No fixed disks present

[justamom]

Someone please help me! I bought a gateway computer privately that has had it's hard drive wiped of all data and partitions, as I thought that installing an OS would not be too difficult. I used a Windows 98 bootdisk, and when I enter "fdisk" at the prompt, I get a message "No fixed disks present" - can anyone offer any help here? Thanks :dizzy:

[blakey81]

Hi,


I was told that when you get this is that your drive has failed

dont no if this is true:leonardo:


http://techrepublic.com.com/i/tr/spacer.gifhttp://techrepublic.com.com/i/tr/spacer.gif

have you tried redetecting your drives in BIOS?

[justamom]

I don't know how to retect drives in BIOS. I am a complete nerd where this kind of stuff is concerned!:eek:

[Murf]

Hi Welcome to CTH

Try going to HERE (http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm)

Download the file Windows 98 Custom, No Ramdrive remember where you downloaded it to

Now go to the downloaded file and double click on it, a window will come up. Put a CLEAN FLOPPY in the drive and let it extract all the files to the floppy.

You now have a good Win 98 bootdisk.

Now reboot the computer and when the first screen comes up hit the DEL key, or whatever key the screen tells you to use to enter SETUP

Gateway could be a "F" key instead of the Del key, the screen should tell you.

Once in SETUP find a menu item that says something about AUTO DETECT drives and hit that one. It should find the hard drive. Hit escape to exit and SAVE & EXIT, with the boot disk in let it reboot and you should end up at the A:\> drive

Now type

c: (<enter>)

if you end up at the C:/> prompt then the computer recognizes the hard drive, if you get a error then it is not.

Then type FDISK (<enter>) should work. If it doesn't then take the case cover off and make sure the gray data cable going to the Hard Drive is firmly attached to the motherboard and the hard drive.

When you boot do you hear the hard drive spin up?

[justamom]

Ok, i got to the setup menu after a few attempts - but i don't see anything about "auto detect" - what now?!

ps - i do hear the hear the hard drive spin up!

[tetonbob]

In your CMOS setup utility screen, you should have a Standard CMOS Setup entry, and perhaps an IDE HDD Auto Detection entry.

The Standard CMOS Setup entry will bring you to a screen which displays your drive devices when you press Enter. The Type & Mode for your devices should be set to Auto. Use the Up and Down Arrows on your keyboard to navigate through the screen and the Page Up and Page Down buttons on your keyboard to change the settings if needed. CMOS will ask you if you want to save your changes when you exit.

Hearing the HD spin up is a good sign of life yet.....it's also possible as it's a second hand PC that the cables have come loose, or are defective, or the drive is on it's way out. The good news is, if it's the cables, they can be re-inserted or replaced, and a bigger drive is only around $60 - $70 these days.

Hope this helps....

Bob

[tetonbob]

Say, Murph...

Isn't Gateway similar to Compaq in that they have a hidden boot partition, and without that, nothing will work on the drive? Or since the HD's been wiped, doesn't that matter any more?

Also, justamom, has this PC been in storage for a while? It's CMOS battery could be on the way out, which may have caused it to lose it's settings.


Random thoughts as they appear..........

[renegade600]

Try replacing the cmos battery first as the previous message stated. Also if you wiped out all partitions and if you do not have an os disk then you may need to purchase one.

[justamom]

My setup utility is BIOS (not CMOS) - I don't know if this changes what I should do, but I still am not finding the auto detection or other stuff that's been mentioned. The computer had been checked out prior to its shipment last week, so I don't think it has been in storage for a while. Am I just ignorant here on how to get to the settings? If there is something major wrong with this hd, I'll be contacting the seller.

[tetonbob]

OK, BIOS and CMOS are sort of interchangeable terms when it comes to the setup utility. That's not an issue, really. When your BIOS screen comes up, is there a name like Award or Phoenix at the top, and is there a version number? Maybe we can help you navigate if we know what the Make and version is.

All Bios/Cmos utitlities have a way to set the HD. They don't differ that much, but.....

Are you accessing this screen by pressing delete or an F key when you boot without the startup disk? Just trying to determine where you are.

Keep the faith. We'll help you figure it out.

Bob

[tmbm]

run the bootup disk and type FDISK, create a new partition an then format the drive you just created.

no disk present = no partition????

