Possible hard drive problem with BIOS

I

Imagine3

New Member
I recently had some problems with my computer. Long story short, I bought a new hard drive, tried to reinstall Windows on the new drive and I get an error message saying
Primary hard disk drive 1 not found
Strike F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility.

I know its not the hard drive because I was getting the same error message with the old drive (which led me to buy a new one). I personally think it is something wrong with the BIOS although I really don't know or have any really knowledge to verify that. I am stronger with the software side than hardware.

When I put the XP CD into the drive, I got the error message. I hit F2 to go into the setup. I checked and the drive was recognized as a "hard drive" with 300 GB. I then changed the settings so that the computer started off the CD-ROM. I got into the Blue Windows setup screen. And went through to setup the partition for windows. It formated the drive and then restarted with this error message again.

Is this a BIOS problem? also if it is, what do I do to fix this problem?

Thanks,
Brian
 
You changed the first boot device to cd rom in the bios boot device order setting to install XP onto the system. Once it finished copying the installation files it rebooted where you forgot to re-enter the bios to again change the first boot device to HD #0 or #1 on some boards to have the hard drive selected as the boot device.
 
no, it never fully went through the installation of Windows. I went back and tried changing it to the hard drive, and it still gave me this error.
 
Without the installer completely copying the needed files to the hard drive you won't be able to boot the system with it. What type of hard drive are you trying to install XP on? Is it a standard ide drive or SATA(Serial ATA)?

With an ide drive the boot from the installation cd will start the installer where you follow the onscreen instructions until the files are copied fully and the system restarts. But this sounds like you were trying to install XP on a SATA drive without the needed driver disk. That will hang an installation up if that is the type of drive you are running(300gb ide or SATA?).
 
It is a 300 GB Maxtor IDE Hard drive. I just bought it from Newegg.com. So it is OEM and has now packaging in it. I did check to make sure it was set to be a master drive and not a slave so that shouldn't be the problem.
 
Have you checked the disk itself for the usual things like scratches, finger prints, etc. from handling? A bios losing programming isn't quite ruled out yet. But let's look at the few other things first to rule those out. If this was a brand new installation disk I could point at that and say a bad disk. If you have used it with no problems before this that is ruled out.

The installer helps to some degree when detecting the drive. You know the drive is good. The cd drive may not be however. Do you have a lens cleaner handy? If the lens is polluted with dust and dirt it won't read the disk completely. Another less costly item to look at as well is the ide cable. If you have a spare lying around try that. The odd thought of using the cable select rather then master jumper setting is one to throw in. The last points at the possible need for a bios update if that was incomplete from the factory.
 
well. The cd drive works, because I tried booting up with ubuntu and that works fine. The disc is also fine, I have reinstalled windows with it before, and there are no scratches on it. Looks brand new.

I did try two different IDE cables I had laying around and neither is working. They both have 2 plugs on them for multiple drives. Should one be used over the other maybe.

Any other ideas? lol

By the way, thanks for the help.
 
Use the end of the cable not the center connector when setting a drive as master on a cable. If you put the center onto the drive with it mastered that would be the problem there. Knowing the cables tried are good along with the ubuntu boot going ok that's one thing there other then a bios problem to look at. The center connector is used for slaving a second HD or cd drive.
 
ok, well i checked the IDe cable, and the drive was on the middle plug. I switched it to the end. Now when I try to boot the computer, I get the same F1 or F2 option. I hit F1 and it says press any key to boot from the CD. I hit a key and I get a message saying Please wait while your hardware configuration is configured (or something like that). Then it just halts on a black screen. No text or anything else. It just sits there.
 
There are a few things you could check in the bios itself. The first is to set the Plug'n'Play to enabled, support for OS2 to enabled, and the cd rom setting for the first boot device. You can choose to disable the rest or assign the second for the first hard drive. The other thing may be the need to set the jumper on the drive to cable select if nothing works on the master. Refer to the board's manual as well. It sounds like a simple drive configuration or bios setting could see results.
 
ok, i finally got windows up and running almost correctly on my computer. Now when I boot up, I get an message saying

Please select the operating system to start:
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Windows XP Home Ediition

Use the up and down arrow keys to move the highlightto your choise
Press ENTER to choose

For trouble shooting and advanced startup options for windows, pres F8.

From here I can chooose XP Pro and it works fine from there. I just don't know where the Home edition came from? lol
 
First see if you have more then one Windows directory on the drive. If only the default for the Pro edition is found a simple edit of the "boot.ini" will see that removed fast. In the folder options you simply uncheck the hide all system files(recommended) option and right click later on the boot.ini to uncheck the read only there. A double clilck on the boot.ini file while in Windows Explorer will see it opened right up in Note Pad.

"multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect" would be the default line seen. You simple use the backspace key once the cursor is at the end to backup until the jump to the previous line and choose the save as option in the file menu. After right click on it again to check the read only and click ok. A good idea often is to copy that to a safe location in the event of a virus or trojan even to a 3 1/2 or cd-rw if you don't have a floppy drive.
 
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