Add hardware and break system, don't do this.

Well in my frustration at doing something I do once a year, I may have made changes and am not sure how to fix what's been done.

My cpu cooling fan stopped working.... simple enough to replace, I thought.
They didn't carry the size so I was sold a new improved and larger model. To install it I had to remove the motherboard and change the mounting bracket. Last time I took system apart was for new cpu more then a year ago and took me a week to get system to work again... I'm not very calm at this and in my frustration I couldn't get system to start... I started changing my bios and such and now I finally got the system (after 3 days ) to run but will not read my second drive( the original 160 works but new 320 not.)
When I start up in safe mode it can access the M drive ( new ones name) and C and D (160 partitioned) but can't access in normal running.

I have no idea what I've done or how to fix it. ( btw I don't back up my system and have had it for over 3 years)

Any ideas? For helping fix this problem, not fix me rolleyes

 

Hi, which OS? Are the drives IDE or SATA?

In the Open box, type diskmgmt.msc, and then click OK. What do you see for the 320gb drive in normal mode?

 

What is an "open box"? do I have to do the restart and go back to safe mode?

I'm not very saavy on any of this just a fast learner. I'm using vista. and drive worked fine before I messed with bios and such.

 

Start button and then the search box. Just type diskmgmt.msc in there. A window will open with a graph for the drives and should tell you if Vista sees the 320gb drive as empty or if it sees the partition correctly. Normal mode is fine.

Do the hard drives have jumpers and a wide flat data cable or are the SATA drives with smaller cable?

 

In the disk 1 slot I have, 6.83 GB healthy EISA Configuration,... C: 71.28 GB NTFS healthy (system, boot, page file, active, crash dump , primary partition.),.... D: 70.94 GB NTFS healthy (primary partition), .....4.34 GB Unallocated....... 4 in there ... all others are blank.

As for cables they are fat flat and short on both hard drives... plugged into 2 openings on motherbaoard side by side.. only 2 available. and power is connected. not other cables.

I really thank you for your patience with me on this .

 

Let's see do you have both drives on one cable or are they on separate cables? (Usually both HD would be on one cable and the CDROM would be on the other cable.

We are talking about these type cables...

http://forums.gamesforwindows.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Discussions.Components.Files/3/2425.ide7.gif

 

Your HDs are SATA so that eliminates a jumper or misplaced cable from the equation.

In device manager do you have any yellow question marks? Start>type in devmgmt.msc and hit enter to get to Device Manager.

In Device Manager click the little arrow next to Disk Drives. Does it list both Hard Drives?

 

It only reads the one drive... on device manager and disk management.

 

Can you verify that in Safe Mode the disks show in Disk Management and Device Manager?

I'm not sure I will be able to help you. I was suspecting that when you were working on the board you connected IDE cables to the motherboard incorrectly. Since you aren't using IDE cables I don't have an idea going forward.

It could be a setting in BIOS but that wouldn't explain how you could access the drive in safe mode. BIOS either sees the drive or not. If you see the drive in safe mode then it must be seen in BIOS. So in my mind that leaves a storage driver working in safe mode and not in normal mode. But I am unsure how to diagnose that.

 

I have no idea how I got it into safe mode before, I think it was after it crashed. :-o I have tried to get into it again but have no idea how. I also have changed something because now I have to hit F-12 and set the hard drive in order to boot the computer now not sure how I did that either... I'm starting to think I'll have to spend money on taking it in to the store ( Canada Computers) where I buy almost all my stuff and see how much it'll cost to fix... not easy for me on limited income oh well I do appreciate all the help you've given me I'm just not sure I can handle anything else going wrong on my only entertainment and fun. :cry

 

I think it is all related because it appears BIOS is not reading Disk 0 which would be your normal boot disk. So it asking which drive to boot form and you have to choose disk 1 in F12.

I don't want to mess you up since it took you three days to get things running. Normally, I would say just go to BIOS and choose to set it to defaults and hope that would clear up the disk being recognized problem.

I will think about what specifically to look for in BIOS that might be useful. Maye someone else will jump in with a suggestion on how to be sure that BIOS is set to recognize both drives.

 

One thing you could also do is double check your cables on the HD and motherboard ends making sure they are firmly seated.

As a separate test, you might also try switching the two cables and see if you get the same result or if the 320gb is recognized and the 160gb is not. (That would tell you if one of the cables is bad)

 

Some motherboard BIOS's require you enable each SATA connector. They are usually numbered 0,1,2,3,4, etc on the motherboard. See which ones you have drives connected to and in the BIOS check to see if each one needs to be enabled (i.e.: turned on). And as Sach2 said check the Boot section in the BIOS as well (can be called Boot, Boot Order,etc) and check that it is looking to the right drive to boot from.

Sam