sata drive not booting "no device found" message

[rick82]

Ive been running my sata drive fine for well over a year now, but yesterday the comp locked up so rebooted to find the message no device found.

I have a standard ide hard drive which i use as storage but it has xp installed on it so once that message pops us it boots from the ide.

I have checked all the connections which seem fine. raid is disabled, i have reset the bios What else could be causing this? faulty hd? I have searched the forums but still no luck with fixing this. Any ideas?

Its a asus A8N Sli deluxe with xp running on the sata.

[SYNACK]

Leave the drive disconnected from the power for a couple of days, sometimes the firmware gets screwed up and needs some time to drain all power and stupidity out of the circuts. The other thing to try would be a different SATA cable, some of them are fragile and dodgey which could also lead to such issues. There is also the option of checking it on another box to see if that detects it.

[rick82]

Thanks. I will try unplugging the power for a few days an see if that sorts it. The sata cables dont seem very good fit, i have had issues with them before just falling out, Il try a different cable.

[mac_shinobi]

Have you got another computer with a kit which will allow you to attach the SATA hard drive so that you can see if the hard drive is still ok / readable etc

 

If it is backup any data, then ensure that the MBR is ok on the drive and also run a chkdsk /r

 

Have you got another sata drive to connect to the computer to see if it will pickup a working sata hard drive, if it does then maybe the hard drive is on its way out or as above sata cable(s) ?

 

If its exactly the same then might be worth while taking the cmos / bios battery out for a good hour or two at least so that it forgets all settings and then pop the battery back in, connect the drive back and re set the bios settings ref RAID, Date, Time etc etc

[rick82]

No i have not got either another computer which supports sata or another sata drive. So yes its hard to eliminate which is causing the fault. I did remove cmos/bios battery, but only for about a minute of two so i could try taking it out like you say for an hour or two.

[mac_shinobi]

No i have not got either another computer which supports sata or another sata drive. So yes its hard to eliminate which is causing the fault. I did remove cmos/bios battery, but only for about a minute of two so i could try taking it out like you say for an hour or two.

 

A hard drive kit that supports sata / ide over USB cable etc from amazon is about a 10 to 15 ££ if you had or have another computer you can use to at least get your data off the xp drive if there is anything on it and then from there run any tests on it that way ?

[rick82]

I will get one of those adaptors if none of the above methods solve the problem, at least i will be able to hopefully get my data off the drive this way.

 

Thanks

[mac_shinobi]

I will get one of those adaptors if none of the above methods solve the problem, at least i will be able to hopefully get my data off the drive this way.

 

Thanks

 

Amazon.co.uk: usb to sata/ide

 

I have the older version of the one below

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/USB-SATA-Adaptor-Cable-Power/dp/B000R18ZNQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1306842932&sr=8-2

 

Which is now £16 and whatever P&P is

[TheMinister]

Check the AHCI settings in BIOS. If you've reset it to factory defaults you may find that it doesn't have SATA enabled by default.

[synaesthesia]

It's also very worth checking the heatsink on the northbridge (or is it southbridge?) chip on the motherboard - those particular boards are extremely prone to those fans seizing up and therefore causing them to overheat very rather badly. Those chips also control the RAID/SATA/AHCI controllers so could explain the issue.

[mac_shinobi]

It's also very worth checking the heatsink on the northbridge (or is it southbridge?) chip on the motherboard - those particular boards are extremely prone to those fans seizing up and therefore causing them to overheat very rather badly. Those chips also control the RAID/SATA/AHCI controllers so could explain the issue.

 

I know a few people a year or two ago who before installing the motherboard made sure they got a modded heatsink and fan which was

 

1. Silent

2. Lasted longer

3. Kept them parts cooler ie cpu, and the relevant bridge whether south or north ( I cant remember either lol )

[rick82]

Yes a few years back now that fan siezed and Asus send me a new, slightly different type which has been fine ever since.

I have checked the bios settings and sata is enabled, also i have swapped out both power and sata cables.

The HD is a Seagate barracuda which i have recently read about the motors siezing inside which can only be repaired by a professional which im gussing will be quite expensive job. Like SYNACK said it could be the firmware which has got a bit messed up so i will leave it unplugged for a few days hoping that may fix it. Quite a few of the seagate models have had a problem with outdated firmware, however there is not an firmware update for the model which i have, which is heading me towards the fact the HD may be dead.