Hard drive not booting

[JamesNC]

Hi, wasn't sure where to post this to.

I bought an older computer, and it won't boot up; seems to be a problem with the hard drive.

The computer works fine; I can run a Linux live disc and use it.
The problem seems to be with the HD. I can go into the BIOS and it sees the drive. But if I try to boot, the computer says "No boot device available" - and if I run the live disc, Linux can't see the drive. It's supposed to have a Windows XP install on it.

Any ideas on what may be wrong here?
I have another drive I can swap in and install a fresh OS (but that'll tick me off since I was supposed to be getting a functional hard drive and an OS).
I can try and install a fresh OS on this hard drive, if possible (which will again tick me off, since I was supposed to be getting an OS).

 

[Saga Lout]

Check the connections to the disk.

Chances are a PC made for XP could have a parallel connection and any one of 80 pins cold be affected by dust so unplug that ribbon cable from the drive and run a light brush across the pins on the drive.

 

[JamesNC]

Check the connections to the disk.

Chances are a PC made for XP could have a parallel connection and any one of 80 pins cold be affected by dust so unplug that ribbon cable from the drive and run a light brush across the pins on the drive.

Not parallel; SATA drive.

 

[Saga Lout]

It's still worth removing and reconnecting it. If there are important data on that disk, you could buy a caddy or converter to slave it to another PC to recover those data.

You might even find it works long enough in the other machine for you to clone the entire system on to a new drive. Test that drive shows in BIOS of the old machine first though because it may not be worth the cloning.

Point of interest. Has it ever worked since you bought it and did it come to by post or courier? Check all the connections - all sorts of parts could have been loosened in the journey.

 

[shivgupta]

You should try to recover and restore your data first.

 

[JamesNC]

It's still worth removing and reconnecting it. If there are important data on that disk, you could buy a caddy or converter to slave it to another PC to recover those data.

You might even find it works long enough in the other machine for you to clone the entire system on to a new drive. Test that drive shows in BIOS of the old machine first though because it may not be worth the cloning.

Point of interest. Has it ever worked since you bought it and did it come to by post or courier? Check all the connections - all sorts of parts could have been loosened in the journey.

I don't have any data on the drive, so no need to recover anything there.

I've unplugged the cables and plugged them back in; I can try using a different SATA port, but as I said the BIOS can see the drive, but no OS can. I'm growing certain the drive is dead.

It has not booted from the drive since I received it - but, as noted, it will boot a live disc, so the only apparent problem is the drive.