a loose cable (assuming the CD is a slave on the cable where the disk is the master), or a serious problem on the motherboard (IDE interface gone south).
3. The error message is wrong. It does boot from the CD but can't continue because there's no hard drive, and gives this erroneous message.

It sure looks the machine needs repair. I'm not 100% sure right now that a new hard disk, as suggested by retired below, is the solution. Maybe better have a Dell tech look at it.

Sorry for your sister. And we all hope she DID backup everything she doesn't want to lose.
Still, unless you dropped the laptop or did other things you didn't tell, this does NOT seem to be your error. Just a machine that happened to fail, as they sometimes do. She might not believe you, if you say so, and she might not believe me, but she might believe the Dell tech, so she should surely ask him to restore the peace between you two.

Hope this helps.


Kees

You may need to repartition the hard drive and make SURE there is an active partition. Without an active partition the computer won't boot.

The only program I got rid of was the old windows spyware.It did not work and you could not use it.I removed it from control panal(add+remove).Then with ccleaner,issues,I removed only the register keys pertaining to that program and some disney programs that she removed months ago.As far as check disk,I used the basic tool that windows uses.C-disk properties/tools/error checker/then checked off both things,check volume for errors and check for and recover bad sectors.It
does it on restart.Which it did,when it was done and restarted the desk
top never came back,I could never go to event viewer and see if there
was any bad sectors or how many other errors were on the drive.I read
the posts on the geeks to go site and that is my problem but it stops
there on that page and don't give any more advice.I will try con-alt-del but like you when?thanks for your help!! Stinman

I believe you are right.I took out the HDD and tried to boot it up from another machine.My friend actually did I watched.Anyway,it would'nt work
He tried to recover my nieces portfolio for high school tomorrow to no avail.Question,where do I get one for them.I can put it in and reload all her disks,but I had trouble finding the HDD.It is a hitachie with a
funny looking adapter.I assume I will need to keep the adapter.I called best buy,but the kid I talked to did'nt know anything.Thanks for your time and help.

best to straighten out a mess, you're catchin' heck and probably feelin' lousy about it to boot! Been there . . . done that.

Just hope they've got the restore disks.

Good Luck

VAPCMD

Definitely makes most feel responsible ... even though it's nothing they did.

Was the HDD still spining ? If yes, might have been a perfect opportunity to try SpinRite.

VAPCMD

I did place the CD in the CD-rom and it read it.It loaded everything
and went all the way to the screen where it says,in short-1 load windows
2 repair windows 3 exit without doing anything.I tried all 3 20 times
different ways to no avail.I then took the hard drive to a friends who
knows quite alot about computers.We put the hard drive in another laptop
and he had something to do what you said about firing it up there.But it said the same thing on his also.Can not read,we could not even extract
the info on it.As far as test,you can hold down fn on the keyboard while booting up the system and letting go at the same time and it goes into some test mode.It then ran some test and stopped at the HDD and said it could not read it or something like that.Thanks for your time!!

Try booting from a Linux Live CD
http://www.knoppix.org/
or try some of the recovery utilities from the Ultimate Boot CD
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
If the HDD is not completely fried, you can still recover the data. There are some HDD manufacturer's files that can check the HDD on the ultimate Boot CD if you know the manufacturer. It could possibly even restore the HDD.
When booting in Linux, it will show you what it is doing as it loads and may point to the problem besides looking at the files on the HDD. Give them a try before throwing in the towel.

You are getting the message just after the Dell logo screen and before windows starts. What is happening: The computer is not finding the hard drive. This has nothing to do with any files contained on the hard drive, the computer can't see the hard drive period. Open the case and make sure the power and interface cables are still connected. When you start the computer, hit the key that will take to to setup. Look in the BIOS setup screens to see what the computer says is connected to it (does it say there is a hard drive?). You are not going to get anywhere until the PC finds the hard drive. It may be that the hard drive has crashed... it happens. Try installing the hard drive on another computer into the cables used for the CD drive. Does the other computer see the hard drive? Troubleshoot the issue... is the the cable, the hard drive, or the original mother board? If you can't get another PC to see the hard drive, then you are looking at replacing the hard drive.