Primary hard Drive O not found... pullin my hair out!!

[lynnspayne]

AGGhh Ok, I have installed hard drives several times on different computers, for my self and for friends. I understand the concepts of Slave master and cable select on the jumpers but... my friend brought me his Dell 8100 computer to hook up a secondary drive... he says it worked fine before he left home but when I tried to boot it last night, it gave me the error message Primary Hard Drive O not found (the indicator lights A, B C D were lit up all green except for D, which was orange. ) so I hit the F2 Button to check if it was reading the drive. Its reading it, so I hit escape and it booted up...

My question is how do I fix this, everything runs fine after this but when I hook up the second drive it won't run at all. I had the jumpers set as the 120 mg drive as Master, and the 40g hard drive as slave.

He needs his computer asap for his work, and I also don't want to lose the programs on his computer because it would be a great expense for him to have to re order the discs to re install. Can someone guide me in the right direction?

Thanks so much!!

[Panama Red]

Seems like Dell likes to use Cable Select on their hard drives. Try setting both to CS with the drive containing the OS on the end of the cable (the Master postition). And make sure you're using an 80 wire cable. Blue connector goes to IDE 1 on the mobo.

[tempus]

Originally Posted by lynnspayne AGGhh Ok, I have installed hard drives several times on different computers, for my self and for friends. I understand the concepts of Slave master and cable select on the jumpers but... my friend brought me his Dell 8100 computer to hook up a secondary drive... he says it worked fine before he left home but when I tried to boot it last night, it gave me the error message Primary Hard Drive O not found (the indicator lights A, B C D were lit up all green except for D, which was orange. ) so I hit the F2 Button to check if it was reading the drive. Its reading it, so I hit escape and it booted up... My question is how do I fix this, everything runs fine after this but when I hook up the second drive it won't run at all. I had the jumpers set as the 120 mg drive as Master, and the 40g hard drive as slave. He needs his computer asap for his work, and I also don't want to lose the programs on his computer because it would be a great expense for him to have to re order the discs to re install. Can someone guide me in the right direction? Thanks so much!!

Recheck the jumpers and make sure they are set for master/slave. The computer should have come with the restore disks so that should not cost anything. Did you say both drives are seen in the BIOS?

[lynnspayne]

"Recheck the jumpers and make sure they are set for master/slave. The computer should have come with the restore disks so that should not cost anything. Did you say both drives are seen in the BIOS?"

I have tried both option of cs/cs and master/slave.. and the programs he has loaded didnt come with the computer.

and yes both are seen in the bios.

Im using the wire that came with the system, and the blue end is plugged to the mobo. Im not sure how to check if its an 80 wire or 40 though. I have learned all of my computer knowledge by experimenting so bear with me lol.

Both drives have an operating system on them also which I plan on removing the one off of the 40g hard drive.

[glc]

Green ABC and yellow D is "other failure - contact Dell".

[Panama Red]

If the ide cable has a blue connector on one end, that is an 80 wire cable. Very fine wires in it. Compare it to a floppy cable and you'll see the difference.

Will it boot properly with his orginal configuration? If not, time to test the hard drive.

[lynnspayne]

"If the ide cable has a blue connector on one end, that is an 80 wire cable. Very fine wires in it. Compare it to a floppy cable and you'll see the difference.

Will it boot properly with his orginal configuration? If not, time to test the hard drive."

Ok I took the 40 g completely out of the machine, hooked the end cable to the drive, and then set the jumper to cs.. I m not sure if it should be there or master but on cs - and reboot I get this error.

NTLDR is missing press CTRL ALt Del to re start

*gls (sorry looked at wrong post) thanks for the suggestion but that's why he brought it to me, dell said his warranty had expired. lol. I searched the dell site and couldnt find an answer..

[Panama Red]

If it's a Western Digital unit it may need to be jumpered as Neutral. Check here:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....i=&p_topview=1

[lynnspayne]

I just want to say thank you for everyone pitching in and giving me their time to help solve this... that being said..

I tried the pin on neutral and it was a no go... and it is a western.

I still got the error NTLDR is missing press ctrl alt del to restart

Is it possible that I need to re install windows on that hard drive?

[Panama Red]

Test the drive first. If you plan to work on pc's regularly, download the Ultimate Boot Disk and make a bootable CD with it. It's an invaluable tool. It has all the hdd drive test software, memory test and lots of other stuff.

[glc]

It's very possible the drive has failed - time to run diagnostics on it. You can use either the Dell diags or the Western Digital diags.

[lynnspayne]

I will try checking the drive, but I still get the error Primary Hard drive o not found, then after going into bios even though I don't adjust anything, and hitting esc it will boot. Just not to the 180 hdd. When its just the 180 drive is the only time I get the Nt error.

this is what I found on the error using search bar. However it doesnt really tell me how to fix it (at least not in holly speak. lol)



REFERENCE NUMBER: CH000465
NTLDR is Missing.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Issue:

NTLDR is Missing.

Related errors:

Below are the full error messages that may be seen when the computer is booting.

NTLDR is Missing
Press any key to restart

Boot: Couldn't find NTLDR
Please insert another disk

Additional Information:

See our NTLDR dictionary definition for a complete definition on this term.

