[d33p]

First post, so please be gentle.

I have a Dell Dimension 4600C series, which has had a lot of problems in the past due to its cramped design. Before leaving home in 2007 for a couple of years I reformatted it with windows XP, and opened it up to clean out all the dust inside. My parents tried to use it and said that a screen came up saying "sata primary drive 0 not found, strike F1 to continue or F2 to enter setup", and two and a half years later I'm back home and kinda need this computer as a secondary, and see the same screen. Going into setup I'm not sure if I knocked a SATA cable loose while cleaning it (I don't know how to check and it looks kinda kinked) or if the XP I installed messed it up, but using an older XP install disk won't help because obviously the drive can't be located. The closest thing I found resembling my problem on this site was http://www.geekstogo...me-t115636.html, but his problem and solution are different; I only have one harddrive. Is there anything I can do?

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Hi d33p ...welcome to Geeks To Go...
first unplug the computer from the wall...try unplugging the cable and reconnect it...
if that doesn't work try replacing the cable...

[happyrock]

Hi d33p ...welcome to Geeks To Go...
first unplug the computer from the wall...try unplugging the cable and reconnect it...
if that doesn't work try replacing the cable...

[d33p]

Thanks happyrock

I'm not really sure how to unplug and reconnect a SATA cable. is there a how to page someone cna link to me, or a walkthrough maybe?

[happyrock]

go here
do both the motherboard and the drive ends

[d33p]

sounds good, i'll try it out and let you know how it goes. thanks for replying so fast.