No Hard Drive Found

My iMac decided to stop working after 2 years. I would only get a white screen when powering on. I tried reinstalling the install disk. When asked what drive to install on, no destination drive found. I installed a new hard drive as all indications pointed to a failed hard drive. Still no destination drive found. Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be, or should I just throw this in the circular file.

Sounds like you either have a bad SATA cable, maybe a bad SATA power cable to the HDD, or the logic board's SATA port has crapped out.
The first option is pretty cheap. Just buy a long SATA cable with a right angle connector, and string the new one. If that doesn't fix the problem, the next possibility means replacing some of the PSU cables, maybe even the PSU itself. Not terribly expensive, but extremely annoying, and much harder to find those cables compared to a long SATA cable. If it's the final possibility, part the thing out on eBay or something.
Also, it's LOW-PROFILE circular filing cabinet!

Similar Messages

No hard drive found on disk utility while booting from OS X dvd

My Macbook crashed recently, the screen wouldn't give me video when I opened the lid from closing it earlier and the fan was doing its ominous thing with getting louder and louder. I had to force shut down. On restarting it wouldn't boot beyond the infamous grey screen, where the loading sign eventually turned into the prohibitory sign. I found a support article and worked my way through safe boot, various resets to eventually booting from the OS X dvd (Leopard 10.6.??), at which point (according to the article), I was supposed to perform a disk utility check. Except that in disk utility nothing shows up except for the software dvd, no hard drive or anything else to be seen. On checking the system profiler I found that "there was an error while scanning for serial ATA devices" (which I found out means hard drive :-P).
What do I do from here? I haven't been able to find a support article that deals with this exact situation, what more can I try to solve this problem?
Thanks in advance.

That means the drive needs to be repartitioned if it's still functional. See:
Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs,) then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Solaris 8 Intel Installation Error: No suitable hard drives found

HI!
I was trying to install the free Solaris 8 Intel Edition from CD. All devices were recognized. Afterwards, however, I get the message that no suitable place was found to store the installation image. What should a hard disk look like in order to qualify for Solaris?
My system contains several hard drives. The first one, were I would like to install Solaris, is empty without any partitions. Under normal cicumstances (Linux, Windows), I would assume that this is the best possible case for a new operationg system...
Best regards
Klaus

Klaus,
I am having the exact same problem as you. I have the official Solaris CDs from Sun, but am not able to install Solaris on my PC. Installation progresses quite far - including screen, keyboard, time configuration - but then fails saying that it can't find any suitable HDDs.
I too, have two HDDs, one with Windows XP on it, and the other completely blank. However the Solaris installation does not recognise either of them.
I've even tried dis-connecting the Windows HDD in case it may have interfered somehow, but it has no affect.
Please see me message titled 'Intel Installation - Identifying HDDs' which I posted on this forum on 10th November. I haven't received any help on this issue.
Where do we go from here?

No hard drive found when I go to reinstall OS

Hello all-
This is my very first post and it's about a very big problem. Yesterday when I restarted my computer it started back up but would not load past the gray loading screen. Today I tried to reinstall the OS and when I get to the select destination prompt it does not have the hard drive as one of my choices. Please advise
Thanks
Christie
iMac G3 600mhz Mac OS X (10.3.5) 512 ram

There's a good chance your hard drive is dead. Boot to the Install disk again and choose Disk Utility from the menu bar. If the hard drive shows up in the list of available drives, choose it and run Repair Disk. If it doesn't show up, then you may need something more industrial strength to try and get the drive repaired. Such as Disk Warrior, Drive Genius or Tech Tool Pro. Sometimes one can see a drive that the other cannot. Disk Warrior is usually the first choice for most Mac users.
None of these will help though if the hard drive isn't even spinning. Then the only hope of recovering any data that you must have is sending the drive to a place such as Drive Savers. These services are NOT cheap, but are the only recourse for a drive which cannot be recovered otherwise.

Orange blinking light and no hard drive found?

I set up my network without internet and connected a usb drive and when I use airport admin, it see the extreme n, though it will not find the hard drive. It use to work, something happened and I had to reset it and now I can not get it to recognize it. The light blinks orange. What is wrong?

That means the drive needs to be repartitioned if it's still functional. See:
Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs,) then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

W7 installation D20, no hard-drive found

I'm attempting to install the Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on my PC Lenovo D20 and
getting the following error at the screen that asks "Where do you want to install Windows":
"NO drives were found. Click load drivers to provide a mass storage driver for installation".
BIOS and XP recognize my HD space. Right now is one 250 MB HDD installed for the operating system.
The BIOS is set to the the recommended factory settings.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Solved!
Go to Solution.

welcome to the forum!
have you tried supplying a storage driver when you see the prompt? drivers for the intel and marvell controllers can be downloaded here. these will be packaged in executable files that you'll need to unpack to a USB drive.
ThinkStation C20
ThinkPad X1C · X220 · X60T · s30 · 600

HP Compaq 8710P No Hard Drive found in bios

I have an HP 8710P, when I go into the bios info there is no HD found, but I can hear it running, also when you when I do an HD check it picks it up. I've taken it out and put it in another Computer, It detecs it. the poeple I got it from wiped it with the bios some I'm thinking they messed up the bios are something

More likely the motherboard is bad and the SATA port is dead.