Cause:

Computer is booting from a non-bootable source.
Computer hard disk drive is not properly setup in BIOS.
Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file.
Misconfiguration with the boot.ini file.
Attempting to upgrade from a Windows 95, 98, or ME computer that is using FAT32.
New hard disk drive being added.
Corrupt boot sector / master boot record.
Seriously corrupted version of Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
Loose or Faulty IDE/EIDE hard disk drive cable.
Solutions:

Computer is booting from a non-bootable source

Many times this error is caused when the computer is attempting to boot from a non-bootable floppy disk or CD-ROM. First verify that no floppy diskette is in the computer, unless you are attempting to boot from a diskette.

If you are attempting to boot from a floppy diskette and are receiving this error message it is likely that the diskette does not have all the necessary files and/or is corrupt.

If you are attempting to install Windows XP or Windows 2000 and are receiving this error message as the computer is booting verify that your computer BIOS has the proper boot settings. For example, if you are attempting to run the install from the CD-ROM make sure the CD-ROM is the first boot device, and not the hard disk drive. Second, when the computer is booting you should receive the below prompt.

Press any key to boot from the CD

When you see this message press any key such as the Enter key immediately, otherwise it will try booting from the hard drive and likely get the NTLDR error again.

Note: If you are not receiving the above message and your BIOS boot options are set properly it's also possible that your CD-ROM drive may not be booting from the CD-ROM properly. Verify the jumpers are set properly on the CD-ROM drive. Additional information about checking the CD-ROM drive connections can be found on document CH000213.

Additional information: This error has also been known to occur when a memory stick is in a card reader and the computer is attempting to boot from it. If you have any type of card reader or flash reader make sure that no memory stick is inside the computer.

Computer hard disk drive is not properly setup in BIOS.

Verify that your computer hard disk drive is properly setup in the BIOS / CMOS setup. Improper settings can cause this error. Additional information on how to enter the BIOS / CMOS setup can be found in document CH000192.

Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file

Windows 2000 users
Windows XP users

Windows 2000 users

If your computer is using Microsoft Windows 2000 and you are encountering the NTLDR error. Create the below boot.ini file on the floppy diskette drive.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

Copy the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files from another computer using the same Operating System. Both of these files are located in the root directory of the primary hard disk drive. For example, C:\NTLDR and C:\NTDETECT.COM should be the locations of these files on many computers.

Please keep in mind that these files are hidden system files, if you need additional help with viewing hidden files in Windows please see document CH000516.
Once these files have been copied to a floppy diskette reboot the computer and copy the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files to the root directory of the primary hard disk drive. Below is an example of what commonly should be performed from the A:\> drive.

copy ntldr c:
copy ntdetect.com c:

After the above two files have been copied, remove the floppy diskette and reboot the computer.

Windows XP users

Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer.
When prompted to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key.
Once in the Windows XP setup menu press the "R" key to repair Windows.
Log into your Windows installation by pressing the "1" key and pressing enter.
You will then be prompted for your administrator password, enter that password.
Copy the below two files to the root directory of the primary hard disk. In the below example we are copying these files from the CD-ROM drive letter "E". This letter may be different on your computer.

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\


Once both of these files have been successfully copied, remove the CD from the computer and reboot.
Misconfiguration with the boot.ini file

Edit the boot.ini on the root directory of the hard disk drive and verify that it is pointing to the correct location of your Windows Operating System and that the partitions are properly defined. Additional information about the boot.ini can be found on document CH000492.

Attempting to upgrade from a Windows 95, 98, or ME computer that is using FAT32

If you are getting this error message while you are attempting to upgrade to Windows 2000 or Windows XP from Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME running FAT32 please try the below recommendations.

Boot the computer with a Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows ME bootable diskette.
At the A:\> prompt type:

sys c:


After pressing enter you should receive the "System Transferred" message. Once this has been completed remove the floppy diskette and reboot the computer.
New hard disk drive being added

If you are attempting to add a new hard disk drive to the computer make sure that drive is a blank drive. Adding a new hard disk drive to a computer that already has Windows installed on it may cause the NTLDR error to occur.

If you are unsure if the new drive is blank or not try booting from a bootable diskette and format the new hard disk drive.

Corrupt boot sector / master boot record.

It's possible your computer's hard disk drive may have a corrupt boot sector and/or master boot record. These can be repaired through the Microsoft Windows Recovery console by running the fixboot and fixmbr commands.

Additional information and help in getting into the Microsoft Windows Recovery console can be found on document CH000627.

Seriously corrupted version of Windows 2000 or Windows XP

If you have tried each of the above recommendations that apply to your situation and you continue to experience this issue it is possible you may have a seriously corrupted version of Microsoft Windows. Therefore we would recommend you reinstall Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

If you are encountering this issue during your setup you may wish to completely erase your computer hard disk drive and all of its existing data and then install Microsoft Windows 2000 / Windows XP. Additional information about erasing the computer and starting over can be found on document CH000186.

Loose or Faulty IDE/EIDE hard disk drive cable

This issue has been known to be caused by a loose or fault IDE/EIDE cable. If the above recommendation does not resolve your issue and your computer hard disk drive is using an IDE or EIDE interface. Verify the computer hard disk drive cable is firmly connected by disconnected and reconnecting the cable.

If the issue continues it is also a possibility that the computer has a faulty cable, try replacing the hard disk drive cable with another cable and/or a new cable.

[Parker03GT]

I'm having the same problem in that it won't boot when my IDE secondary harddrive is installed. Works fine if my SATA Primary harddrive is the only one installed.