Possible computer problem

[Peter H]

Hi All

A few weeks ago it seemed like my hard drive gave up the ghost. it did not appear in the bios and when i tried to re instal windows it said there was no hard drive installed on the system.

i have just went out and purchased a new WD 160gb hard drive to replace the old one, however it does not seem like the hard drive was the problem after all.

i tuned off my computer and came back to it and started it up and when it was trying to boot a message comes up saying something along the lines of "no operating system found" which is incorrect due to the fact that i have justre installed it before.

i then go into the bios and it doent mention the new drive however i set the ide channel that it is connected to to 'compatible mode' and it starts up. it seems to me that the bios is not saving the setting or something. everything else is working fine.

could this be a problem with the motherboard or something. i dont care that i bought the new harddrive because i needed a larger one anyway, but i would like to get to the bottom of this other problem.

can anyone help me get to the bottom of this problem?

Thanks
Pete

[e404pnf]

I may be on completely the wrong lines , but if your BIOS settings aren't saving it could be the MOBO battery that has gone. Try saving other non-default (or critical) changes in the BIOS.

- e404pnf

[rkr1958]

I may be on completely the wrong lines , but if your BIOS settings aren't saving it could be the MOBO battery that has gone. Try saving other non-default (or critical) changes in the BIOS.

- e404pnf

A quick indicator if it is the MOBO battery is if you have to reset your clock when you are able to reboot. If you have to reset it then the battery is probably dead.

[Jayhawk]

Make sure your cable (master / slave) setting are correct also, and that your BIOS is set to "auto detect" your drives on startup.

[VenGeanCe]

well i maybe wrong but u will have 2 flash ur BIOS.i'm assuming Xp just get ur bootable Xp cd and just go 2 fix master boot record option.also check whether the cables r workin

[pfh]

Which drive did you install the OS on? The new or old? How are they configured? Your BIOS might be set to boot from a drive that is not configured as a master or drive 0 and therefore you recieve the error.

[Peter H]

I have installed the 160gb drive as the master drive.

i have figured that windows will only boot if i go into the bios and save the settings (even if i dont change anything). if i got intot he bios and exit without saving it will not boot up.

i dont have to change the date the date is still set.

i will have a look at the auto detect thing in the bios and see if that helps.

Thanks
Pete