HP Pavilion dv6405 will not recognize a hard drive

[Debrajean467]

I have replaced the hard drive twice and it is the same story every time. Could there be something else wrong that it is not picking up a hard drive?

[Huffer]

Yes on that series it can easily be a bad motherboard. You are using the little connector piece that goes between the SATA connectors and the motherboard, right? And you are not trying to install Windows XP where it says no hard drive, you cannot see it in the BIOS, right?

[Debrajean467]

I have been just dropping the hard drive into place where it goes I haven't touched any connectors. I have a recovery disk that is supposed to have Windows Vista on it, when I try to run it it gets to Windows recovery and then has an error 100a .

[Huffer]

Do you have one of these attached over the SATA connectors on the hard drive?

Without it, the hard drive does not make connection.

[Debrajean467]

Yes it does have that connector. I have a program that checks all the systems on the computer, everything passes except the hard drive, and it says there is no hard drive.

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

If you have that, its connected, the drive is good and it is not detected, it is the motherboard. 

[Debrajean467]

My mistake it did not have the connector so I took one off the old hard drive. I am trying to use the recovery disk now, so hopefully it will work now. Thank you for your patience and guideance I really appreciate your help.

[Huffer]

Don't usually ask for Kudos but I think they are deserved in this instance. Also if you want to indicate accepted solution do it on my post not yours. Thanks.