Sinophile Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Greetings, My less than computer literate uncle had his hard drive fail the other day. He took his computer to Best Buy, where some idiot told him to buy a new Hard drive. Little did my uncle realize, was that Windows was installed on his old hard drive, and without it his computer will not work. Moreover, my uncle lacked the foresight to keep the recovery disks to his computer. I have tried installing Ubuntu onto his computer. I can boot Ubuntu from his DVD drive(Meaning that the system detects the CD drive), but the system fails to recognize the newly installed hard drive(which Ubuntu needs to install itself on). I have also scoured the Dell website, but to not avail. Is there any hope of making my uncle's computer functional again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbex Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 He didn't save his old hard drive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinophile Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 The motherboard no longer wants to detect the old hard drive, which is why he bought a new one. However, I have the exact same issue with the new hard drive. Interestingly enough. The motherboard will detect a USB drive(although I couldn't install Ubuntu on it for some reason), but not the hard drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbex Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Have you tried using a different sata port/cable? Or is it IDE? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinophile Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 It's a Pata hard drive, and I did try switching the DVD drive with the PATA cable. Neither the DVD drive nor DVD drive was detected(partially because of the way Dell designed the housing.). I am thinking of maybe trying USB drive and seeing if that works, seeing as how the system detects my flash drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagrant0 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 It sounds like it might be a motherboard or some sort of power issue. You won't be able to boot a computer from a flash drive (I think). I'm not sure why your uncle brought his dell to best buy, but I think that was part of the problem. Dell has technical support (of a sort) and I think they have a warranty if things break if the computer is less than a year or two old. If it's one of those $400-600 budget computers, you're lucky if it doesn't break before then. Depending on how old the computer is and how much was spent, you may just be better off buying a new computer and using the shiny new drive you have as an external drive for backup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinophile Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 The Dell computer is from 2004, although he bought it much later from some weird book-publishing company that occasionally sells outdated electronics to old people. It has an old Penitum IV and 256MB DDR ram. The new drive is actually an internal PATA drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bben46 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 The older hard drives had jumpers to designate master, slave or Cable select. As I remember, Dell did not use cable select, but the master/slave jumper. Set the new HD to master, and the old one to slave - then if it can read the old drive. Try this FREE program to copy the Windows - and everything else to the new HD: EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition http://majorgeeks.com/EASEUS_Partition_Master_Home_Edition_d5967.html If that doesn't work, call Dell and buy the recovery disk - it's not as expensive as a new copy of Windows. Or: buy a new copy of windows - upgrade him to Win7 costs about US $120. XP can be found for US $80 Or: Linux, if you can teach him to use it (haven't had much luck with older Win users) any one of a dozen Linux releases. Go into the Bios and change the first boot device to USB if it is available - if not, burn a cd with whatever Linux iso you prefer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinophile Posted January 7, 2011 Author Share Posted January 7, 2011 Well, the Motherboard refuses to detect either hard drive, and I've tried all the pin positions. I borrowed a copy of Windows XP from a friend, hoping that maybe Windows might have some drivers that would help detect the hard drive. Neither Windows nor Linux detected the hard drive during install, nor would either let me use my flash drive to install an OS on. I also tried replacing the IDE cable, but to no avail. I am going into Best Buy and exchanging his PATA hard drive for a USB one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prandiningrat Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 You should post your motherboard model or BIOS screenshot, so they can give you better solution...If you sure, your hard drive is fine.. then its your BIOS settings.. is you BIOS can detect you hard drive?? Old DELL usually using Phoenix bios but modified by DELL..and makes this difference with othersmake sure your BIOS setting 'IDE DRIVE INTERFACE' is on..if OFF then press SPACE to change it.. if this setting is positioned to OFF, BIOS can not read IDE hard drive(SATA not supported i think)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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