HD Detection

Hi Guys.. A week ago bought a new 'Maxtor 250 Gig 7200rpm 16 mb cache' and have been trying to get com to recognise since then. This is how it goes.. Original setup . 2 x 120 Seagate Barracudas SATA.. 1 x 200 Gig WD. (Eide) those have been running fine for quite a while.. The Maxtor is also an Eide. I wont bore you with the details of getting it formatted other than using a Maxtor Diagnostic disk to achieve it. The problem is that it will recognise now and again and sometimes it will be listed in bios but when I continue to boot it disappears again. I have tried as Master as a single Eide (with the 2 sata's OS) and its just a hit or miss affair if it is recognised. On Friday I mangaged all 4 being recognised but after a while the Maxtor dissappeared then on reboot the WD goes as well. Have tried the master/Slave combinations, all Jumper combinations. First boot recognition (eide) all these processes have the same effect, there they are, there they are gone. At one stage I did manage to drag some data accross onto the Maxtor and all OK as far as that goes.Have run Diagnostic test again and it did find errors and was able to fix, (And on some occasions it could not find the drive at all although it was there prior to reboot). As far as I can see BIOS is up to date as board only 12 months old if that. So I have basically run out of ideas, any suggestions gratefully recieved.. Now whether this has anything to do with it I really dont know as it was there before I even bought the Maxtor. I have a MBR Error 3 and I never put an Admin password in so cannot access to correct, and yes I have read up on how to change encrypted password that M$ so kindly put in. Oh forgot to mention if I slave it in my other com it is recognised no prob. That is on an ABIT KN7 AMD3000XP.

AMD64 3200
ABIT KV8 Pro 3rd Eye
512 DDR 400
XP Pro
SATA 2 x 120 gig Seagate Barracudas
1 x 200 gig Western digital Eide
and the Maxtor Monkey 250 Gig
and all the other stuff that makes it go round ...

 

Have you tried another IDE cable? Have you verified all of the BIOS settings or cleared CMOS?

 

Yes have tried all that and last night I had the BSOD so reseated memory stick this morning and fingers crossed so far so good. i am now to try and partition into 2 x 125 gigs and see if that will make a difference, shall keep ya posted IF I can get a com to recognise it..

 

Well now it gets worse.... I managed to get older com to recognise the maxtor 250 gig and I formatted again and was able to partition, put it in my usual computer and it did recognise it in BIOS but after continue to boot it disappeared. After several attempts the MOBO now will not even recognise my Sata RAID where the OS is.. Have tried setting CMOS Jumpers a couple of times but no go... (incidentally all Eide are disconnected now) I must admit I am at a loss, where do i go from here ???

 

Have you checked the raid settings on the mobo to make sure they are correct? Everything is plugged in, right? All connectors from the psu are working?

 

Is this what you bought...

http://www.maxstore.com/product.asp?sku=2565010http://www.maxstore.com/product.asp?sku=2565010

If so...granted they probably don't test every single drive out there, but...this model is not in the abit compatibility list for your mobo...see the link below...

http://www2.abit.com.tw/test_report/KV8_Pro/02.php

So this could be the start of your issues...but...that doesn't mean we have to throw on the brakes here, either!! There still might be a workaround!!

What is the current bios version on your machine? Cause I'm seeing that they are up to version 22...however, they aren't showing any added support for storage space, so that still might not be the issue!!

In the meantime...I'm trying to see if I can find anywhere about standard maximum storage support for Windows XP (which I assume is what you have??) because I recall an article in one of my pc magazines about storage stability issues with windows xp when you get into the high numbers!! But as you can imagine...i'm racking my brain here to see if I can find that article!! Just didn't know if maybe this will trigger something in someone elses head!!

I'll try to get back with more info asap!!!!

Also...have you tried putting both ata drives on CS instead of master/slave...to see what that does!!??

Roger

 

Thanx for replies.Have managed to solve the last issue of no RAID it was the CMOS settings playing up even though I saved it actually wasn't doing so. I went to that site rogvalcox and no HD appeared but you have given me another route to go, I will look at HD type tomorrow and follow up in the ABIT test site. I guessed there may be an issue with a large capacity Drive but thought it was when you hit the 300 mark the probs beagan. As I have said I have partitioned it into 2 x 125 gigs but at the moment am a bit reluctant to connect it. I'll keep you posted .. PS yes have tried CS on both EIDE to no avail..

