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philwon52
06-26-2003, 03:41 PM
I'm trying to help a friend...the pc is a HP Pavilion, when I turn it on it starts to go through the boot sequence, then "Operating system not found" shows on screen.

When I try to use recovery cd, on boot from cd I get, "The hard disk was not found." What is the problem?
Force Flow
06-26-2003, 03:49 PM
Check to see that all of the connections are plugged in securely.
mike breck
06-26-2003, 04:36 PM
Also, download the Western Digital Lifeguard diagnostic software, extract to floppy, and run the tests on the HD.

http://support.wdc.com/faqs/software/dlgtools.asp

What Windows version - XP?
Cricket
06-26-2003, 04:53 PM
Try another IDE cable. If you get a regular one from a computer store you may need to set the drive jumpers from CS (cable select) to master or slave. The HP IDE cables may be the cable select type.

:) Cricket
philwon52
06-26-2003, 05:22 PM
Connections good, Ide cable new, Now what?
glc
06-26-2003, 06:56 PM
Replace the hard drive.
philwon52
06-26-2003, 08:42 PM
Good straight forward answer GLC. I like that.
Alex123
06-27-2003, 08:12 AM
Did I miss something?
Were you trying to boot from cd and you got "hard disk not found" message?
If that is the case did you change your settings in BIOS boot sequence to cd as the first boot device?
I hope I am in the right track ;)
glc
06-27-2003, 10:29 AM
I think it was booting from the CD, but it's a recovery CD, and it didn't see a hard drive to recover. That's how I read it. If the connections and cable are good, it sure sounds like a dead drive to me.
tyoung
06-28-2003, 01:55 AM
Good answer GLC, straight to the point. No sense in wasting any more time and effort the drive is dead.
philwon52
07-01-2003, 05:02 PM
I replaced the drive, and to my surprise I got the same thing! What the hell is going on? Please help!!!
tyoung
07-01-2003, 05:25 PM
Did you format the drive?
What operating system?
philwon52
07-01-2003, 05:54 PM
I can't, the hard drive is not recognized! Windows ME is on the recovery CD
philwon52
07-01-2003, 06:26 PM
OK!! I got it. I had to run FDisk to set up a new DOS partition. Then it allowed me to format, and reinstall original software. Thanks to all for your help. Problem sovled.:)
mike breck
07-02-2003, 04:58 AM
If that is the case, then it would do no harm to run FDISK on the original HD and see if it is recognised and if you can format it.
philwon52
07-02-2003, 04:16 PM
I wouldn't, that's why I didn't think to do it with the new drive initially.