Quick Question

[chench1536]

Is "hard disk drive 0 can not be found" a bad thing? Cause my computer keeps saying this when I try to boot it up.

[Vince]

Yes, thats a bad thing.. . . .IF the system does not boot.

Anything done to the system lately?
Like inbetween the time it was working and the time it failed?
Or did this just 'show up' suddenly?

[chench1536]

It was off between when it was working and when it failed. It was kind of a surprise. Nothing significant done to the system lately.

[rdamurphy]

Yeah, that's a real bad thing! It means your hard drive isn't being recognized by the system. It could mean a fried hard drive, a bad power supply, it could simply mean your BIOS CMOS battery is dead and it's losing it's settings during shut down. How old is your computer, and have you ever worked on one before?

Try starting your computer, and read the screen. It should tell you how to "Enter Setup." Either by hitting the DEL key or the F2 key. When you get into Setup, check the date. If the time/date is way off, it's probably the battery. Then go through it until you find a page that shows your drives, and try to autodetect all of them. If none of this works, take the side of your computer off, check for loose or burnt wiring. (Did you smell any burning or see any smoke?)

Robert

[pstraten]

Press F2 or F9 or whatever key you need to get into Startup when you are booting the computer. Page through and check the settings, paying close attention to bootup sequence. But yes, don't forget to check date and time--it could be that horrid little battery tucked away where you don't want to have to think about it.

I don't, however, expect the problem to be there. Most likely it's a corrupted bootup sector or a bad .ini file used in the boot process, or something like it. Yeah, it is a very serious matter and--how the hell are you getting in and posting? On another computer?

Here's hoping you have a system disk for your OS, or at least a "rescue disk" that came with your computer or you made yourself with third-party software. If not, beg, borrow, buy or steal a system disk from somebody.

Done that? If you are lucky, booting a system disk from CD (and you may have to get into Setup to only boot from CD), you may find that the hard disk can be recognized. In that case, you have options, like a thorough disk scan and fix error, write a new boot sector, or--unless the disk is physically fried--fully reformat and reinstall the OS.

You might just have to bite the bullet.

I wish you the best of luck.

P.S. A second thought. Don't be hasty. Cold boot your computer, and try at least half a dozen times to see if it will come up. Who knows, as the Greek slave said to Alexander's soldier. "and maybe the horse will learn to sing."

If it does actually boot, then go to the start button, under RUN type in < chkdsk [drive] /f >

If you do not know whether Drive 0 is called (C, D, E or whatever), then just type < chkdsk /f >

You should see a DOS box saying you can't do it right now. Like Nancy Reagan in reverse, just say
yes and type < y >

Then hit RETURN, reboot, and cross your fingers.

[mttcrlsn]

Could be a simple and common isue of a low CMOS battery. Easy to replace - (CR2032) and can be found at Walmart with the rest of the camera and other batteries.

[pstraten]

Matt,

It could just be that, as I said along with others; it could also be dozens or hundreds of other things, including a bad block or sector or just a failing, flaky old disk.

Might as well trust your luck and hope the horse is going to sing or the king will die. If you're willing to shell out some money, there are utilities that will check your drive, transfer data from problem areas, and flag bad sectors or blocks and mark them unfit for use. There is much that can be worked around when necessity is the mother of invention.

Of course, I speak from the era when a 5 Megabyte hard disk was 800 or a thousand bucks.

:)

[GG12332]

rdamurphy - Yeah, that's a real bad thing! It means your hard drive isn't being recognized by the system. It could mean a fried hard drive, a bad power supply, it could simply mean your BIOS CMOS battery is dead and it's losing it's settings during shut down. How old is your computer, and have you ever worked on one before?

mttcrlsn - Try starting your computer, and read the screen. It should tell you how to "Enter Setup." Either by hitting the DEL key or the F2 key. When you get into Setup, check the date. If the time/date is way off, it's probably the battery. Then go through it until you find a page that shows your drives, and try to autodetect all of them. If none of this works, take the side of your computer off, check for loose or burnt wiring. (Did you smell any burning or see any smoke?)

Could be a simple and common isue of a low CMOS battery. Easy to replace - (CR2032) and can be found at Walmart with the rest of the camera and other batteries.

Chris, If you need to enter the bios to autodetect the hdd, then try the battery first, it is a $5.00 or less fix. It happened to me. Again, an indication it is most likely the battery, you need to enter the bios, go to the hdd screen, autodetect it/them, save and exit. If it boots, it is your cmos battery. Most likely a CR2032. Good Luck! Let us know the results!

[Shonner]

Motherboard isn't seeing a hard drive attached. You'll need a new hard drive very soon if not now.