Drive not found --- HELP!

[Hyper_Kagome]

Okay, so, this isn't my computer and I'm not near the computer needing the help, but I am on the phone with said person.

She was trying to put in a new DVD burner.
Yes, everything was unplugged, etc etc.

She gave up, plugged stuff back in, computer gives her:

"No boot device available"

Anyway... how can we get this thing back up and running?

EDIT: Now... the computer just beeps..

 

[PC eye]

"everything was unplugged" sounds like a need to have a good visual first hand inspection to see if " all things" were plugged in the way they were origianally! If the power plug or data cable was left off of the drive no boot device will be found if no other device was set in the boot order.

If both the hard drive and new optical are on the same cable with the optical now positioned as master the previous configuration seeing the HD that way and not seeing the optical set on a second ide as master there and the drive still set to master while slaved to the optical it won't be seen. Jumper settings for ide drives, drive left unplugged, boot order now incorrect in bios are a few things to look at first.

With both drive types being ide having the optical set to master and being slaved to the hard drive could be another rhought. The first thing in the order however would be the inspection by someone who has worked on their own custom builds to see probably one simple thing putting everything onhold.

 

[Hyper_Kagome]

Uh... wow... that went way over my head. But I should make it more clear that it was the stuff at the BACK of the computer that was unplugged, not inside.

 

[PC eye]

In the simplest terms something may have left unplugged like the ribbon cable or power connector for the hard drive or the jumpers(small plastic caps found at the rear of the drive casing on ide type drives) were not set correctly. For ide drives in general the position on the cable itself determines where the jumper is set.

The drive casing witll see MA for master, SL or SA for slave, and CS or CB for cable select. The last is for placing a drive on either the end connector of the standard flat ribbon cable or the middle one without worry. Some boards like those seen in prebuilt systems will come without a jumper also being set to the cable select automatically for easy servicing by that company's service techs.

Without the power plug for the drive even plugged in the hard drive isn't even running to be read meaning no boot information is available. This is why someone has worked on building their own custom systems would be the one to look over what was done there. A visual insection will find what if anything was missed or misplugged.