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i8100 primary hard disk not found fixed optical drive not found how to fix?

post #1 of 9
5/6/06 at 1:18am
Thread Starter 
I haven't used my inspiron 8100 in a couple weeks since i got my xps m170 and i go to turn it on to grab the last bit of stuff of it and I get the dell screen and then it says primary hard drive not found fixed optical drive not found press f1 to boot again or f2 for set up. If i put a cd in the drive i can hear the drive spinning up so i don't think its dead and the hard drive light is on so i don't think its dead either. What do you think could be the cause of this? I backed up most of my data but i still wanted to get a few things off my inspiron 8100. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.
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post #2 of 9
5/6/06 at 1:23am
Thread Starter 
the hd light is on solid, friend said my hd probably quit. anyway to test this? it does not detect the dvd drive either so i can't pop in the diagnastic cds either. could it be they both on one ide channel and with the hd dead it can't see the dvd cause its slave?

thanks in advance
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post #3 of 9
5/6/06 at 2:51am
Most probably you HD has failed. You get that message when the HD is "dead". Dead meaning it is not recognized by the system even if the drive is getting power. This happened to me when my HD died twice on my Inspiron 8000. Only other way to test as far as I know is to replace the HD a working one. You are right they are master and slave and the optical drive will not be recognized unless the HD detected.
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post #4 of 9
5/6/06 at 9:03am
Good info, I wasn't aware of this.

Slap in a new HD, and you'll be good to go.

Does this mean you loose all information on the HD?
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post #5 of 9
5/6/06 at 10:58am
Try reseating the hard drive, this may allow it to boot.Then if it does boot get all of your info off of it .Dell replaced the hd,mb and cd-rom when this happened to me.
If you can get into the bios you should be able to change the boot order and run the diag disk.Good luck
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post #6 of 9
5/8/06 at 2:09am
Thread Starter 
I tried reinserting the hard drive but it still won't boot. bummer. I had the important stuff backed up anywya. not sure if i want to get a new hard drive. was gonna probably sell off the 8100, how much less does a laptop sell for without a hard drive?
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post #7 of 9
5/8/06 at 4:11am
You MIGHT and I emphasize MIGHT get $200 for it without the Hard Drive, though I doubt it. The most expensive 8100 I found on eBay was less than $250. But yeah, my i8200 gave me the same message when it's original IBM Deathstar called it quits.
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post #8 of 9
5/8/06 at 12:03pm
As it is a DELL go find those old CD's that came with it. Run the diagnostics for the hard-drive. You can also do this (I believe) by turning on your computer and quickly hitting (and holding) the FN+F8 key.

If the checks come back as being OK. Then put in Windows XP in the CD drive. When it comes up with the partition to install, delete it. Then create a new partition and roll forward in the install processes.

If this fails (and you have tried an external caddy too) then follow the rest of the advise on this board and get a new hard-drive...
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post #9 of 9
5/9/06 at 9:43pm
Thread Starter 
it won't boot off the cd with the dead hard disk in there because it won't see the dvd/cd-rw either since they on the same channel apparently so i can't run any diagnastic disks.

I bought a 6.4 gig hd in chinatown for 10 bucks and poped that in and that works so it was indeed the hard drive. oh well.

thank you everyone for all the advice.
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