Can't Find Hard Disc on PC (Desktop)

Hello Brian,


Ive got the same problem 2 years ago ..


Tell me whether your bios is detecting you hardisk ?

If not try unplug and replug your hardware.


Perhaps your hardisk has been crashed or it is a physical error..


Do you often carry out some maintenance ?


Provide me all information about your pc i will try to see what i can do for you.

Thank you much for your reply.

I did not unplug hardware. Do you mean the harddrive box itself?

The maintenance I use it Norton and it runs regularly I believe. I also run SpyBot for spyware. I know it ask to do a scan yesterday and i ignored it...Perhaps it detected something. I meant to run it later but then woke up to a machine that can't find the hard drive disc. Not sure if they're related or a coincidence.

Unit runs Windows XP. Its a Dell Dimension 2400 series about 5 years old. 512MB RAM, Service pack 1,
BIOS does not recognize a hard drive at this point. Not sure what else you would like to know. I do not know a whole lot about the thing. I not the most PC literate person but I learn quick....Sorry I am more of a MAC guy.

Is there hope for it?

Also...I tried to re install the system software from the installation CD but how do I get the hard drive to recognize the cd upon start up? I restarted with the CD in the drive but I just keep getting a message that it does not recognize the primary drive.

I have the exact same problem, when i go to the boot up screen (f12) and try to get the cd drive to boot up first it says not installed, and it has no idea it has a hard drive in it. The comp recognizes the cd and starts the windows installation deal (the blue screen with the option to format disks and stuff) but before i can do anything after it loads all it wants or needs to it informs me there is no hard drive to install anything onto......i tried getting to my hard drive under my computers shell and i cant fukin find the thing..... I just hope that someone will know what to do..... because i love that computer it has stored many things on it, or in it....legal or not legal (mostly the second)

but it all started with a kernal blue screen error when i loaded my comp, it started freezing every ten min and then slowly but SURELY got faster at freezing, then it happened every 5, then 3, then right when my desktop popped up, AND THEN it froze right after the dell logo.... Anyone able to help?

The same thing is happening to me. I received a virus and after restart my computer freezes right before loading the desktop. I tried different versions of XP and it says that there is no hard drive found. If anyone has found a solution to the problem please post!