HDD is not detected in BIOS Used to work

[crazy pyro]

I turned my desktop on last night and it gave me this error:
Reboot and select proper boot device
Or Insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key.
I'm guessing my drive's just died on me since I've tried it in a different SATA port with no success, I'll try it in te one used by my DVD drive tonight as I know that one is still working.
I've tried to repair my installation of Vista too but it couldn't find an installation, also tried with my win7 disk and it couldn't find it.
I was using it an hour before with no problems, I shut it down and went to watch TV and when I got back it did this to me.
As in the title, it's not seen in the BIOS either, is it dead?

 

[Asylum]

Try looking under administrative tools...then disc manager and see if it shows up there...From there you can format it!!

 

[lemonadesoda]

The boot sector could be corrupt... but your data might be OK.

This happened to me once on a project in Singapore. Fortunately I was able to recover the data using a USB to IDE converter. Rather than booting from the HDD, boot from something else. Once windows is up and running, connect the USB. Perhaps I was lucky but it might work for you too.

 

[crazy pyro]

It's my only HDD, I can't boot the PC up.
I've got a spare IDE HDD that I tried to install windows on but it can't even boot the the DVD with that one in.

 

[lemonadesoda]

I think your only option is to put the damaged HDD to one side. Buy a new one. Reinstall windows. Get it working, then try installing the old drive as secondary. You might be able to hotplug using SATA/eSATA.

Alternatively, get a USB converter, and plug the HDD into the computer you are typing from!

 

[Asylum]

Yea if you cant even boot it...Lemons suggestion is about the only way to go

 

[crazy pyro]

Right then, I spent £52 on a replacement drive (Hitachi Deskstar 500GB), the drive shows up in the BIOS but I can't get it to boot from any disks (Tried my Win XP disk, Win 7, Ubuntu live disk and Vista) and none of them worked, I've tested the vista disk which is definitely working, I've also tried using an external DVD drive with the same result.
The error I get this time is "Error loading operating system".
I've tried 3 different SATA ports with both drives, any idea what's wrong here?

 

[Asylum]

Do you have your cd/dvd rom drive set as first boot in bios?

 

[crazy pyro]

Yep, altered it for the external as well both didn't work, I'm just confused now, shutting it down with a memory stick in, unplugging it and then turning the rig on could have caused this could it?
I got the same error with my lappy about 6 months ago, it had to be sent back to Acer and it turned out to be something on the motherboard being buggered.

 

[lemonadesoda]

1./ Turn off PC.
2./ UNPLUG from wall
3./ Remove CMOS battery
4./ With the PC UNPLUGGED, try turning on the PC (This will clear all residual power sitting in capacitors)
5./ Put CMOS back in
6./ UNPLUG all SATA and IDE drives
7./ Now plug in ONLY the CD-ROM drive. Is it SATA or IDE
8./ PLUG in the PC
9./ Turn it on
10./ Hit DEL or F2 to enter BIOS
11./ Depending on your BIOS, find the sections relating to boot devices
12./ Make sure ONLY the CD drive is there, as the only option and as the first boot device
13./ Set everything else disabled
14./ Reboot with CD install in drive
15./ Report back. What does it say?

 

[lemonadesoda]

Now,

16./ Turn off PC
17./ Plug in new HDD, so there is ONLY the HDD and only the CD, nothing more
18./ Turn on
19./ DEL or F2 to BIOS settings
20./ Select HDD and CD as the ONLY boot devices. Set CD as primary (first) to boot
21./ Reboot with CD install in drive
22./ Report back. What does it say?

 

[crazy pyro]

It's a SATA DVD drive, I've had a look in the boot priority and it has my DVD drive then a floppy drive and then a hard drive listed, however the second two are just generic ones as I've never even plugged a floppy drive into this mobo and the HDD's unplugged, will that cause a problem?
It goes straight to the XP set-up after your first bit of advice was followed, gimme a minute to reboot and plug in the HDD, if it was just that the CMOS needed to be cleared I smell a RAID setup coming.

 

[crazy pyro]

BAM! It's working Thanks mate!
Note to self: Clear the CMOS
I spent the best part of 10 minutes figuring out how to get the ruddy battery out, I got confused lol.