IBook crash - no hard drive found while trying to reinstall

My iBook crashed overnight, and after running a hardward test, which seemed fine, I went to reinstall OS X. Sadly, there is no destination volume showing up, as if the harddrive is not there. When I ran the hardware test, the harddrive did seem to show up. Any ideas or help greatly appreciated.

Hi Matt,
see wether resetting the PRAM/NVRAM solves your issue:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
-Petra

HP Laptop doesn't recognize Hard Drive

Hi,
I have a HP 620 (Pentium D 2,3GHz 1GB Ram) and it doesn't recognize the Hard Drive. The battery doesn't seem to work too.
If i try to install Windows, it says that there are no hard drives found. The diagnostic test in the BIOS says the same.
The DVD player is also lousy as **bleep**.
Do you guys have some tips about cause of this problem.
System information screenshot below
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Have you entered the UEFI PC Diagnostics to see if the component tests show the hard disk?
Had you considered removing the original hard disk, then reseating it and trying again to see if it is recognized as beong installed?
You can also put another hard disk in its place to see if it is recognized.
Is your notebook still in warranty? warranty status
****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

Z61t Hard drive not recognized

Im working on a z61t (9443A41) for a friend. He installed xp and was attempting to install the required drivers when things went bad. The computer displays no hard drive found no matter what you do. So far I have removed the hard drive (fujitsu mhv2060bh) hooked it up on another computer via cable adapters, the hard drive is readable, I have tested it with fujitsu's diagnostic program as well as with partition magic. I formatted the hard drive and reinstalled it. I have updated the bios to v2.24 (7FETA6WW) via bootable cd and using ultimate boot disk cleared the cmos. The boot order is correct and im completely out of ideas. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated I also have the restore cd he ordered from "user-guides.co.uk" but it doesnt seem to be bootable
Rich

HDD bios modes: AHCI can´t be recognized by a clean installation from a xp cd rom, must be in COMPATIBILITY to do that,

Restore Hard Drive from Backup DVD's

Own 4 HP G7 Windows 7 system
one computer was showing the fan was overheating and requested to be turned off soon
turned it off
Took hard drive out of the unit A with the fan problems and swapped with the hardrive from
unit B (another G7)
Computer A or B would not boot properly
So I ran a HP backup of the Hard drive from A which is now in unit B requested 10 DVD's seems to have backuped with out problems but could only boot in safe mode
Took the unit A in for repair-Fan was dirty, they cleaned it, and it worked fine-exchanged hard drives back to origiinal state A with A and B with B
B started without a problem and was normal
A had problems and the tech said they need to reinstall opeating system to boot but would not damage data.
Opened B but it had no data. Used the DVD to restore but hung up on 2nd DVD at 4 % and said could not find hard drive (1st DVD was OK)
All 10 DVD have swm files so I took it to a data recovery repair shop. They said they can read and retrieve most files but when un zipped they were corrupted and could not be read.
Need the data for my son's college work stored.
DVD's seem to have data but can not retrieve or reload. Original haed drive in A seems to have been over written and data is no longer there but have DVD's the backup was with HP software onto DVD but can not retrive the files. Can HP retrieve the compressed files from the DVD's for a restore?
Seems that the units both G7's had different proceessors one was dual he other not and the backup was made while the hard drives were swapped out. Please advise as what can be done.

Hi @TonyBlair1 ,
Thank you for your inquiry, I will do my best to assist you!
Please remember when posting to include your exact model of G7 you have.
How Do I Find My Model Number or Product Number?
I grasp that you have 4, G7 notebooks running Windows 7. Computer A had a overheating issue and you removed the hard drive and swapped it with computer B.
Neither computer would boot properly.
So you ran a backup from A which is in computer B from safe mode.
You took unit A in and had it repaired.
You replaced drive A into computer A and drive B back in computer B.
B worked normally.
Now Drive A Computer A
The tech advised you that you need to reinstall Windows to boot but it would not affect your files. You attempted to use your DVDs to do a restore but on 2nd DVD you get an error no hard drive found.
First I would like to clarify, did you do a Microsoft backup and restore or did you do a HP recovery and backup?
As you did stated you used HP software I am providng links on recovery.
Using System Recovery, Factory Reset and Minimized Image Recovery Options
Performing an HP System Recovery (Windows 7)
Troubleshooting HP System Recovery Problems (Windows 7)
Restoring Files that were Backed Up Using HP Recovery Manager (Windows 7)
I hope this helps.
Sparkles1
I work on behalf of HP
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

I need to replace the hard drive in my HP Pavilion dv6405, where can I find a replacement?

