My hard drive won't boot and it is not recognized, why?

My harddrive won't boot and does not show up. I put in an old harddrive and it worked for a month and It now stopped booting. I have tried the drives in other computers and they don't work and are not recognized. I can't even format or read the drive. they show 0 bytes. What could be the problem?

This question was answered on April 13, 2004. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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You need to determine if the hard drive you are using is a Plug and Play (PnP) device.

If so, and your BIOS is NOT PnP compatible, then that is why your hard drive cannot be recognized In order for you to use PnP devices your BIOS must be PnP.

The same goes vice versa If you have a PnP BIOS and the device itself (hard drives, CD ROM, etc.) is not PnP compatible, then the device will not be recognized.

And of course, if the hard drive cannot be recognized it cannot be formatted or read.

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Posted by Student of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on April 13, 2004

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