NoHardDrive in Sysem Recovery

[Diggle the Mad]

So I have this Dell in the office that is no longer booting Vista. On boot goes to black screen of death with a blinking courser.

Upon loading system Recovery and selecting "repair my computer" System recovery options screen appears asking me to select the OS or to load drivers from disc. There are no listed OSs available. I can search my CDROM and X:BOOT drive (this is a ram drive correct? It lists full Windows dir as if it is reading the hard drive) for drivers, though I am a lil lost as to what it wants me to locate. Clicking next and selecting start up repair delivers this error:

StartupRepairV2

ExternalMedia

6.0.6000.16386.0.0.0.0

0

unknown

NoHardDrive

Bios does however detect the hard drive. RAID is disabled.

Boot is set for HD first CDROM second.

Going to Command Promt form System Recovery Options brings me to path:

x:\Sourses

Unlike the X:BOOT I could access earlier I am unable to access any other directories of root X:.

Tried various utilities such as chkdsk and nothing being allowed to work. Not sure if there is an issue with MBR or drive could be going out. There was 2 times that I did notice that the BIOS did not see the HD. Any suggestions, or better explenation of the X: drive would help.

Thanks in advance!

[MANEMAN]

Hi there.

Set CD to boot first, HD second.

Then use a Linux Live CD to get in there and have a look around to see what is going on.

Try "Parted Magic" >>>>>>>>>>>>> http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/Parted-Magic-21659.shtml

Here are some key features of "Parted Magic":

· Format internal and external hard drives.

· Move, copy, create, delete, expand & shrink hard drive partitions.

· Clone your hard drive, to create a full backup.

· Test hard drives for impending failure.

· Test memory for bad sectors

· Benchmark your computer for a performance rating.

· Securely erase your entire hard drive, wiping it clean from all data.

· Gives access to non-booting systems allowing you to rescue important data.

· Runs from the CD, no install required.

[-pops-]

Does the hard drive have all of its plugs inserted properly?

Can you remove the drive and check its contents in another computer? It may have failed.

[Diggle the Mad]

Reseated Drive, and used external SATA adapter to try and get information off. The external never popped up leading me to think the drive may be bad. However the BIOS does see the drive and I am able to access the information via the system recovery tool. I am leaning to it being an issue with the MBR but I cannot get any of the recovery tools to work in command promt.

[MANEMAN]

I am leaning to it being an issue with the MBR but I cannot get any of the recovery tools to work in command prompt.

Cant get the tools to work ? - No big problem. :)

If it is the MBR.

Like I said before: Try "Parted Magic" >>>>>>>>>>>>> http://linux.softped...gic-21659.shtml

Apart from the obvious MBR fixes that you can easily read up about for yourself with Parted Magic - via --

- Google.................................

............................................Here are some MBR fixing key features of "Parted Magic":

Booting Loader Tools

• grub – GRand Unified Bootloader
  
• install-mbr – installs and configures a Master Boot Record manager
  
• lilo – LInux LOader
  
• ms-sys – used to create Microsoft compatible boot records
  
• syslinux – Linux boot loader for MS-DOS FAT filesystems
  

EDIT: You did try the drive in another computer like Pops advised, - Right ?