I was given this computer, first I had to contact your board to unlock because I had no password for Power on, I got it unlocked with your help, and I thank you for your help, but the hard drive must have failed because it says there is no hard drive. Do you know where I could get a replacement for it? Or is it even worth fixing?

Hi:
First run the hard drive diagnostics found in the BIOS to see what it reports.
If it also reports no hard drive found or reports errors with the disk, the hard drive is probably dead.
I had posted the link to the service manual on your other question regarding the password.
I highly recommend you open the hard drive bay and see if there is a hard drive in there now.
If there isn't, you will not only need a new hard drive, but also the caddy which it needs to be connected to the PC's motherboard.
If the notebook has a hard drive, then you can get any SATA II notebook hard drive. I would not go beyond 320 GB for that model.
This site has hard drives at very reasonable prices.
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380&name=Laptop-Hard-Drives
Then you just remove the caddy from the old hard drive and transfer it to the new one.
You will also need recovery disks to install the operating system and programs that shipped with the PC.
Please read the info at the link below on how to order recovery disks.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=bph07143#N76
If HP no longer has them for your model, then you can order them from this non-HP vendor. You will need to know if the model is a dv6405us or dv6405ca.
http://www.computersurgeons.com/SearchProducts.aspx
If you discover your PC does not have a hard drive or caddy, it would be best if you ordered a drive from HP (one of the ones listed in chapter 3 of the service manual). I believe they come with the caddy.
Paul

"no drive found" installing w 8.1 on SSD on Flex 2 15

Dears, I've been going crazy for 1 week, trying and trying everything to make a clean installation of Windows 8.1 64bit on an SSD I bought for my Flex 2 15. I've read thousands of pages of forums, changed 3 different SSDs, but nothing was successfull!(Crucial MX100, Crucial BX100, ADATA SP920SS) every time, during the W8.1 Setup Wizard, it displays "No hard drive found" when I have to choose in which drive to install the OS. My Lenovo Flex 2 15 came with Windows 8.1 pre-installed on a WD hard disk. Please help me.

solved this issue just......changing the SSD I bought a Samsung 840 EVO and it works correctly. Tried Crucial M550 (listed as compatible on Crucial website), Crucial MX1100, ADATA, but nothing with Samsung no issues.

Won't Boot from Internal Hard Drive

I received the "Startup Disk is Full" message and neglected to do anything about it before my Mac stopped booting. To remedy this, I installed and booted from Snow Leopard (10.6) on an external hard drive, found what was eating my space on my internal hard drive (currently Mac OS 10.5.8) and freed up about 35 GB of space.
I then went to my System Preferences to change the default Startup Disk back to the internal drive. It's not booting past the gray screen.
Any ideas on how to fix this? Do I now need to update my internal hard drive to Snow Leopard? If so, will this erase anything on my internal drive?

Hmm.
Do you have your external drive connected?
Try booting with the ALT key held down. Is your internal drive an option here? Choose it, then give the computer 5~10 minutes to boot.
If that doesn't work, try holding the Shift key and starting up in Safe Mode, which will take 5~10 minutes.
Do you have your OS X install discs for 10.5?
~Lyssa

Does MBA Hard Drive have longer warranty? Smart Status says drive is poop.

I know the Apple systems come with a 1 year warranty but I seem to remember in the past, many hard drive manufacturers actually warranty the hard drives longer than that. Of course label to remove them is not covered but curious, is the hard drive found in the original Rev A MacBook Air have a longer warranty from that manufacturer? If yes, who makes them, and who can one send them to for replacement. I would guess there are date codes found on them and if that is the case, I would think sending the drive to them, and a date code less than what there warranty is, one can get a replacement???
My MBA is still running but Disk Utility tells me there is a problem that can't be fixed. Recommends I back-up and take it to Apple for service. I have not tried to erase it and format it to see if that corrects issue but I take it this SMART Status is looking at something about the drive that a format will not fix.
I want to get ready to replace the drive if that happens. I have owned this MBair for 1 year 8 months so out of warranty from Apple but if the drive has longer warranty, I will take it out myself and get a replacement.
Or, is the drive only covered by Apple ONLY for 1st year and that is that?
tj

Hi,
I read we have never been to the moon... but I just don't believe it.
Hard disks have moving parts and are - while we can already fly to the moon - still not error resistant. You may experience hard disk failures usually within the first 24 hours, or never. Long believed. Google used its data from data centers (where the search engine lives) and saw that neither smart nor any other mechanism will be able to tell when a drive fails. I am using hard drives that run now for 9 years in daily use, without problems... of course it is sad if it fails after 1,5 years... but you can get it replaced easily. A common problem it is not. Go to the Apple dealer of your choice, bring your invoice and maybe you leave happy again. sometimes it works, sometimes not, better then whining here at least.
volker

No Hard Drive Found

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