[derby_red]

PLEASE SUPPLY RELEVANT INFORMATION:
Operating System Version: Windows XP
Problem Application Name & Version:
Problem Hardware Make & Model:
Error Messages:


Was listening to some mp3's on my computer yesterday evening and after leaving the computer for a couple of hours on my return I found it had frozen.  Couldn't do a soft reboot so had to hit the reboot button.

After this the computer did not seem to recognise the IDE drives and does not show them in the hardware menu when booting.  This has happened once before and after leaving the computer off for a couple of days it seemed to sort itself out.

As far as I'm aware I have no viruses on either drive - and haven't been connected to the internet on it for over 2 months to contract a new one.  I have checked in the BIOS settings and it HDD Detection it knows the hard disks are there but I cannot select either of them as a boot device.

Bearing in mind I'm a complete novice when it comes to computers - does anyone have any ideas?

Cheers.

[shplad]

derby red:

What bios is your computer using. When I first started to work with newer bioses, I was baffled by the fact that order to change drive boot order, you had to use strange keys like + or -  

On top of that, some bioses move the device in question up one line in the display when you promote them to a higher priority, other's don't. Have yu tried various keys to change the boot order?

Did you check to see if any of the drive cables are loose? Even if you're a novice, you could probably do this if you're at all mechanically aware or are willing to try.

IF neither of these work, you might next check the drive itself to see if it is even spinning. It might not even be working, which could be a drive problem or a power supply issue.

Hope this helps


Shplad