computer will not boot-up

[denshl]

I recently downloaded a hard disc management program
to improve the speed etc of the computer. I made various
settings which did improve the general running, however
since the last adjustment the computer has refused to
start with no hard disc activity at all. Short of fitting a new
hard disc does anyone know how I can get the thing going
again.
Any help appreciated. Thank you.

[ACtheTROLL]

can you get your money back?

c'mon give us a bit of a clue .... what prog ... what exactly was the last thing you done?

can you boot from floppy/cd/dvd?
is the disc spinning at all, is it sata/pata?
xp/vista

[vehelpfulguy]

Try going into your BIOS and see if the hard disk is listed as a device in your computer.

My GUESS is that your internal computer BIOS has "lost" the fact it has a hard disk inside and it may just be a case of going into the BIOS and allowing it to "find" it again.

If you have never been in your BIOS then let us know and we will tell you how to do it.

As you have discovered, it is a good idea to back up an image of your hard disk, maybe to a second hard disk, before making these sorts of changes.

That way, if the hard disk, or the Windows image, gets damaged at least you can recover quickly.

[denfol]

Hello VEHELPFULGUY,
I would like to try the BIOS solution, please advise how to do

Thank you,
denfol.

[beso]

In case veryhelpfulguy is slow getting back:

During boot your computer will say "Press some key to enter setup" Usually delete or an F key. Do that and take a look around. It is al run by keys, no mouse.

Every BIOS is different but there will be something about autodetecting each drive. Normally your drive will be something like Primary Master or SATA1. The CD will be there somewhere too.

It will usually say what the drive is somewhere.
If it isn't detecting it may be screwed.

[ACtheTROLL]

one possible problem with the bios theory.

the disc power and data are two seperate items ...
if the disc isn't seen by the bios it should still spin up ... you'd then get an error message asking for bootable media (please insert .....)

so it depends exactly what is meant by no disc activity

everything that's been written is correct ... I'm just not sure that it's right in this case