Dell latitude CP m233xt
phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A06
microprocessor: Pentium-233/mmx
system memory: 64mb
Video memory: 2mb
external cache: 512kb

I got an old computer from my dad that was only used for about 2 years as a fun laptop for trips ect.. i turned it on and it says "primary hard disk drive 0 not found" "no bootable device(s) selected" "strike f1 to retry boot, f2 for setup utility."

When i go into bios to check whats up, i see "primary hard drive: 0 mb" i think that its not recognizing it or somthing of that nature.

i have tried many bootdisks for the pc from windows 95 to 98. i get the the A:/> screen and try to switch to c: but it will not. The one way i got it to C: was when the bootdisk made a virtual c: drive

i can hear the drive spinning and then i sounds like a hard loading sound and then starts back up spinning and it repeats. there is nuthing inportant on the harddrive. so all i want to do it get the computer running on windows again.

i have taken the computer apart as i am a very handy man at age 15 who grew up putting stuff together. i have checked the connections to se if they are loose or not connected as it is a laptop and it does get bumped around. Everything looks cool and i even took unplugged the connections and redid them.

i have been through about 100 websites about it and looking for solutions but cant seem to get it to work, i am open to all sugetions so please reply back.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/...

that is a pictures of the pc and the interchangable cd rom and floppy disc drives with the random windows 95 booklet and cd that i want to install if i cant get the 98 back up.

It sounds like the drive is bad but go back into cmos/bios setup and make sure the IDE controllers are enabled. That'll probably be on a separate page than the disk type. Then, can you set the drive type as AUTO?

What is the drive model number?

When you boot up with a bootdisk, type fdisk and enter at the a:\> prompt. It'll probably respond with either 'no fixed disk present' or 'error reading fixed disk'. But if it goes to the menu page, choose option 4 and post back what it says.

ok i did what you said and it is still a no go. i have tried fdisk before, acually everytime i did a bootdisk and a a:/> came up i did a fdisk and a fdisk/mbr and it says "no fixed disks precent"

Drive model: DADA-26480 E182115 S

it also says that :rattle noise is normal"but it doesnt sound like a rattle noise.

Remove the drive, power cycle the laptop, then reinsert the drive.

Life's more painless for the brainless.

alright. first i did it once and put the drive in and same screen. i went up from there and still the same screen.

Might still be under warranty. What's the ST number?

Life's more painless for the brainless.

it says SEP-98 and i think that its soo old that its out of warranty already

Yep. You may be able to buy a replacement drive from Dell's site. Shouldn't be too expensive...if they still carry them.

Life's more painless for the brainless.

That should be a 6.4 gig drive. I think your laptop is a P-I so it should see the drive OK. The only other thing I can think of is to go into cmos/bios setup and see if you can specify the drive using the cylinders/heads/sectors method. I think that's going to be 13424/15/63 but check the drive label to make sure. If it still doesn't work then you probably need a new drive. I'd suggest nothing larger than about 8.4 gig. Otherwise the bios may not see it correctly.

i looked all around in BIOS and cant find anything to where i can specify the drive. unless there is like a page that i cant find with that on it/

Yeah, those phoenix bios seemed to have few options. If you decide to look for another drive I'd suggest ebay.

Does it even have a Service Tag? I'm not sure how long Dell has been using them.

Just for kicks, go to support.dell.com and enter the Service Tag number if there is one. You "should" then have the option of viewing the original system configuration, which includes the drive type and size. Give it a shot and post back. I'm curious. :)

Life's more painless for the brainless.

i got the service tag from bios and typed it in while also picking the laptop model and windows 98. i didnt find the drive type and size though since i think that it comes with other OS and diferent drive capacity's

So the drive isn't the original? Does Dell still have available for purchase the drive that was originally included with the laptop?

Life's more painless for the brainless.

i looked on the dell and IBM website for the drive and didnt find anything that matches or is even close to the one i have. i found sone refurbished ones on ebay and on online stores that might work i will have to check to see the rated: is matching.

i was wondering if it would be possible to make a 2gig jump drive usb. the hard drive for time being? would it be possible. i put it in and didnt get it to recognize it.

You don't need to replace the drive with an exact match. Just look for a laptop drive less than 8 gig:

http://listings.ebay.com/_W0QQsocmd...

i found one from your search that looks good and i might get it. thanks

Check the dimensions of the drive to make sure it'll fit. The length and width will probably be the same but the height (thickness) may vary.

k. i have the drive caddy and everything so i should be good to go.

while i am waiting for my hard drive, i would like to know how i could install windows onto the laptop with the interchangable CD-rom and Floppy disk drive.

i tihnk that i have to copy a:______ c: all the files over and then but the cd back in and then run from c drive.if this is correct please let me know and if it is not them please leave me a comment how to.

Check my first posting here:

http://www.computing.net/answers/wi...

Check first to see if your bios allows booting from the cdrom. If so, you don't need to worry about copying anything to the hard drive.

Also with a drive that's new to the computer, first run fdisk and remove and recreate the partition.