Bios detect/ no detect hard drive

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BarryG

Golden Member
Apr 11, 2003
1,008
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I'm trying to figure out why the BIOS setup would see the hard drive but when I attempt to boot the hard drive is not found.
Computer is an old Dell Optiplex GX260. Thankfully it isn't one I own, but it is one I have to have working for my job. Also good is that they're easy and cheap to replace.
Still, would like to not replace it.
So far I've reseated the RAM, PSU, HDD, etc. and swapped in a HDD.

Barry
 
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BarryG

Golden Member
Apr 11, 2003
1,008
4
81
BIOS setup utility I turned off the (already non-existant) slave drives. Now it tries to boot but tells me that boot.ini is invalid, followed by ntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupt. Doing chkdsk now. Wouldn't let me bootcfg /rebuild without it.
 
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alzan

alzan

Diamond Member
May 21, 2003
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Try resetting BIOS to defaults; either from within BIOS or by setting the CLRRTC jumper on the system board briefly. If you haven't already, swap in a new CMOS battery just to eliminate the possibility of your current one being bad.

Since it's a Dell Opti 260, I gotta ask: are any of the capacitors on the motherboard dimpled or have leaking electrolyte? If so, (just one will cause weird problems) replace board.

If it's done this on more than two hard drives it might be a problem with the IDE channel, possibly related to capacitor issue.

The other possibility is the power supply. GX260's are at least a nine year old model. If it's the original PSU in the case, it might be going south (and taking the hard drive with it)

alzan
 
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BarryG

Golden Member
Apr 11, 2003
1,008
4
81
No, Just the first was bad. Turns out that, for reasons unknown to me, the thing didn't want to detect anything with the primary and secondary slave drives enabled in the BIOS. Before the hard drive failure the BIOS didn't care there was nothing attached as slave on either IDE cable. I don't get it but I don't care. The thing is running now. My boss is happy we didn't spend any money on a replacement computer (hard drive was spare from previous computer dying).


alzan said:
Try resetting BIOS to defaults; either from within BIOS or by setting the CLRRTC jumper on the system board briefly. If you haven't already, swap in a new CMOS battery just to eliminate the possibility of your current one being bad.

Since it's a Dell Opti 260, I gotta ask: are any of the capacitors on the motherboard dimpled or have leaking electrolyte? If so, (just one will cause weird problems) replace board.

If it's done this on more than two hard drives it might be a problem with the IDE channel, possibly related to capacitor issue.

The other possibility is the power supply. GX260's are at least a nine year old model. If it's the original PSU in the case, it might be going south (and taking the hard drive with it)

alzan
Click to expand...

Yup, I'm familiar with all that. Most of the failures we've had were capacitor related. The original system included GX270s. This replacement was purchased as a 270 but the seller sent a 260. Long as it performs the required task that doesn't matter.
BTW, the 270s that have failed were SFF. All replacements I've purchased for them have not been. I don't think the capacitor problem is purely motherboard or PSU caused. I truly believe there just isn't enough room in the SFF box. 'Natch, thats just a feeling.

Barry

Barry
 
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NoQuarter

Golden Member
Jan 1, 2001
1,006
0
76
Oh.. that sounds like a jumper thing.. A lot of IDE hard drives have a 'single drive' jumper setting for when there's no slave present. It's usually something like J1-2 = master, J3-4 = slave, no jumper = single.. (usually the diagram has you store the jumper on 2-4 or someplace)
 
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