I have a Dell that I am not sure if its a HD issue or not.

Here is what happened.

Some time back I had a virus and took the PC to Geek Squad (will never do that again). They supposedly fixed it but when I got it back the HD was set up as E instead of C and I have had nothing but problems since.

Here is my current issue:

start the computer and get the following errors:

Start on its own:
Primary HDD 1 not found
Strike F1 to continue
A disk read error occurred.
Press Control-Alt-Delete to restart
When I do F12 to get to the boot menu I get the following:

1st
Select normal
Strike F1 to continue
A disk read error occurred.
Press Control-Alt-Delete to restart

2nd
Select #4 IDE-CD-ROM Device
Strike F1 to continue
Press and key to boot from CD
I insert a Recovery disk. It does its thing until I have to insert a disk labeled "Windows Automated System Recovery Disk" into the floppy drive. I do not have this disk.
If I GO to set up I see:
Primary Drive 0 Hard Drive
Primary Drive 1 Unknown Device

Any ideas as to what is going on?

Thanks for any help that can be provided. You didn't take it to best buy did you? $300.00 for computer repair is excessive in my opinion...


Anyways, lets see if we can figure out what is wrong.

You mention your new drive is now labeled E: instead of C: so I imagine that you manged to load windows at least once successfully?

ONE reason why a drive can suddenly disappear is bad jumper settings. I would open the computer up and take a look to see if your HD is connected with a gray cable (IDE, or PATA) which ever word your comfort with.. Gray cable is better.

SATA is a small blue/red cable see which cable you have.


Can we please have more info about your dell? Model number would suffice if you do not know the system specs.

My experience with BestBuy is they are famous for removing viruses by reinstalling windows and then just clone the necessary programs and files back to your computer.. They don't actually do all these registry and anti-malware scanners.

If you are the gray cable, check to see if the HD is plugged in with the CD drive. If it is it is just a jumper setting and you can just change it so they do not conflict with each other.. If you are using a SATA drive ( blue/red cable) I would check the cables.

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the PROGRAM, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool.check the BIOS if the IDE has detected the hard drive. if is ok there
check the IDE.IF problem still persist, try to delete the partition.Quote from: mikeson on February 12, 2010, 12:42:28 PM

check the BIOS if the IDE has detected the hard drive. if is ok there
check the IDE.IF problem still persist, try to delete the partition.

Regarding the suggestion that I run a diagnostics I can not. I can not get past the errors I stated originally.

If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

I tried to burn using the "Write image file to disc" option. I received the following error "Invalid or unsupported image file format!". So I used the "Write files/folders to disc" option. I then used an advanced option to make it a bootable disc.