[Pure-Country]

I have an Emachine that I am trying to install Windows XP Operating System on. When I turn the computer on the BIOS starts. The boot CD takes over and runs smoothly untill it gets to partitioning the hard drive, and then it tells me that there is no hard drive found. I have tried three different hard drives and even hooked up a master an a slave. still no luck. Any suggestions? It's a Emachine T1840, the motherboard is 134841 Imperial_GL_VE 20020930.

[Neil Jones]

Since you've tried three drives it's entirely plausible that the board has an issue.
Is it still on its original Bestec power supply? If so that means it's toast.
Even then having said all of that it's a really old board and a really old machine, with all due respect. Is it worth using?

[Pure-Country]

It has a Bestec power supply, but I can't say it's the original. It's Model #ATX-250-12E, if that helps? I got it free, and I got a friend that's 60+ that want's a computer and I was just hoping to fix it cheap to give to her, so her and her grand-daughter could mess around on it? If you really don't think it's worth my time then I can scrap it out. I'm in school so I was also trying to fix it for the hands on experience more than anything. So if you can think of any other cheap fixes that I could try it would be greatly appreciated. But if scaping it is my best option I can live with that.

[peter99]

Have you checked the BIOS to see if the drive has been detected

Start the computer press what key or keys to get into the BIOS and check the settings or change them to Auto detect see picture.

Or you could slave it in a another computer and partition and format it that way then reinstall it.

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[Pure-Country]

Im going to try to copy it on another machine and then put it back. A friend of mine put the CD driveer on the port for the hard disk and the BIOS found it and displayed it for us, so he don't believe anything can be wrong with the motherboard. I told him I don't know enough yet to make that assumption, but I can see his logic. What do you think? If using another computer to copy the Op sytem doesn't work I'm most likely going to just try to buy another case and start over.

[dmguitar0]

Pure-Country, on Dec 23 2009, 12:53 AM, said:

Im going to try to copy it on another machine and then put it back.

Be sure to let us know what that's been done, and what happens with that. Once its done and if things dont work out then you can try some testing as well.

Pure-Country, on Dec 23 2009, 12:53 AM, said:

A friend of mine put the CD driveer on the port for the hard disk and the BIOS found it and displayed it for us, so he don't believe anything can be wrong with the motherboard. I told him I don't know enough yet to make that assumption, but I can see his logic. What do you think?

OK sorry a little confused. Do you mean then that the hard drive was not detected? And I take it you meant CD drive, not driver..if so:

LONG STORY SHORT: Your friend may have done this already, but to make this simpler, take out the CD drive factor temporarily. Then, enter BIOS after ensuring the following:
1)only the hard drive in question is connected,
2)that you have the jumper configuration on the hard drive set such that it is the master drive, and
3)the hard drive is connected to the motherboard's Channel 1 IDE slot.

Once you enter BIOS, you will get one of several results.

1. HARD DRIVE AND CHANNEL BOTH WORK
a) Look at the drive listing and ensure that the hard drive first of all shows up, if it does not, then see possible result 2. If it does show, read on..
b) Then ensure that its size on-screen matches the actual size of the drive; if it matches then that should be enough to ensure that channel 1 and the hard drive itself are both working.

2. HARD DRIVE WORKS BUT IDE CHANNEL 1 DOES NOT
Should the drive not be discovered in test 1, you can try channel 2, and if it is discovered in BIOS after moving it, then channel 1 is the issue. If not, go to 3.

3. IDE CHANNEL 1 WORKS BUT HARD DRIVE DOES NOT
Try connecting other drives as master on channel 1 instead. If another drive shows in that same channel as master but that hard drive will not (which sounds like what you were saying above) then the the motherboard is not to blame and the issue lies elsewhere most likely with the hard drive itself. (ONE THING THROWING THIS THEORY OFF IS THE OTHER HARD DRIVES ALSO NOT WORKING..)

4. BOTH DO NOT WORK, OR SOMETHING ELSE IS BROKEN
Should the situation differ from above..then more than one thing is probably messed and your reply will help to figure the rest out or decide if junking is the best option.

ADD'L INFO:
To my experience, the situation as you describe it above (CD drive being found in BIOS, but hard drive is not) would not rule out the hard disk failing, nor can that rule out that the motherboard's hard drive slot doesn't have a problem without performing these tests. This is because it is the jumpers as well as the cabling of all drives, optical or hard, which will determine its discovery order in BIOS.

Also in my experience, it is best to start with hooking the primary hard drive up to channel 1 as the master, and the first optical drive as the master on channel 2. Only use slave setting when there is a second hard drive or second optical drive, or as peter99 said (to install the OS from another working computer). Anyways, keeping this rule helps ensure the load of data transmission is spread more evenly on the motherboard and that it flows in one direction as much as possible on each given channel. If one instead places the burner as slave on channel 1 with the hard drive as master on channel 1, then this means data is being read from the hard disk while it being written to the drive at the same time on the same channel. This would work but isnt ideal.

I know..long post.. but I hope this helps!