Computer occasionally cannot find hard drive?

My computer occasionally cannot find the hard drive. The computer tells me "no operating system can be found on all drives" and if I restart it over and over, eventually, it will find the hard drive and boot normally. I cannot find anything in the event log to indicate any hard drive failure.





I'd like to know how to isolate this problem to find out if it is the cable, the hard drive, or the motherboard.

Computer occasionally cannot find hard drive?
Sounds like hard drive damage.


Try this.


First try to boot up in safe mode.


To start the computer in safe mode:





Continously press F8 as you turn on the computer until it comes up in safe mode


(F8,F8,F8 etc.)


Use the arrow keys to highlight the appropriate safe mode option, and then press ENTER.


If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system,(unlikely) choose the installation that you need to access using the arrow keys, and then press ENTER.





Note:





In safe mode, you have access to only basic files and drivers (mouse, monitor, keyboard, mass storage, base video, default system services, and no network connections). You can choose the Safe Mode with Networking option, which loads all of the above files and drivers and the essential services and drivers to start networking, or you can choose the Safe Mode with Command Prompt option, which is exactly the same as safe mode except that a command prompt is started instead of the graphical user interface. You can also choose Last Known Good Configuration, which starts your computer using the registry information that was saved at the last shutdown. Try this one first.





Safe mode helps you diagnose problems. If a symptom does not reappear when you start in safe mode, you can eliminate the default settings and minimum device drivers as possible causes. If a newly added device or a changed driver is causing problems, you can use safe mode to remove the device or reverse the change.





Manual steps to run Chkdsk from My Computer or Windows Explorer


1. Double-click My Computer, and then right-click the hard disk that you want to check.


(most likely your C drive)


2. Click Properties, and then click Tools.


3. Under Error-checking, click Check Now. A dialog box that shows the Check disk options is displayed,


4. Use one of the following procedures: • To run Chkdsk in read-only mode, click Start.


• To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, select the Automatically fix file system errors check box, and then click Start.


• To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.


Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message:


The disk check could not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed by restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule the disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer?


Click Yes to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check.


The following table lists the exit codes that Chkdsk reports after it has finished:


Exit code Description


0 No errors were found.


1 Errors were found and fixed.


2 Disk cleanup, such as garbage collection, was performed, or cleanup was not performed because /f was not specified.


3 Could not check the disk, errors could not be fixed, or errors were not fixed because /f was not specified.





For more information about Chkdsk, visit the following Microsoft Web sites: • Chkdsk:


http://www.microsoft.com/resources/docum... (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/docum...


• Running Chkdsk to repair file systems:


http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtec... (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtec...


For more information about Chkdsk, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:


314835 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314835/)... An explanation of the new /C and /I switches that are available to use with Chkdsk.exe





There are circumstances where safe mode will not be able to help you, such as when Windows system files that are required to start the system are corrupted or damaged. In this case, the Recovery Console may help you.


NUM LOCK must be off before the arrow keys on the numeric keypad will function.


Good luck