Computer Learning

[Zorax]

How old is the drive. Don't throw out anything yet.
Do you know how to get to the bios?
If you can get to the bios, which is usually on boot up look for a message at the bottom of the screen for like, esc, or f11 depending on the MB.

In the bios, go through the pages looking for hard drive identification.

Maybe go on the internet and search for bios illustrations. Even better, find and download your MB manual. They are still out there, and it will have a whole section on bios.

What you're trying to get to is a bios page that will rescan for devices. Remember, this is before the bios hands it over to windows OS.

Your Xp bios loads MB drivers, usb stuff and info about the hardware and then hands it over to the operating system to load the rest of the file system and some drive info.

If you are still having problems, come back on here and if you like, I'll take some screen shots of the bios stuff I'm trying to explain. Sometimes windows just loses it's mind, and or the bios resets and the order of the boot sequence gets messed up. I've had that happen on a rare occasion as I run older sata drives and not ssd fancy schmancy drives. I wish.