"Failed to detect one or more drives during POST"

[Tyson]

I currently have a computer I am working on and let's just say, I've aged since having it. It's a DELL (desktop) 420. The owner brought it to me and upon turning it on, I get a message stating that it cannot boot up because it fails to detect the drive. When I go to the BIOS, the drive is right there AND present. I then have the option to hit F1 to continue, F2 for the setup and F5 for diagnostics. When I hit F1, the computer gets past the Windows Splah screen and then continuously goes into that neverending loop of the boot options (Safe mode, safe mode with networking, start normally).

Thinking that the drive was bad, I got a new one and had the same problem.

I inserted an XP disk and tried to get to the Recovery Console. Everything seemed to be going fine until right after the "Starting Windows" message. Right there I got hit with one of those STOP errors and after some research, the error relates to an inaccessible boot device. Well of course THAT makes sense. So, the known "fix" (Recovery Console) is barried by this STOP error which would not allow me to access it.

Well, I yanked out the hard drive and plopped it into my cousin's computer (he has a similar model) and I was able to format and reload windows using his computer (not sure why I did not go for the Recovery Console fix at the time but there must have been a reason). Thinking I was good to go, I then set the hard drive back into the problem computer only to find myself back at square one (failed to detect one or more drives on POST). So, how can I even attempt to fix this dang thing when I can't even get past the initial boot up?

HEEEEEEELLLLP!!!!

Oh, I forgot to mention a BIG part of this. Her CD-Rom crapped out so she received a new one from DELL. For some odd reason, it shows in the BIOS, it lights up, you hear the CD rolling, but it does NOT boot from the CD even as the first boot device. Yes, I tried about 4 different XP CDs. When I remove the power from the CD drive, the BIOS does not see it. When I plug it in, the BIOS sees it.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Did you try a new cable with that hard drive?

As to your friend, you have to set it in Boot Order to the first device. Should be in the boot tab of BIOS.

btw, you do not need a "Dell cd-rom" You could've saved a lot of money just getting one from NewEgg for ~$20.

 

[Tyson]

You know, I need to really do that - check the SATA cable. She has 3 sets (two to CD-Roms and 1 to the HD). I know at least one set works and the CD-Rom DID start working to access the Win XP CD. Now the new problem I am having is that a 0x00000007B STOP error is preventing me from getting to the screen that allows me to run the repair option on the recovery console. The odd thing is this; however, I get the "failed to detect drives error" on bootup. If I hit F1 (which it tells me I can do), I then get the "Press any key to boot from CD" and that takes off. Now right after the CD tells me the disk is attempting to load windows - BOOM! Stop error 0x0000007B ("Inaccessible boot device")

Now what? Everyone points out that the fix for the error is to run the recovery console, but what if the error is diallowing access to the fix?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Advanced troubleshooting for "Stop 0x0000007B" errors in Windows XP

It may be just bad hardware.

 

[Tyson]

Quote possible, however, I did purchase a new hard drive and even that one failed to be recognized so something else is failing some place.