Inaccessible or undetected hard drive

[Regulator]

First off Im on a laptop not my computer, the problem is with my computer.

It started after I turned off my computer to hookup a new monitor that I got from my aunt.  After the monitor was hooked up, I rebooted and get a message saying to insert bootable media and press any key to reboot or something.  So I inserted a bootable cd and rebooted and tried to reformat but it said that my hard drive was inaccessible for some odd reason.

Is there anyway to fix this besides buying a new Hard Drive?  Everything is hooked up correctly I have doubled and tripled checked everything.

If you need specs list the ones that will be most helpful and I will give those if I know them.

[Dusty]

Welcome to the CH forums.

In order to attempt to make a meaningful diagnosis we need to know what your pc is telling you.   

So I inserted a bootable cd and rebooted and tried to reformat but it said that my hard drive was inaccessible for some odd reason.

   
We need to know what that "odd reason" is.  Please post the full error message displayed.

Please read the first post on this forum titled "Please read this first"

[Regulator]

Heres what my computer says:

Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in you computer.

Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware configuration is correct.  This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.

Setup cannot continue.  To quit Setup, press F3.

[JJ 3000]

Does the drive show up in BIOS?

[Allan]

What cd are you booting to? What happens if you try to boot directly to the hd without a bootable cd inserted?

[theripster]

First off Im on a laptop not my computer, the problem is with my computer.

It started after I turned off my computer to hookup a new monitor that I got from my aunt.  After the monitor was hooked up, I rebooted and get a message saying to insert bootable media and press any key to reboot or something.  So I inserted a bootable cd and rebooted and tried to reformat but it said that my hard drive was inaccessible for some odd reason.

Is there anyway to fix this besides buying a new Hard Drive?  Everything is hooked up correctly I have doubled and tripled checked everything.

If you need specs list the ones that will be most helpful and I will give those if I know them.

I am at a loss here.  If you were only installing a different monitor, why are you trying to reformat the hard drive?

[Regulator]

The drive does show up in bios but it cant be accessed to boot into WinXP which i think is weird.

Im booting to a Windows XP SP3 cd.  nothing happens when i try to boot directly to the hd i just keeping a screen saying to insert media and pressing a key to reboot.

Im trying to reformat to see if it'll fix my problem.

[Allan]

Okay. First of all, changing a monitor would not cause the problem you describe. I guaranty you did something - I just don't know what. Second, the error message you describe is not generated by a "missing" hd (that would be "unbootable device..."). One guess is that you removed the HD from the boot order in bios, so let's start there. In the bios go to the boot order setting and make sure the cd is first and the hd is second. Save the setting and exit. Reboot. What happens?

Oh, and stop trying to reformat until we find out what the problem is.

[Regulator]

i never did or change anything and the boot order is cd first and hd second.  the same problem occurs asking for bootable media.

[Allan]

Then the cd to which you are trying to boot is not bootable. Remove it and reboot. What happens?

[Regulator]

the cd is bootable, all the cds i've tried are bootable but when i get to the install part of installing winxp it says that the hd is either not there (it is there though) or inaccessible.

[Allan]

Okay, that wasn't clear. It sounded as though you were getting that message right off. Boot to the XP CD and choose the first repair option (press R). That should take you to the Recovery Console. Does it? If so, run chkdsk /r

[Regulator]

i think I've tried that before but it says that there is no HD.

EDIT:  I saw something from a search i did here on computerhope.com about a virus that blocks access to the hard drive forget what it was called something like Stoned Empire Monkey.

[Allan]

Do you have the sata driver?

[Regulator]

I dont think so but i could try to find it but that would take awhile since my room is messy.

Then again i might have thrown away on accident if the drive even came with one because i dont think i saw one but its been a year since i installed the hard drive.