Disk boot failure, HDD not seen in BIOS

Hi there,

This problem originally started about a month ago, with the odd crash (mouse would go 'jittery/laggy' and then eventually freeze - at which point it would sometimes BSOD and other times just restart). Then when I went to restart it would come up with this disk boot failure. At this time I would leave the pc off for a couple of hours/overnight and then it would start up normally again and work fine the next day.

However now I cant even get this far....all it comes up with whenever I power it up is the 'disk boot failure, please enter boot disk' message, after going through BIOS and POSTing. Even when I go into BIOS there is no sign of my HDD being present in the system.

I've tried changing SATA/power cables, using diff SATA ports, reseting BIOS, running one stick of RAM, etc to no avail. Obviously cant boot into windows or see the HDD so cant run Seatools or any other diagnostic tools. Also have no spare parts/ another pc to test the components with unfortunately

Just completely run out of ideas and was wondering if anybody had some last suggestions before I RMA my HDD or start replacing hardware (someone else has suggested a dying psu).

Specs are:
Asus p5n-e sli mobo
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500gb (about 1.5yrs old)
Windows 7 64bit
2gb (4x512mb ddr2 553mhz)
e6600
Coolermaster 650w psu
8800gts 512mb

To identify the problem with motherboard or HDD, you can try this HDD on a different machine and see whether you can see it. It may not boot properly in that machine due to different hardware. You can try it as a second hdd and see the contents from the windows.

If it works on a different machine, there could be a problem with motherboard. As you can go into the Bios and see the Bios contents, the power supply should be OK.

Unfortunately I dont have another machine that is suitable to test that HDD in

If I just bought a new HDD, whats the deal with installing windows 7. Will it be fine to install it onto a new HDD, even though its been installed on the original HDD previously?

Thanks for your help.

You have a 50% chance that the new HDD may work on the machine, as you could not identify the problem with HDD or Motherboard.

Assuming that the new HDD works in the system, do you have the original windows 7 home DVD with you to install windows on the new HDD. What about windows activation?

As you had an activated windows system on the old hard disk, you may install again but will have problems in activating the windows again. You may have to call Microsoft on telephone to complete activation.