[tmbm]

run the bootup disk and type FDISK, create a partition an then format the drive you just created.

no disk present = no partition????

either that or you need a new hard drive

i had to ceate a partition when it said *no disk present* (i had no partition in the 1st place)

[justamom]

been there, done that

[tmbm]

when your on the FDISK, are there partitions present??

[justamom]

I get to my setup screen by pressing the F1 key a few times. I have a sneaky suspicion that the hard drive is bad, and the dude who sold me the unit is shipping me another hard drive. The version of BIOS is 4R4CBOXA.15A.0018.PO8. In the IDE Drive Configuration screen it says "Primary IDE Master (None)", "Primary IDE Slave (None)", Secondary IDE Master (None)", and Secondary IDE Slave (None)". This doesn't sound too good, does it?

[Murf]

The BIOS is not recognizing the drives, somewhere in there is a Auto Detect feature.

Just reread your initial post, if in fact the drive was wiped clean of partitions and data, then for you the easiest thing to do is use a manufactures overlay program to partition and format.


What model Gateway is it???

[justamom]

It is a GP6-350 Pentium II.

[renegade600]

does your bios recognize your floppy drive? Did you replace the cmos battery as previously suggested. If the battery is dead, it would be just like the harddrive is not there.

[tetonbob]

justamom-

Does your BIOS screen look anything like this one? http://www.computerhope.com/help/ami.htm

Is the word None a different color or font? If so, I think you are in the right spot, and should be able to effect your changes there. Try to TAB to the NONE....try to change it with left/right arrow key. Change it to AUTO, hopefully.

[tmbm]

if the hard drive is making a loud clucking noise, its nackard. check if the jumpers are set correctly aswell

[justamom]

The BIOS screen is more similar to this one. http://www.computerhope.com/help/phoenix.htm
except that the it is all one color font. I have been going to the IDE Configuration to get the hard drive info. Maybe that is not the place to be, but I can't seem to be able to get any further.

[Murf]

Under the advance menu enable Reset Configuration Data

Now hit F10 to Save and Exit

See if that works.

[justamom]

I don't see that. Under the advance menu, the first thing is a "Setup Warning. Setting items on this menu to incorrect values may cause your sistem to malfunction". Then below that is a list of configurations: Peripheral, Plug & PLay, IDE Drive, Disk, Event Log and Video.

[justamom]

So, in other words, I don't have the "Reset Configuration Data" or "Plug & Play O/S" or "Numlock" section.

[tetonbob]

I think we're getting close....

Can you get into the IDE configuration screen? I think this is where you want to be in this BIOS to change your HD settings.

[tetonbob]

Also, just to be sure we're talking apples and apples here, do you see the word Phoenix or Award or AMI (American Megatrends) when the machine first boots or when you are in the BIOS setup utilty? It seems as though you are sure it's Phoenix, but the number you gave earlier came up as AMI when I Googled.

Only you know what you are looking at here, and the major BIOS players do vary somewhat in configuration and navigation.

:wave:

Bob

[justamom]

I can get into the IDE config screen. Just don't know what to do once I get there. I don't get the word AMI or Award or Phoenix when I boot up. AMI seems familiar to me from the last Gateway I had. I was merely saying that the screen shot of Phoenix is more similar to what I am looking at compared to the AMI screen shot on that website.

[tetonbob]

OK, if it looks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's probably a...phoenix.

When you look at this IDE Config screen, what values are shown? OK, I just re-read one of your posts. Where it says Primary IDE Master (None), you should be able to move the highlighted area, and change the None to Auto.

There should be instructions on the bottom of the screen as to how to effect changes. According to the screenshot on the link you posted, you would use up/down arrow to select the menu item to change, and +/- to change the value of the menu item selected. So...into your IDE Configuration Screen>up/down arrow till you've highlighted something like Primary Master or IDE 1, then use the +/- keys to change the value shown. Be sure to save changes upon exit using the F10 key.

If you cannot move around within this screen, then I'd say you are SOL. Are you able to move around within the screen? Try all combos of arrow keys, +/- keys, page up/page down, etc.....IMO, you can't hurt anything on this drive right now by being curious. Especially if you are getting another sent to you.

One last question.....do you happen to have a friend/family member or neighbor/neighbor's kid who can help you?

[justamom]

I don't seem to be able to change the setting there. YUK! I can't believe that the first time I take a little chance buying this thing that I have such problems. I hope this guy keeps his word and sends me the new drive. If not - I'll be posting this to his review on e-bay!! If I do get the new hard drive, you may be hearing from me again! Thanks for all the help.