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Bios doesn't detect nothing...I musta did it..HELP

Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2003 12:40 pm
by AGille
:( Here's the story.....

I don't know why or how, but my bios/cmos settings got corrupted.....
(I guess....anyway)

I've never changed anything on my computer....never opened it up....never installed new hardware ever....Therefore, never had a bios/cmos problem ever....

I booted my system from a start up floppy disk....Attempted to re-install windows 95 after I reformated the hard drive....I wanted a cleaner system with less clutter of useless programs and files....Anyway, all went well and windows was installed...BUT...windows 95 couldn't recognize some of the hardware...(I guess).....that my computer had...(Like my modem)...I mean...it didn't have the drivers for them...I have my restore kit (Restores Factory Defaults...installs factory installed files...has the driver files I needed for regular windows installation), but it installs all those useless programs and files that I don't need...
I guess I thought I knew what I was doing, but I was really wrong...I don't claim to be a computer wiz/genuis, but a weathered novice more like it, LOL...Anyway, back to buisness.....I reformated again and installed the restore kit and checked out the DEVICE MANAGER...I copied the driver files on floppies thinking that the regular windows installation didn't copy any of those files to the \windows and \windows\system directories...I was wrong of course...(How Stupid-To manually install files thinking windows would pick them up and use them, LOL)...Anyway, I reformated and installed windows 95 again....After it finished copying files to the hard drive, it prompts to restart and finish setup....well, I don't think I should of interveened, but I did....with my start up disk in..I restarted the computer and added the driver files I copied into the \windows and \windows\system directories from the floppies...It copied some without error, but I got errors saying DATA ERROR READING FILE or something like that for others, but in an even more ignorant display..I IGNORED the warning...(Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail)....After I was done...I restarted and all was going well..."Starting Windows 95 For The First Time," It said.....I went to go get a soda and when I came back.....It said, "It's Now Safe To Shut Off Your Computer."???????????????????

I was majorly confused when I got back to my desk to see this.......

I restarted...and ever since....Bios hasn't picked up my drives at all...
All I have is the floppy drive...I can use the start up disk and run other floppies, but that's about it....

SCANDISK C:(and other similar commands/programs) report INVALID DRIVE SPECIFACATION....I assume since bios isn't picking it up....

FDISK reports NO FIXED DISK....

I have Windows 95 Setup on Floppies, but it reports, if I remember correctly, NO HARD DISK : HARD DISK NOT CONFIGURED : OR YOU NEED A SPECAIL DEVICE DRIVER FOR HARD DISK....or something like that

I tried the restore program and it say's that drive C: is not available...and you must repartition and reformat the hard drive....

I don't see how what I did affected the bios settings, but it did.

I partitioned the 2GB hard drive so I have a drive C: and a drive D:..
I hope my data is still on the disk not being recognized...I need those files..they are important and sentimental to some degree....I hope you can help me and I can keep the data on my disk....The data I need is on Drive D:...Drive C: I don't care about, cause that's where I install windows to...

NOTE: Everyting worked fine a few days ago...Do cables go bad instantly?? and this is all some big coincidence....????

What causes hard disks to go bad instantly???Cause my settings are all AUTO in bios as before and I've read that Bad Cables and Bad Hard Disk will cause Bios to not detect Drives....but, besides this....my CD-ROM drive isn't being recognized either...

All the IDE Primary/Secondary's.....Slave/Master's......all say NOT INSTALLED when I invoke Bios Setup....

ALSO: I seen something on this board about....IDEID.EXE....what is that and can it help me????

I'll have to research it a little, but I'm sure I can use RAMDRIVE.SYS in dos after Start Up Disk to create a temporary drive in case I need it...

I have a bios upgrade from the AST Site that I haven't tried yet...I think I'll wait on yall's feedback first....AST doesn't offer technical support anymore, but even if they did....they probably wouldn't be half as knowledgeable as everybody here is, so they can just push on anyway!!!!

Sorry for the long story, but I just want to get it out of the way and so you get a clear understanding of what happened and hopefully you can help me......I will reply with any Information I can if needed...

Thank god for this site....It's the greatest...You guys really rock
God Bless

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2003 10:58 am
by NickS
IDEID.EXE is a program which scans the IDE buses and reports back drive information. If I remember correctly, it does this without using the BIOS, so should be more accurate.

Drives - can just die. Usually they start making funny noises first. They often make repetitive clunking noises when dead or nearly dead. However, if your CD-ROM is also invisible it seems unlikely.
Cables - have been known to work loose; I had a colleague with the same symptoms as your machine; the cable had dropped out.

Can you get into your BIOS setup and confirm that the CMOS is set to "auto" for your drive types and under "on-board peripherals" or similar your on-board IDE controllers are enabled ?

If so, time to open the box, clear the CMOS, check the cables.