[m0onkittle]

Hello everyone, I'm really hoping someone can help me with this. My boyfriend bought a 1tb hard drive (http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822136284) and tried to install it on my computer (Dell Dimension 4550 with intel pentium 4 thats all i know). He said it would not work for our computer unless he bought some kind of cord to go with it (http://www.newegg.co...N82E16812608190) . So he got that in yesterday and tried to hook it up today. He took the old hard drive out and tried to plug in the new hard drive. He said the new one is a SATA and our computer is a ATA, I'm not sure what that means apparently it means it wont work so he tried to put the old drive back in and now nothing is working. when you press the power button the Dell screen come on but then it goes to a black screen with a flashing cursor and won't do anything else. He said he didn't do anything to the old drive to make it act this way so any suggestions as to what might be wrong with it would be very helpful

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Seems the old HDD is not connected probably or the boot sector has been damaged.

Make sure the old HDD data and power cable are connected correctly.
Try unplug the power cord to the PC and holding down the power button over 20 seconds to discharge and reset the whole system.
Then connect the power cord and power on the PC then press the F8 key to get to the boot menu, select last known good configuration.

If still the same problem, have to use the xp boot Cd and run the boot sector command.

Hope this helps!
Bill
Tech Manager
www.Pctestcard.com

[PcTestCard]

Seems the old HDD is not connected probably or the boot sector has been damaged.

Make sure the old HDD data and power cable are connected correctly.
Try unplug the power cord to the PC and holding down the power button over 20 seconds to discharge and reset the whole system.
Then connect the power cord and power on the PC then press the F8 key to get to the boot menu, select last known good configuration.

If still the same problem, have to use the xp boot Cd and run the boot sector command.

Hope this helps!
Bill
Tech Manager
www.Pctestcard.com

[123Runner]

Its not seeing the hard drive. It most likely is not seeing it in bios either.
Try what was suggested, then try getting in to the bios. Your Dell Dimension 4550 Manual states F2 to enter the bios. In bios there will be a scrren where you can see if the drive is seen.

Make sure that the primary hard drive is at the end of the cable. This is if the data cable has 3 connectors. Some computers will only have a data cable with 2 connectors (1 for the board and 1 for the drive).

123runner

[PcTestCard]

If the HDD is still not seen in the Bios after the above suggestion, try remove the jumper at the back of the HDD and let the PC to recapture the HDD itself.

Hope this helps!
Bill
Tech Manager
www.pctestcard.com