I have purchased an advent computer on ebay and was told it was wiped clean by the previous owner. However, it was to have windows xp operating system on it and when starting it up it asks for a system disk (which I put in) and it says its not recognising the hard drive. Any suggestions?????????
2006-09-20 07:56:46 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
You need a copy of windows on CD rom.
When booting press F1 or delete to enter the bios.
it may be another key, but it should tell you in the starting screen.
Choose advanced settings, then scroll down to boot device, press enter on boot device #1 and change it to the CD rom. save and exit sometimes this is F10 or F12.
reboot and you system should use the windows system CD rom, and should also guide you though installing an operating system on you blank hard drive.
2006-09-20 08:15:52 · answer #1 · answered by ChrisAds 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think the drive was wiped clean using a hard disk erasing program by the previous owner. It doesn't have a valid active bootable partition. This simply means that the drive is totally empty and needs to be prepared for use.
Since the computer is new, installing XP on it would be the easiest approach. XP setup process will create the partition and format it for you.
Bootup the computer with the XP CD in the CD-ROM drive. Follow instructions on the screen. If the setup program tells you that it cannot find a hard drive to install XP on, then I would start troubleshooting the drive itself.
If the computer still asks for a system disk even after you startup with the XP CD in the drive, you need to make sure the boot order in the BIOS setup of the computer has the CDROM drive listed before the floppy drive and the hard drive. You access the BIOS setup usually by hitting F1, F2 or DEL key as the computer is booting up. The bootup banner will tell you which key to press.
Good Luck!
2006-09-20 08:51:41 · answer #2 · answered by Gentle Dragon 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If I were you I should fdisk for large hard drive and format, then install your xp has a new installation. At least you know the hard drive is OK and the computer will have noticed the hard drive.
2006-09-21 02:26:02 · answer #3 · answered by pal6 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
try turning the power off, open the unit up, unplug the hard drive cables leave for a while clean off the contacts with a soft clean brush and plug them back in, close unit and turn power back on
2006-09-20 08:11:45 · answer #4 · answered by TERRY N 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1. Maybe the drive is dead?
2. Maybe the connection to the drive came loose when it was shipped to you?
3. See if the drive is listed in the BIOS
2006-09-20 08:13:54 · answer #5 · answered by CoCoKauai 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
IDE contoller, jumper settings
2006-09-20 09:15:18 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Get a new computer, it's the Dell computer. You can do everything on it.
2006-09-20 08:05:06 · answer #7 · answered by Sam 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