I think my HD's dead

[Chrisdafu]

I just started up my old computer for the first time in about a year. When I turn it on everything goes fine until it says something to the effect of "Error cannot read C drive" or "Error unable to read the data on C drive" What do you think is going on??? Is it just the HD because I have a new one I havent put in yet but was wondering if this was the problem. :(

[Thelemac]

It could be, or it could be the IDE cable...did it just sorta die one day or did you do something first (move it, change it out...that kind of thing). You could try to detect it in BIOS, or you could test the new one (to make sure that it isn't the IDE cable or mobo).

*Moved to "General Hardware"*

[Christoph]

I've had a couple of HDs that would run fine if I turned the computer and left in at the BIOS settings screen on for a couple of minutes before booting up fully. Just a thought.