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Hard Drive boot problem - please help

C

cardboardbox

Member
I've been putting my own pcs together for years but I decided to get one of those dell hot deals since the price was good. It seemed ok at first. Then I added a hd and cdrw from the old pc. Then the system decided to run very, very slow. I tried a couple games and they were more like slideshows (im running a p4 2.4, 256 ddr, gf4 mx, etc). So I took the extra hd out and tried to boot off of the hd that came with the system. No luck. I keep getting "Primary hard disk drive 1 not found" and the boot sequence stops. However, I can boot from a cd and begin the windows xp installation. Windows has no problems finding the hd. But when I try to boot to the hd I cant. I can use fdisk and format on it also. So I tried format c: /s and it wont boot like that either. I have the hd on the master ide connector with the jumper in the master position. I also tried cable select. Just to humor myself I tried using the middle connector on the ide cable with the jumpers in various positions. Still no luck.

Any ideas? I'm lost here!!

:disgust:
 
In fdisk, make sure your boot partition is active (startable). I dunno why the system started running slow in the first place, though.

JC
 
im not sure how to clear the cmos jumper... this is a dell board, they might not include that.

the first partition is active in fdisk

ide2? As in the secondary IDE channel? I havent tried that, although my cdrom and cdrw are using that at the moment.



I discovered (being the genius I am) that when I get "Primary hard disk drive 1 not found" during startup. I can hit F1 to continue and the system boots like normal. That error must mean something though.

thanks for the ideas.
 
Sounds like your ide controller is gone flakey, I'd try the secondary connectors...or an add in card if possible....
 
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