Laptop will not Boot-up

[OX-27]

Laptop will not Boot-up

I currently have a laptop with Win ME installed (yes - I know!) that has suddenly stopped working. Last time it was used it failed to shut down properly and had to be manually switched off.

The problem is during initial switch on, it does the POST check & then ‘beeps’ twice & then once more - the message on the screen reads:
Pri Master HDD error
Run SETUP
Press F1 to resume

When F1 is pressed, the machine searches for a disk in the ‘A’ drive – presumably looking for a boot disk (which I do not have).

I have no idea how to run the SETUP menu.

I can enter the BIOS and all seems to be in order.

I’m assuming that the hard drive has given up the ghost as the connecting ribbon is secure.

Can any of you knowledgeable people offer any ideas as to what the problem might be, and any solution, cheers?

[stillin1]

same thing happened to me - it was the hard drive dead. Soz for the gloomy reply. Have faith - I know nothing, with a bit of luck some one far cleverer than me may help.

[ORAC]

Well it might be a BIOS problem, or a RAM problem, but the chances are overwhelmingly that it's a corrupt or dead drive.

Can you get into the BIOS before it checks for a HDD? If not, it may be a BIOS problem. Down load the latest BIOS from the makers support site and flash it. Low probability. Check your RAM, as a start remove and replace, again low probability.

If you can get into the BIOS, does the machine see the HDD? If so, it's not dead, see below. If no, it's dead, replace it.

If it does see the HDD, try booting with a boot floppy, you can download one from here. (http://radified.com/Files/) If you can then access the drive and see your data files, back them up then reformat using FDISK and reload your OS and files from scratch.

[OX-27]

Thanks for the advice – Hard drive is definitely past its sell-by date, I slaved another one in and the problem disappeared. Just glad that I’d backed up all the data! Thanks once again.