Computer repair in Houston/Sugarland

[nuke789]

Looking for a reasonable computer repair shop to fix my Dell Inspiron 6400.
Hard Drive failed, so I installed a new one.
Now I am getting a "no boot sector on internal hard drive."
Now when I power it up it looks like it wants me to enter a command.
Totally lost!

[wclavey]

When you installed the new one, did you set the strap settings or dip switches for it being the primary drive? I know that many are shipped set as something like cable switchable.

[nuke789]

not sure what you are talking about.
i have partition the new hd.i am stuck at the OS reinstallation Cd.
It has me at the Boot Menu select CD/DVD boot option.
Is says press any key to boot from cd or dvd,but it doesn't do anything.

[sporkthedork]

It is quite possible that your computer may not be reading your new hard disk. Did you replace the old drive with a similar unit (i.e. storage, RPM)? You should be able to go into your BIOS to check and see if the computer is recognizing the drive. If it isn't showing up here, try taking out the new hard disk and reinserting it. It's possible you just have a loose connection. Otherwise you shouldn't have an issue with the OS disk not working.

What OS are you using?

[ngoduyviet]

Simple, stick your dell restore disk in there then boot up again then follow the instruction to partition, then format & restore your OS, most likely window$ If you don't need it fixed right away, PM me, I can help on next Monday.

[groovyone]

Do you have a second computer? If there is data you need to recover from the HDD go to Frys and buy a HDD enclosure for it. That allows you to access the drive as you would any USB External HDD and get any data off before wiping it. I just did the same thing on a friends laptop.

What CD are you trying to boot from? It has to be a system restore disk or Windows install disc, NOT a backup disc of your system. If you have the sys restore or Windows disc one of the options should be to repair an existing windows installation.

DO NOT take it to most computer repair places. They will charge you to wipe the drive and reinstall, then probably some BS fees to 'make sure there is no spyware', both of which you can do easily yourself.

[Cajungaltx]

Okay - this may be a stupid suggestion.... but are you using a USB keyboard?

Sometimes the drivers for the USB don't load immediately - so you can press 'enter/whatever' all you want....and nothing is going to happen.

You can change that in the BIOS - but if you can't do anything with the keyboard - and since your computer is older - you probably need a PS2 connector...they make the ones where you can plug in a USB keyboard to it - and then plug the PS2 connector in....

I 2nd the idea of not taking it to a computer repair place....your problem isn't a major one for most of us computer geeks...*grin*... I'm in Houston (Katy) and can help you out if none of these suggestions work.