Hard Drive is not there?

[spysnipevic]

here are my specs

p.4
2.4 ghz
40 gigs
512mb
dvd-rw
floppy

heres the story,

I restarted my computer since it was going slow. after loading back up it never loaded windows. it asked me which boot device would i like to use and it had a list if only, atapi cd-rom and removeable device which is my floppy drive. My hard drive was just gone missing. i restarted and pressed f4 to get into a menu where it had boot configuration and i checked and again the primary boot device was atapi cd-rom and secondary was removable drive. My hard drive was not listed. I have no clue what to do. please help me.

[johnnyis42]

try re-seating the power plug (pull it out then put it back in). also try that with the IDE cable. if you changed anything before this, try changing it back. if you recently added another IDE device, check the jumpre settings. a very long, long shot is if you recently plugged in a USB card reader device for any flash memory cards. un plug those when you boot and see if it helps.

[bombledmonk]

If you tried all of the above, it is possible that your HD is dead. Did you notice any grinding sounds while your computer was going slow.

[spysnipevic]

no grinding sounds this happened to be before about 2 weeks ago, but somehow it was detected, but now it hasn't been detected for 2 days. So i think the problem is worse. Im thinking it is dead, what are some way to find out if it died?

[spysnipevic]

Alright i opened up my computer and found that it is covered in dust, my dad is going to go pick up some of those air can thingys. i have one question is the hard drive the one that has a fan connected to it and the computer outlet on it? and if the hard drive is dead than can i replace it with another hard drive i can buy, without having to send it to some computer guy?


edit : also could it have died because of heat? the fans i got are the one next to the hard drive, the case fan, the little fan on the motherboard, and a tiny ati video card fan. Is that a problem?

[spysnipevic]

ok, the hard drive isnt dead
after having it shut down for a couple of hours, i turned it back on and it works fine.

im thinking it was the heat and over heated the computer causing it to break down. the FANS i listed ABOVE are the only ones i got, u think i need more fans for this computer. the intel program i have tells me my computers gets up to 130 to 140 F.

[sechs]

Overheating generally leads to harddrive failure. I'd suggest running the manufacturer's diagnostics on the drive to assure that this was a hiccup, not the manifestation of damage.