Windows 7 Computer will no longer detect my HDD

sharpo

New Member
My computer is reletivly new, here are the specs.
AMD Phenom II 840 Quad Core(x4) 3.2Ghz
ASUS M4A78LT-M LE
8Gb Dual Channel DDR3-1333
Seagate/Western Digital 1TB SATA II
Liteon 24x SATA Dual Layer DVD Writer
Nvidia Geforce GTS 450 1GB GDDR5

Basically the problem first started yesterday after I went to get a drink. I came back after 2minutes to find my computer had rebooted and was now giving me the following error message:
Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device.

After having the new rig for about 3 weeks, this is the first and only problem I have encountered so far. The only recent change I had made was 2 days prior I had updated my video card.

I spent a while looking around google and various forums, this being one of them, for a solution. Eventually i realised that my motherboard was not detecting my hard drive AT ALL. This was a surprise to me as I thought it was weird that it would just spontaneously stop detecting my HDD with no changes made.

Here are the things I have tried so far.
-Download and copy windows 7 repair disc on another computer.
This worked fine except for the fact that it told me it could not find any hard drive.
-Tried every possible combination for the HDD to my motherboard.
My CD drive works in every possible port, but the HDD in none.
-Updating BIOS.
I have looked around quite a bit and could not find a way update my BIOS. Take into consideration this is the first computer I have had in years, before this I was using my Macbook for a couple of years. Many of the suggestions to update my BIOS were years old, I could not find a way to even find out what kind of BIOS I have. Also, there is no floppy drive on my desktop which a lot of sites mentioned. So I am not sure how I would go about updating my BIOS when I can't even access my computer.

I have contacted the shop that I got the computer from and they said they would fix it free of charge if I brought it in, which is great, but I cannot take it in for at least 3-4 days just because of how busy I am during the day. Also if possible I REALLY do not want my HDD to be wiped.

Hopefully someone has encountered this problem lately and can help me out.

EDIT: I should also mention that the HDD is receiving power, I can hear/feel it starting up and spinning. Just no reaction from the motherboard.
 
Have you checked the connectors - at the drive and and the hard drive end, making sure they are properly seated?

Can you see the drive in your bios?

Is the hard drive set as the first boot device in the bios?
 
Hi

Sounds like the drive may have just died.

It's always possible that it was just faulty to start with, the fact that it went down when the computer was on makes me thing it doesn't have anything to do with the configuration.

You are lucky that you have someone to fix it, if you bought it from Dell or one of the big manufacturers it can take forever to get it fixed.

Mike
 
Have you checked the connectors - at the drive and and the hard drive end, making sure they are properly seated?

Can you see the drive in your bios?

Is the hard drive set as the first boot device in the bios?

Like I said, I have checked every possible port for the HDD, I don't know what you mean by seated. If you mean pushed in properly? Then yes, they were.

No I cannot see it in the BIOS.

The CD drive is set as first, HDD second at the moment, but again, I tried every combination of boot order.
 
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