When I turn on my xbox its says that there are no profiles, when I have 5 profiles on my hard drive. Why will the Xbox not read the profiles on my hard drive?

Your hard drive is failing or your getting whats called RROD, very common on the xbox. Try to start your xbox with out your hard drive. If it start then your hard drive need to be changed.

Sounds like the hard drive will not initialize . This problem is most likely
your hard drive. Try another hard drive . If the problem persist then you have
time out error that will some times trip the 360 to display 3 red lights . First
try another drive . And post the results and I'll advise accordingly.

Rob

Your problem is a corrupted hard drive. Your only option really is to buy a new hard drive. If your gamer profiles are on Xbox Live, you will be able to recover them to your new Hard Drive.

Make sure the hadrive fastened tightly in.

If you are using an MU, there come out very easily, try wiggling it a few times.

Step 1: Connect your hard drive to your PC.
Step 2: Create a FAT32 partition on your hard drive. If you’re using less than 32 GB, you can use Windows via “Control panel > Administrative tools > Computer Management”. If you’re using more than 32 GB, you’ll have to use an external program, e.g. Partition Magic.
Step 3: Load all the content you want from your PC onto the external drive. This should consist of files that can be read on the Xbox hard drive.
Step 4: Remove the external hard drive from your PC. Plug it into your Xbox 360 console through the USB port.
Step 5: Go to the Media menu on your Xbox screen. Select "Portable Device" from the menu. All the readable files saved on the external drive should be available to read on your Xbox 360.
N.B. Xbox's connection with an external drive is read-only. You can only read files that are already on the drive after connecting. You can't save game files or anything else on the Xbox main drive onto the external hard drive. Also, USB storage devices cannot be used for Xbox live marketplace content.

A Working Solution.

Remove any disk from the DVD drive.
Remove the hard drive and turn on. When you get to the dashboard turn it off again by holding the X button on the controller and select 'Turn off console'.
Wait 10 seconds and then turn on again by pushing the X button on the controller. When you get to the dashboard turn off again via the X button.
Remove the AV / Video plug from the back of your Xbox.
Replace the hard drive correctly.
Switch on the Xbox via the power button on the console. 4 red lights should flash.
Wait 10 seconds and re-insert the AV / Video cable.
You should now load into the dashboard with your hard drive profiles - wait theres more!
Turn off and on via the X button as before another 2 times with all leads and the hard drive in place.
After you power it off the second time, remove the power lead for 20 minutes and then turn on again any way you feel like it and it should be cured.

i am afraid you cant merge the two but if you have a hard drive and a memory unit you can put the memory on the unit then transfer it to the profile you want on the hard drive

Did you take this out while it was saving something?

I have heared that if you just delete the profile, just the profile, everything will be just fine (note: This only works if your profile is on xbox live).
Just go to memor, then go into the saving device the corrupted profile is on. Then "click" on the botton that says profile and delete the corrupted profile. Remember; the profile will be a small save and not taking up most of your harddrive, look for something with MB size, not GB size. When you have done this, go to "recover gamertag" and do so for the profile you just deleted. After all this, your game saves and achivements should be present and working.

maybe your games are scratched or damaged hope this helps!