My original 250gb hard drive was absolute TOAST; I tried a new hard drive and then another and another but f5 still said "hard drive not present". FYI, all my new boxed drives are 7 mm slim (i have only 320gb and 500gb on hand), but when I insert a used 9.5 mm drive the Dell sees it. Sadly, I don't have any decent 9.5 mm drives and would like to use one of my slims. Any ideas?
Whoops, I just wasted your time. MY APOLOGIES! Updating the BIOS from A5 to A14 fixed it. Sheesh. lol