hello,i dough if its the battery as it should still show them in the bios default settings ,battery is used to save info when power plug is removed from you computer .i would start with checking the harddrive cables/power plugs, inside the tower,unplug them and plug them back in

I too have been having a problem with this. I've tried several hard drive but non have worked. I've tried them on a working system and run a chkdsk on 2 of them and they all work fine. Is there anyway around it?

hi, you tagged an old post .please start your own thread and give a bit more info ,to what the problem is you are having

Try replacing sata port & sata cables & check if has a has jumper

This problem of being unable to recognize a good IDE hard drive, particularly in the wake of having used a SATA drive, is well-known with this model and certain other models of Dell desktop PCs; as witnesed by a quick web search. The problem seems to be widely known, and seems to be due to some deficiencies in BIOS code.

Some folks have found work-arounds by temporarily removing the BIOS backup battery and then re-booting the PC minus the battery, but I can tell you from first-hand experience with the OptiPlex GX240 that this method, while it often works to some extent, often requires multiple tries and lots of experimentation, fiddling and tinkering.

~~~Vinny