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3 weeks trying to solve this... any help appreciated


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#1
CarlMo

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Hi, I am new to this forum and hope that you will be able to help solve my problem.

I have spent 3 weeks searching for a solution to the 'SATA primary drive 0 not found' and always come up with the same suggested fixes.None of them have worked for me.

If I was to post everything that I have tried and done to make my computer accept a re-installation of windows XP SP2 on my elderly Dell 8300 computer it would take a very long time to read. Suffice it to say (for the moment) that my hard drive is not being recognized at start-up or in bios.

It is recognized with some bootable disks and I have run many diagnostics which all say that my 2 installed drives which are a 0 RAID array are perfectly healthy. They have been connected to a friends computer and work. All cables have been checked, rechecked and replaced with no good outcome. My MOBO has had all diagnostics run on it and is still in good shape. I have run every tool that I can think of to test every part of my system and as far as I can ascertain my computer and all hardware is still in a good state of health.

The problem started when I (eventually) installed XP SP3 to allow me to install a new program which would not run on SP2. I then realised that some of the older programs that I use would not work with SP3 so I rolled back to SP2. A few weeks later I realised that Norton Internet Security was not downloading new virus definitions or running its weekly scan. I tried doing this manually & failed every time. I contacted Norton & got great help but was told that I really needed to reinstall XP which I tried to do and found the 'drive not recognized' message at startup. I tried to resize the partition to see if that would help but things got worse & I could not boot at all after that.

I ran the Hiren's Boot CD and managed to reformat the drive (several times) with no luck at getting the drive recognizable. I am now using the 'Mini XP' on the Hiren's disk to connect to the internet and send this message.

I know that anybody who may be able to help solve this problem will probably want a lot more information but will wait until I am asked questions before I make this post into a novel...

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer, Carl
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#2
Wolfeymole

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Hello Carl and welcome to Geeks To Go.

You are going to have to install XP SP3 no matter what as it contains the SATA driver/s for the hard drive.

Is this a hand built box or from a manufacturer?
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#3
RKinner

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Which SATA ports are you using? There is apparently only one SATA3 and 3 SATA2 on some XPS boxes. See:
http://en.community....spx?PageIndex=1
Other people think there are two:
http://en.community....1.aspx#20199871
I wonder if the speed difference would keep the RAID from working?
I assume you have upgraded the BIOS to the latest level? Changed the BIOS settings from ahci to raid (and tried ahci too.) Had a Dell once that would load the XP disk quite nicely but on reboot would say there was no drive and it was the SATA option in the BIOS that had to be changed from the default.

Will it load just one drive OK?

You might have better luck on the dedicated Dell forum.

Ron
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#4
CarlMo

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I apologize for taking so long to reply to the help offered.

I made the mistake of telephoning Dell support and got little to zero help apart from making my situation worse and being told that I should purchase a new computer from them (which I declined) or employ a local expert to replace my mobo.

At the moment I have only 1 HD accessable due to the 'help' that Dell gave me... I removed 1 drive & restarted my computer and now the 2nd drive is not being recognized. I managed to reformat the 1 drive recognized and can access it through Hiron's boot cd.

I know that this could be resolved with some help from the knowledgeable people on this forum and hope that some of you will have the patience to guide me through the steps necessary.

As my computer does not have an OS installed I am using the 'Mini XP' on the bootable Hiron's disk to make this post.

Thank you in advance for any more help offered, Carl
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#5
Wolfeymole

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But earlier you said this....

The problem started when I (eventually) installed XP SP3 to allow me to install a new program which would not run on SP2.


How did you manage this?

The Hirens disk contains pirated software by the way.
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#6
CarlMo

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I used windows update to install SP3.

It failed 2 times but installed on my 3rd try.

I hope that this answers your question.
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#7
Wolfeymole

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What you will need is an XP version that already contains SP3 Carl.

Like this....

http://www.amazon.co...M/dp/B000JTDV6M
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#8
CarlMo

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Thank you Wolf but I would be happy to be able to just get my HD recognized first. I can not install anything at the moment.
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#9
Wolfeymole

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If it is not detected in the bios then I would suggest that the drive is faulty.
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#10
CarlMo

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The drive has been tested several times (not just in my desktop) and is perfect.

I would be happy to install XP SP2 (which I have the disk to install) and then upgrade to SP3.

Thank you for your advice.

Edited by CarlMo, 08 March 2013 - 10:18 AM.

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#11
Wolfeymole

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No worries Carl. :thumbsup:
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#12
cocolocoluke

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as a shot in the dark - look at the bios setting for the hdd. I solved my problem that way when it would not recognize the drive. good luck
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#13
123Runner

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I seem to remember something in the bios about changing the disk type to ide compatible or something of that nature so it will recognize the drive as something other than a sata drive.
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