When I boot up my Dell Dimension 2400 Desktop the process stops before it gets to Windows. The last 2 lines on the black screen say "Primary Drive 1 not found" followed by "Strike F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility." When I strike F1 the boot up continues to a normal Windows configuration.

I have gone over the setup page several times and everything looks to be in order but I think that's where the trouble lies. What is the setup supposed to be?

F1 is a bypass error key.

In many BIOS Setups you can disable F1 on BIOS error.

Why the error is occurring is another question. Is this a new problem? Any new hardware or software?

The initial error indicates your BIOS cannot directly detect your hard drive. Yet the bypass has no problem.

Have you run the Dell diagnostics?

I do not recall any changes which woiuld affect this but since I have just "lived with it" for a few months I honestly don't know what I may have done to cause it. I tried the diagnostics disk as suggested and it confirmed, to me, that the BIOS is not finding the right drive on its own. When I used F12 I got the boot menu and chose #5, the IDE option. I first got the same message about the F1 and F2 keys followed by a test as follows.
"Primary IDE
Drive 0: WDC WD400BB-DEA0 - Pass
Drive 1: No IDE Device
Secondary IDE
Drive 0: Lite-on LTN 486S 48 Max Diag. not supplied
Drive 1" HL-DT-ST-GCE-8483B Diag. not supplied"

Looks like it is going to a "Drive 0" when it should be going to drive 1. I don't know why it won't go through boot sequence in the Dell Diagnostics sheet even though I followed the directions several times. It jsut takes me to the Press F1, and F2 instructions.

Do you have two hard drives?

I see Drive 0 as your functioning hard drive but the BIOS is looking to Drive 1 prior to Drive 0 and it finds no Drive 1. Is there a drive 1 (or second hard drive) installed?

Otherwise can you alter the hard drive selection in the BIOS to place Drive 0 prior to Drive 1?

I have only one internal hard drive (C) but I do have a Nextor external hard drive which is my Drive (F). In addition I have a CD Drive (D) and a CD-RW Drive (E).

You also asked if I coiuld change the BIOS to look for Drive 1 first. I don't know how to alter the BIOS.

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...n/syssetup.htm

Check the Boot Menu but also System Configuration.

If you have no Drive 1 then disable it (Off) here.

Primary Drive 1:
Displays primary hard drive 1 (if installed). The default is Off.

My last post said I did not know how to change the primary drive to off as you suggested. Also, when I go to F2 setup I do not see a primary frive as such I get the following drive configurations settings.

Prumary Master Drive Hard Drive Auto
Primary Slave Drive Unknown Auto

Disable the slave if you do not have one.

To jephree: Thanks. Finally got around to trying your last suggestion and it fixed the problem.