missing hard drive
 

Hi! Well, I finnally got a router today (Linksys BEFSR41-2 — a nice little unit :D) and it works great! But now I have another problem! A couple weeks ago, my system booted perfectly fine without any problems. Today, when I went to run it it froze during boot-up (at the screen that says " APM BIOS version XXX"! :( So then I tried to reinstall MDK Linux, but it said that it couldn't find any hard drive to install to! :mad: :eek: Anyone have any ideas?

HD: Seagate 3.5GB
Linux: Mandrake 8.2

Anything else you need to know? Just feel free to ask! ;)

Thanks,
Joe of 4Life :)

Did you do any hardware upgrades/adjustments before this happened? Or maybe a BIOS flash? Has anything traumatic happened the box recently?

When I've experienced "missing" drives, it's usually been a jumper or cable issue. Can you get into the BIOS menus and see the HD there?

j.

Thanks!

I flashed my BIOS more than a month ago, but Linux worked fine after that - although it could be the problem. As for "seeing" the HD it isnt displayed in my BIOS (missing feature perhaps?). :(

In short, nothing has really changed or happened since I last used that box. :rolleyes:

Thanks again,
~Joe :)

Hmmm....

Maybe your drive has just died. Since the box was working after the BIOS flash, I don't think that has anything to do with it - although that "APM BIOS version XXX" message is very suspect. If your hard drive is an IDE drive, then it should be listed next to the "Primary IDE" or "Secondary IDE" spots in the BIOS. If "Auto" is there, then you should be able to hit enter while highlighting it and get some output as to what device is connected.

Do you have another drive you can pop in to see if that one is seen? It could be an issue with the drive itself or the controller on the motherboard. Do you have any CD drives that are IDE? Are they seen in the BIOS?

j.

:cry: RIP. Yep it's probably dead 'cause it didnt show in the BIOS. Oh well, it was old anyway! :( The only other HD I have is the one that came w/ the machine - and that thing is defective/very unstable! (Maxtor 20GB) So now Ive gotta figure out what I am gonna do....Obviously this is a major setback, because I really wanted to get a server up and running; plus I spent most of my money on that router! :mad:

Oh, yeah the APM thing is not a specific message, but one that comes up every boot along with other messages about what is used in the kernel. All those scroll by so fast, though, that you never get a chance to see them!

Thanks,
~Joe of 4Life :)

Drag about the drive.....

You may be able to get an inexpensive drive from a local PC shop if there are any in your area. Also, check any college/university near by - they sometimes have "stores" where they sell off their old equipment. If nothing else, you can check hardware search engines like pricewatch.com or shopper.com to find something decent for an ok price.

Good luck!

j.

Yeah I had one to die like that one time. I wentto bed that night & the screensaver was running the next morning the screensaver was frozen & moving the mouse resulted in a bunch of black blocks on the screen, like holes in the desktop. So upon a reboot I find that there was not hard drive there, it would boot off a floppy or cd-rom fine but no hard drive, so I used my old spare 420Mb testing hard drive & it would boot fine. Harddrives do fail almost instantly sometimes. Anyways search & shop around for another drive. Another site to search is http://www.dealtime.com

Good luck

Bubba169