Harddrive problem


Recommended Posts

I have bought a new harddrive. It's a Maxtor 40 gig/5400 RPM.

I checked on the harddisk master/slave and that's good.

When I boot up it checks the memory, then showing the master hd, then it's searching for the slave hd. and then my comp just freezes. Can't even press F4 to skip.

If I disconnect the slave hd, then it works just fine.

Then I switched the connectors from the IDE cable and still the same problem.

I set the hd's on cable select and the slave doesn't get recognized, but the comp does start up.

If I only connect the slave, it doesn't show up either.

I'm thinking that I have a bad hd.

Is there something that I forgot to do, or can I go back to the store and change it for an other one??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

these things might help, might not...

- Try connecting the new harddrive on a separate ide cable (set it as master)

- Try using it just by itself. Some drives have been known to cause conflicts with each other.

- Try going in to BIOS and detecting the harddrive there

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Good luck man.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know that on my "Revolution" workstation up in the living room, I had problems installing a Maxtor DiamondMax D740X 40GB 7200 RPM drive on a MyComp mobo.

Turned out to be a BIOS problem.

If you have a spare PCI IDE controller (eg... HotRod or Promise) kicking around... you should try hooking it up to that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tried the hd on an other system i have (my girls and she is not happy that I tried it on her system, but it was easier then put in my own system LOL) and no problems there.

I think I was a bit vague, it's a win98 system pentium 500 2 years old I believe.

I am thinking that it has something to do with the bios like simguy suggested, but i dont have a spare pci ide controler :(

But if the hd is attached i cant even go into the bios.

thanks for the help coexist and simguy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep, I would most definately think it is a BIOS problem. The "Revolution" machine I have is a Pentium III 550E (Coppermine Slot 1).

When I went to stick in the Maxtor DiamondMax D740X 40GB Hard Disk, the computer wouldn't recognize the hard disk at all on the Primary Slave channel (where I was going to place it). I tried anything and everything I could think of (changing jumpers, IDE cables, IDE channels, etc...) but nothing worked.

When I unhooked the new hard drive, the system booted up without a hitch.

It turned out that the BIOS on this motherboard (MyComp TI6NBD) has a limit of only being able to address hard disks that are 32GB or smaller. Sounds like you are having a similar problem.

Since there were no BIOS updates for this particular motherboard, I had to install a PCI IDE controller.

I'd suggest that you either update your BIOS to the newest version and try to install the HDD again or go out and purchase a cheapo $40.00 PCI IDE controller and hook the new hard disk up to that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got it working now, but there is one problem, it only recognizes 32 gig, so the mobo doesnt support more and I'm not gonna update it, cause I have never done that and I don't know ir there are any. If you have never done it, there are too much things that can go wrong and it's not my system.

My friend told me to replace the old one, so I don't have any worries more hahahhaha

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How much does a new motherboard cost? Peanuts you say? Even if its not good, its gonna be better than that heap of trash you have atm that cant even recognise drives over 32gb.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LOL she doesnt complain. She said: "Oh I thought that you just gonna replace the hd" and when I said that she's missing 8 gigs, she just said: "Well, its a lot more than I have now".

HAHAHHAHAHA women...J/K

Link to comment
Share on other sites

check for bios update

they're easy to do

you download patch

uncompress it to floppy

boot from bootable floppy

flash bios

simple i done plenty never lost a board

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.