I Cant Fix My PC

PuG106 · 2 Apr 2006 at 12:06

I was wondering if any one could help me out...

Basically last night I let my younger bro play on BF2 for a bit and when he finished he said ' I just closed down the game and shut down your PC' :rolleyes:

When I went to turn it on a little later, I now get the message saying HAL.DLL is missing or corrupt.

I then tried using my windows CD to hopefully repair the file but then it confronts me with this message:
Setup did not find any hard disk drives in stalled on you computer (I have 2). :mad:

I have been messing around for about 2 hours trying to get my pc back up and running but what ever I do it thinks there are aren't any HD’s installed.
I’ve tried swapping the cables around but to no avail.

I have tried formatting the HD but it won’t even allow me to do this, it comes up with the same message as above.

I did think the HD may have been dead but I tried formatting my other one but again it thinks there are know HD’s installed, and its very unlikely that they would both die at the same time.

Can any one help me please, is it another piece of hardware that may be broken or is it something simple i may have overlooked??

Any help will be Greatly Appreciated
Thanks in advance
Greg

Explicit · 2 Apr 2006 at 12:10

Is the HDD showing up in the bios?

PuG106 · 2 Apr 2006 at 12:12

Yes they both do, the WD raptor has windows on it so that is the one i set to boot from first.

Explicit · 2 Apr 2006 at 12:19

May sound silly, but did you hit F6 to install the sata drivers before using the XP CD to format/reinstall?

PuG106 · 2 Apr 2006 at 12:21

I did when i first installed the HD'S from new, do you think i may need to install the drivers again?

Explicit · 2 Apr 2006 at 12:24

It's worth a shot as it could be the reason why it can't find your raptor. If it doesn't work, atleast you've ruled that out of the equation.

XtAsY · 2 Apr 2006 at 12:25

I say install the drivers again. Do you have a RAID setup?

PuG106 · 2 Apr 2006 at 12:31

XtAsY said:
I say install the drivers again. Do you have a RAID setup?

Thanks i will give it a try now, as for RAID i really am not sure ive tried to make sense of what it is using a few web sites but im a bit of a n00b :confused:

PuG106 · 2 Apr 2006 at 12:47

Thanks for that, i reinstalled the drivers and its actually let me onto the rebuild option this time.

I tried to do a rebuild of the bootcfg but an error occures whilst doing so,

Im gonna give formating a try i will keep you posted.
Thanks again
Greg

EDIT// Whilst typing the reply above I left my PC re-starting, I walked into my room and now its booted up onto the desktop as if nothings happened :eek:

as surprised as am do you think a format will be a good idea??

Explicit · 2 Apr 2006 at 13:48

PuG106 said:
EDIT// Whilst typing the reply above I left my PC re-starting, I walked into my room and now its booted up onto the desktop as if nothings happened as surprised as am do you think a format will be a good idea??

If it works now, there's no point reinstalling windows. Gotta love computers!

iraiguana · 2 Apr 2006 at 15:56

yeah i would just be happy it has decided to start working again and save all the hassel of a format, unless you notice it running slow or being random.