Hard disk drive failure message

First thing to check is that the drive is correctly mounted and connected to the system board.

What caused the mainboard to fail?  Power surge?  Accidental damage due to a knock-over or fall?  If that, was the system powered on when the accident happened?

Does the system setup (F2 at powerup) see the drive?  If it does, is the SATA mode set to the same way it was when you were running the system (AHCI, RAID, etc.)?  What OS is was on the system -- if it was a Dell OEM install, it likely was running in UEFI mode with secure boot ON.  The new mainboard may need to have the SATA and UEFI parameters reset to the way the system was running in order to boot the drive.

First thing to check is that the drive is correctly mounted and connected to the system board.

Yeah, that was my first thought. I went back in, removed and carefully reinstalled, making sure everything seemed right. Same Hard disk drive message after reassembly.

What caused the mainboard to fail?  Power surge?  Accidental damage due to a knock-over or fall?  If that, was the system powered on when the accident happened?

I have absolutely no idea. One day it just wouldn't restart. All I got was a black screen. The consensus seemed to be that I had a motherboard issue. Changing the motherboard solved the black screen issue, but on trying to boot for the first time, I got the Hard drive failure message. That makes the motherboard settings seem like a distinct possibility.

Does the system setup (F2 at powerup) see the drive?  If it does, is the SATA mode set to the same way it was when you were running the system (AHCI, RAID, etc.)?  What OS is was on the system -- if it was a Dell OEM install, it likely was running in UEFI mode with secure boot ON.  The new mainboard may need to have the SATA and UEFI parameters reset to the way the system was running in order to boot the drive.

Here's the story of what's happened so far.

Turned on computer for first time after System board replacement. Dell logo came up and I pressed F12, specified the Win 10 bootable USB stick, and hit Enter. Got the 4 small blue window logo in the middle of the screen with the racing dots below for a few minutes, then nothing. Screen was black. Never got any messages of any sort. The hard drive light was on solid, not blinking for 10 minutes or so. I interpreted that to mean the HDD was receiving power but was not responding. Then, it started blinking at about 60 Hz, not the normal irregular blinking, still no visible progress, no messages, black screen. Turned computer off after about an hour of no change.

Turned computer on again, got the Dell logo and pressed F12 to specify the Optical drive which contained a Repair Disk. Got message “Hard-disk drive failure. Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility.” This was the first time I’d seen that message. I selected F2. Changed boot order to boot from Internal ODD. Exited setup. Got a Recovery screen. “Your PC/Device needs to be repaired. The Boot Configuration Data for your PC is missing or contains errors. File:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD. Error code: oxc0000185. You’ll need to use recovery tools If you don’t have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your PC administrator or PC/Device manufacturer.” Exited Setup, got same exact Recovery screen. Shut down. Turned on computer, got Dell logo but never got F2/F12 options. Came back with same “Hard disk drive failure” message as before. Removed Repair Disk. Shut down.

Does the system setup (F2 at powerup) see the drive?  If it does, is the SATA mode set to the same way it was when you were running the system (AHCI, RAID, etc.)?  What OS is was on the system -- if it was a Dell OEM install, it likely was running in UEFI mode with secure boot ON.  The new mainboard may need to have the SATA and UEFI parameters reset to the way the system was running in order to boot the drive.

....... What OS is was on the system -- if it was a Dell OEM install, it likely was running in UEFI mode with secure boot ON.  The new mainboard may need to have the SATA and UEFI parameters reset to the way the system was running in order to boot the drive.

OK, I found UEFI on the new motherboard BIOS settings. Secure boot control is enabled and the Boot Mode is UEFI. If those are the normal Dell OEM settings, then I'm sure that's what the original motherboard had.( I wouldn't have changed the BIOS of the original system).

Check to make sure the drive is connected to the mainboard - it looks like it is not.  If it is connected, and was working before but isn't now, there are two possibilities:  a coincidental drive failure or that the replacement board has a bad SATA controller.

OK. I’ll check it again, but I really feel quite confident that’s not the problem. I don’t know that it was working before. I might have lost it when I got hit with the black screen problem. I’m leaning toward the HDD as the culprit. The vendor that sold me the motherboard swore that it was pulled from a unit that had a broken display and that it worked with a different display when it was removed (for what all that’s worth),

Why do you say it looks like it’s not connected? Because BIOS doesn’t show a SATA 0? Or because of the 0xc0000185 error? Or the solid HDD LED for an extended time followed by a steady blinking? Or…..??? What clue seemed most significant to you?

Could I pull the HDD out and simply plug it in as a secondary drive in my desktop, to see if it works? Would the fact that it contains an OS be a problem? Would the fact that it might be bad possibly create a problem in my desktop? Would that be a smart thing to do? Or not? I don’t want to mess up a second computer screwing around with this one.

Thanks. I appreciate your assistance.

The hard drive isn't seen - meaning either it or the controller is bad.

Did you ever remove the hard drive from the system to see if it would complete its powerup self test before you replaced the mainboard?  If you didn't, given your description, I have a feeling it wasn't the mainboard that was bad -- but the hard drive. 

The hard drive isn't seen

Is that the missing SATA 0 that tells you that?

meaning either it or the controller is bad.

Is the controller an integral part of the motherboard, or is it replaceable?

Did you ever remove the hard drive from the system to see if it would complete its powerup self test before you replaced the mainboard?

No

If you didn't, given your description, I have a feeling it wasn't the mainboard that was bad -- but the hard drive.

What's your thinking about my suggestion to install the hard drive in my good computer as a second drive?

OK, thanks. Appreciate all your advice.

.........................Did you ever remove the hard drive from the system to see if it would complete its powerup self test before you replaced the mainboard?  If you didn't, given your description, I have a feeling it wasn't the mainboard that was bad -- but the hard drive.