Computer won't boot - No hard drive detected

retribution · 28 Feb 2006 at 18:06

Hi,
A friend has a computer which I built for them. It's been running fine for around 1 1/2 years on a Maxtor 80gb drive. Yesterday, they asked me round, as the disk was making loud clicking noises, and randomly the motherboard would not detect anything in its slot, IDE 1; although sometimes, the PC would succeed in booting to Windows. I said that the HD was probably on the way out, and that they should back everything up etc.
Unfortunately, they didn't back up like I told them to :rolleyes:

. Today, they asked me around again. Firstly, the PC just wouldnt switch on, then seemingly randomly, it would switch on again, but now permantently doesn't detect the HD - are these two issues likely related? Or could it be a dodgey PSU at the same time? Maybe it is another issue entirely that I have missed?
Basically, I'm wondering what to do next. I've now got the PC at mine, so it's available to be tinkered with.

Many thanks,

Rob.

semi-pro waster · 1 Mar 2006 at 11:34

I'd try a different PSU as that could be part of the problem and if that gets it working normally then look to the hard drive problem. Maybe try using the hard drive in your PC to see if you can recover the data but it does sound as if it is dead or dying.

muckymick · 2 Mar 2006 at 11:05

Sounds more like psu or mobo,or even a combination of both as it sometimes won't boot at all.Usually if its just the hdd dying it will still post.

retribution · 2 Mar 2006 at 22:10

Thanks for the replies. I changed the PSU, and all seems to be fine. I've strongly recommended they back up everything now, as given the noises the HD was making, it wouldn't suprise me if it did die soon. Is it possible that the PSU could have caused the HD to malfunction? Would it have caused permanent damage?

Cheers,

Rob.

muckymick · 2 Mar 2006 at 23:00

Possibly if there was a bad spike in the psu that got into the hdd,then it could take out the drive.just gotta hope thats all it did.