# Computer not detecting hard drive suddenly? RAID/Array error?s?



## maebach (Aug 14, 2007)

I have PC running Windows 7 and it has had no problems up until recently. A few days ago, it froze and a family member unplugged the computer from the back (he pulled the cord). He first tried to press the on/off button in the front of the computer but it didnt do anything so thats why he pulled the cord. At first I though the HDD had died, so I turned on the computer and listened. It powered up normally and I can hear and feel the disks spinning without making any unusual noises. In the BIOS, it says that no Primary IDE Master is detected. I've checked the cables and even swapped my SATA cable for another one the HDD still wont detect.

First screen that comes up:
Scanning IDE Drives.... (It doesnt detect any so I get the second screen)

After this I have a couple of options: 
CTRL+F Fastbuild Utility or ESC to continue boot


If I press nothing I get the message:
No Hard Disk Drive Detected!
Press F1 to resume


Pressing F1 gets me:


During the second screen, I held CTRL+F and got to a FastBuild utility screen. I did a little reading and it seems like this program is used to create/edit RAID controllers. I only have 1 hard drive in my pc.

FastBuild Utility:
1=Auto Setup
2= View Drive Assignments
3=Define Array
4=Delete Array
5=RebuildArray

When I press '1'. 


When I press '2'


When I press '3'


As you can see, the motherboard is clearly detecting the hard drive. Otherwise, I wouldnt be able to see it in the array settings, right? I've never worked with RAID before so I'm mostly guessing. I dont understand why I cannot seem to boot from it.

Thanks in advance!


----------



## TacticalSniper (Sep 21, 2009)

I might be wrong on this one, but sounds to me as if something RAID-related is disabled in your BIOS. Can you attempt to load default settings for your BIOS?


----------



## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

How many hard drives do you have installed in the system?

Were you running raid prior to the problem? If so, what type ie raid0, raid1, raid5, what?

Have you always seen the raid bios screen ie the ctrl>F prompt?


----------



## maebach (Aug 14, 2007)

TacticalSniper said:


> I might be wrong on this one, but sounds to me as if something RAID-related is disabled in your BIOS. Can you attempt to load default settings for your BIOS?[/QUOTE
> 
> I havent tried this yet. I will tonight after work.
> 
> ...


----------



## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

OK, then restart the system and enter the bios [motherboard not raid] set the mode of the sata controller to whatever you had it set to before ie ahci or native ide. Next make sure the CD/DVD is listed as the first boot device. If not, set it as such. Save settings and restart. If it works now great. If not, you will need to attempt to repair the system. Restart with your win7 install disk in the drive. Choose to repair the system from the menu. Once done, remove the install disk and restart. Hopefully you have now fixed the problem.

*If there is important data on the drive, I would pull the drive out and connect it to a working system. Copy whatever you want and then reinstall in the problem system. Do this prior to any attempt at repairing the system*


----------



## maebach (Aug 14, 2007)

crjdriver said:


> OK, then restart the system and enter the bios [motherboard not raid] set the mode of the sata controller to whatever you had it set to before ie ahci or native ide. Next make sure the CD/DVD is listed as the first boot device. If not, set it as such. Save settings and restart. If it works now great. If not, you will need to attempt to repair the system. Restart with your win7 install disk in the drive. Choose to repair the system from the menu. Once done, remove the install disk and restart. Hopefully you have now fixed the problem.
> 
> *If there is important data on the drive, I would pull the drive out and connect it to a working system. Copy whatever you want and then reinstall in the problem system. Do this prior to any attempt at repairing the system*


The only RAID related setting I could find was an option called "Operating Mode" which I changed to "Onboard IDE OPerate Mode". It was something RAID related before.

The PC works again, but the "CTRL+F Fastbuild Utility or ESC to continue boot" screen still shows up when it didnt before. Also, its much slower to startup now. If I go into Fastbuild utility, can I disable it?


----------



## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

First off read your manual as to bios settings/menus. You should be able to disable all raid functions; again *read your manual.*


----------



## TacticalSniper (Sep 21, 2009)

BTW, *maebach*, if you don't have the actual manual for your MB, you probably can find it on manufacturer's website. What brand is your MB? What model? Can you open up your PC? The manufacturer and the model are usually written around the CPU. For example: ASUS P4S800-VX.


----------

