Hard drive not detected. RAID/Array issue?

I have PC running Windows 7 and it has had no problems up until recently. A few days ago, it froze and a family member unplugged the computer from the back (he pulled the cord). He first tried to press the on/off button in the front of the computer but it didnt do anything so thats why he pulled the cord. At first I though the HDD had died, so I turned on the computer and listened. It powered up normally and I can hear and feel the disks spinning without making any unusual noises. In the BIOS, it says that no Primary IDE Master is detected. I've checked the cables and even swapped my SATA cable for another one the HDD still wont detect.

First screen that comes up:
Scanning IDE Drives.... (It doesnt detect any so I get the second screen)


After this I have a couple of options:
CTRL+F Fastbuild Utility or ESC to continue boot
http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/2883/img1046u.th.jpg


If I press nothing I get the message:
No Hard Disk Drive Detected!
Press F1 to resume
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/9...g1048zr.th.jpg

Pressing F1 gets me:
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/4870/img1049c.th.jpg



During the second screen, I held CTRL+F and got to a FastBuild utility screen. I did a little reading and it seems like this program is used to create/edit RAID controllers. I only have 1 hard drive in my pc.

FastBuild Utility:
1=Auto Setup
2= View Drive Assignments
3=Define Array
4=Delete Array
5=RebuildArray

When I press '1'.
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/758/img1041nk.th.jpg

When I press '2'
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/7884/img1043hr.jpg

When I press '3'
http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/2811/img1044g.th.jpg

As you can see, the motherboard is clearly detecting the hard drive. Otherwise, I wouldnt be able to see it in the array settings, right? I've never worked with RAID before so I'm mostly guessing. I dont understand why I cannot seem to boot from it or why the array screen would show my HDD considering its just one.

Thanks in advance!

Enter BIOS and check that your IDE/SATA is not set to RAID.
Some setting in the BIOS is invoking the FastBuild utility despite the fact that you have but one drive and no intention of RAIDing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by clocker

Enter BIOS and check that your IDE/SATA is not set to RAID.
Some setting in the BIOS is invoking the FastBuild utility despite the fact that you have but one drive and no intention of RAIDing.

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The only RAID related setting I could find was an option called "Operating Mode" which I changed to "Onboard IDE OPerate Mode". It was something RAID related before.

The PC works again, but the "CTRL+F Fastbuild Utility or ESC to continue boot" screen still shows up when it didnt before. Also, its much slower to startup now. If I go into Fastbuild utility, can I disable it?

So, a small step forward, right?
Maybe back into BIOS and set to "BIOS default" and see if everything is hunky-dory again.

If not, it's hammertime.

change bios to default, if it still not working, try to test harddrive on another computer if possible.

If you want to set the bios to default automatically, turn the unit off, unplug from the wall (or switch the power supply to off) and go inside and remove the mobo battery for a bit (you can also use the cmos reset jumper if you know where it is, usually close to the battery [three posts] where its at is the normal two pins, move it over to the other two for reset and back to normal again). Put the battery back and the jumper back and restart the PC, if you can get to safe mode first, select "last known good configuration" at least thats what is in XP.
But, there must have been a reason it wouldn't shut down, so why not go into safe mode for real and run your scanners for a virus, and maybe uninstall anything you recently installed, or use the System Restore to go back a few days before it failed (all xp stuff I hate win7).