Possible hard drive problem or maybe power supply? I dont know

BrianS

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When I start my computer I get an error message saying

Primary hard disk drive 0 not found
Primary hard disk drive 1 not found
Secondary hard disk drive 1 not found
Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility

I do believe that I do have a bad hard drive. I took it to work and tried using it on another computer and it would not run or even spin up and make any sounds. But there is one other hard drive that when I run Slax (linux) off of a CD it will show the drive (this is my primary drive with windows XP installed on it). But when I plug in an external hard drive via USB, I get an error saying that it could not mount the drive. What actually happens is that the USB drive is mounted and I can use it, but the internal drive that that it origionally saw will dissapear from the directory listing.

When I only have my primary drive plugged in, I still cannot load into Windows. I get the same error message about Striking F1 or F2. Could it simply be that I have a bad powersupply and cannot run so many drives all at the same time? I am running off the origional power supply, with a CDR drive, a normal CD Rom, and 2 hard drives. Is it possible that running all that was just too much and it killed a hard drive as it is slowly dieing on me?

Any help would be greately appreaciated.

Brian
 
It is possible the power drain is too much for the psu, but as you don't give the brand, wattage or amps on the 12v rail(s) I'd only be guessing.

Is the drive you suspect to be faulty recognised in the bios?
 
It is a generic Dell power supply I think. I coudln't find a name on it. What it said for power was

Output +5V ~/22.0A
250W Max ~/14.0A

Max combined power on +5V and +3.3 output is 170W


Thats all I can find.
 
i don't believe it's the power supply, looks like it can run that stuff ok. Have u tried autodetecting the drives once you put them in?
 
How do I do that? If I hit F2 to go into the setup, there will read Primary device as "Hard Drive" and it shows that it is a 120GB so I know that is ok. But the other one reads as "Unknown Device". I really don't know where to go from there. Also I don't understand why It won't load into windows. Ill take any advice you have for me.
 
In the BIOS there should be an autodetect setting or you should be able to set it manually. What type of computer is this?
 
Although I do have a problem kind of like this on my dells, I also have it on other computers, not quite the same problem, but kind of. I don't think it's a dell problem.
 
Nope BIOS can be F1, F2, F10, DEL and a lot of othe rkeys depends. But when we are trying to get into bios at my place and it doesn't tell you we hit all the normal keys. A lot in boot up. Normally one works, never seen one of those not work.

Some tips to try, take the Hds out of the case with them hooked up to the PC ontop of a anti-static bag, boot it upa nd feel it if you feel a click, click its the HD, And considering its booting up I very much doubt its the PSU, you coulld also try a different connector for the power to the HD.
 
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