'No fixed disks present'?

Question

I am trying to fix a random computer that was handed to me... first off it said 'Disk Boot Failure, Insert sys disk'.. so i booted from a floppy and tried to run fdisk but to no avail. instead i get 'No fixed disks present'. Do I need to replace the hard drive? My goal to fix the orginal problem (disk boot failure) was to delete all partitions and just create one primary partition that uses max space on the hard disk... is that a reasonable solution?

Answer 1

Sounds reasonable --



Get a disk utility CD or floppy -- Western Digital makes one for their hard drives, Maxtor for theirs, etc.. and delete each partition. Reboot. After rebooting, setup a primary partition, format it. Reboot. Check the disk using the same utility for errors, etc..



By the way, make sure the jumpers on the physical hard drive are set correctly.



Windows XP ought to be able to perform the same tasks from its installation CD, but I've not always had success with them.

Answer 2

If its saying there are no fixed disks, it means it is not detecting the presence of a hard drive. Try replacing the drive, or making sure all the leads are pushed all the way in and it has power.

Answer 3

Check the power cable to the HD, also check the ide ribbon to see if that is defective. I would test a known operating hard drive... if the computer detects it with the existing cables (power, ide) then the HD on the machine is fried and needs to be replaced. BIOS would detect the drive parameters, otherwise.



Contact a local mom and pop computer store to see if they have an HD "pull" for a reasonable price.

Answer 4

Go into the system bios by pressing delete during the boot up sequence, find hard drives and auto detect, if you have a restore setting or default setting, then try them.

If none work then sorry, time for a new hard drive.