The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Can't start Windows Vista (hard drive isn't recognized?)

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by arlab, May 20, 2009.

  1. arlab

    arlab Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    15
    Messages:
    361
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Hi.

    Suddenly, my computer freezed (just like it has been doing for some time now).
    When I restarted it, the computer asked for the Vista DVD, so that it could repair some files (I couldn't even boot into Safe Mode). I put the DVD inside the drive, and choose the "Repair your computer" option, but it reports that no Vista installation is found...

    I then boot into the Rescue and Recovery environment (that is a Thinkpad suite, located in another partition of the disk) to see what's going on.
    The System Information detects everything except the Hard Drive (it reports "Not Available" for the fields "Hard disk free space" and "Hard disk capacity"). I also can't see the harddisk in the option to backup the files to a pen (the pen is recognized, though).
    Just to be sure, I run PC Doctor and my hard disk passes all tests.

    What's going on? How can I fix this? Help. :(

    My harddisk is: hitachi hts722020k9sa00 fde ata device
     
    arlab, May 20, 2009
    #1
  2. frostbit3

    frostbit3 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    51
    Messages:
    300
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Just to see if it does anything, try switching SATA interfaces. So if it's on port 0 try port 1.

    So you're saying that the Bios doesn't detect the hard drive but PC Doctor does?
     
    frostbit3, May 20, 2009
    #2
  3. arlab

    arlab Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    15
    Messages:
    361
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I think the BIOS doesn't detect it. I enter in the Startup -> Boot section, but, although my hard disk name appears correctly, in the list, there's no plus (+) sign next to it...

    As for PC Doctor, it only recognizes the partition in which the Rescue and Recovery environment is installed. I think it doesn't recognize the partition that has Windows installed...
     
    arlab, May 20, 2009
    #3
  4. Rob41

    Rob41 Team Pirate Control

    Reputations:
    896
    Messages:
    2,491
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    You didn't mention what laptop you have.

    I don't know if your's supports raid or not.

    You might want to look in the bios and make sure raid is not enabled because if it is and you have only one HDD installed that could cause the problems you mention.
     
    Rob41, May 20, 2009
    #4
  5. arlab

    arlab Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    15
    Messages:
    361
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    So, I tried using the Vista Retail DVD one more time, just to be sure.

    I chose the "Repair your computer" option and selected "Next", even though, no hard drive appeared in the list. Luckily, it worked, anyway. Weird.

    All is well, now. Thanks for your quick answers.
     
    arlab, May 20, 2009
    #5
  6. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

    Reputations:
    2,275
    Messages:
    3,990
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    I think the partition boot record was damaged (not the mbr)....that would explain--I think--your symptoms
     
    gerryf19, May 20, 2009
    #6