 

Well I have now come to the conclusion that i am not going to be able to achieve 4 HD connection. I have exhausted every way but which way and every catastrophe imaginable.. From BSOD to buggering up both computers temporarily.. I'll start from last night 6 pm, went for a reboot via Widows but would not, so I pressed the reboot button and the consequence was no HD's detected at all, reset CMOS several times, no good so I took battery out over night and ok this morning. I booted with the sata only No DVD/RW's when booted each time adding Rom Drives I created a restore point. Eventually I have the 2 x 120 RAID Array (seagate barracuda) and the 200 Gig WD (Eide) Ok .. I then connected the 250 Maxtor and No had's detected at all. Swapped Drive positions from WD (now unconnected) to Maxtor (Master) and OK . Connect WD and Bam no Hd detection. This of course caused endless agro to get com to recognise just the RAID again and had to resort to battery removal as CMOS jumper reset did nothing.. So all in all I am just resigned to having the 3 for now until I find a solution. Kind thanx for those that took an interest ... as a PS I employed every jumper setting that was possible, changed RAM and Vid Card, just about all relevant BIOS CMOS settings, 3 types of HD Diagnostics, installed new chip drivers, new Cables etc.etc. Keep Geeking

 

Further more >>. I have taken the Maxtor out and replaced with a Dekstar 120 gig and am getting the same.. when booted a DVD/RW disappeared but all HD's showing. When I accessed the Dekstar computer froze,rebooted and unplugged both Roms, and here we go again both EIDE's are not showing only the RAID .. so it seems as it is not just a Maxtor issue. Have been to ABIT Bios upgrade site and mine not listed so I assume I am up to date. Somewhat confused though as Everest and CPU Info says Phonix-Award BIOS v6.oo but looking directly on Mobo it says KV8 Pro v1.1. perhaps someone could straighten me out on that .. My memory is only a common PC3200/SDRAM 512mb/400 does this need an upgrade to a Corsair ?? I'm lost as to what is causing it as this Rig should handle 4 HD's NP.. any suggestions plz. Geeks ???

 

Things have got even worse, a right tangle now.. Suddenly the DVD/RW's one by one caused freezing, I swapped jumper settings slave/master but made no diff so I started at the begining , No HD's or Roms atached other than the RAID, have to reset CMOS jumper each time for bios to recognise HD's. Am trying to do a clean install but when I connect a ROM no HD's detected there seems to be a big issue with bios settings, the odds of a mobo virus is slim but am beggining to think that way, got badly infected and have run MG virus removal and rid nearly all and the one left is a e-mail notifier, annoying but no big prob, so where do i go from here. Can the bios have become corrupt?? can I flash bios with the same version without damage ?? I really that pissed have ordered another mobo due tomorrow as this problem been going on too long and gradually getting worse. :-(

 

Sorry to hear that mate I would consider looking into some new ide cables just to rule them out,if you have tried this and mentioned it I'm sorry I read half way through your 5th post in this thread and got a stabbing pain between my eyes ,so I can understand how you feel ,you can flash the bios with the same version,but I'd go with the latest one you can find for the board.

Stay strong

 

Thanks for qick replty Rikky... Unbelieveably I went ahead again after reset cmos and thought F*** it and connected a ROM and the Maxtor 250 and lo and behold the damn things are there and I'm just in the process of transfering data. This is after many many attempts over the past week. But I bet it will start all over when I reboot. I believe I have the latest BIOS version and was enquiring if I Flash the same version will it cause more harm than good ?? There's something fishy going on as computer seems to decide when to play and when not to.

 

Nope bios dont work like drivers they dont check for indivuidual line of binary and only update the ones that are new,the current is wiped and the file you tell it to install is installed in whole

 

Ummmm OK Rikky thanks for that.. I have just done a clean reinstall of OS and on trying to install drivers I put mobo disc and in and its saying''not a valid win32 application' so DL'ed onto floppy and got chipset drivers in but on insertion of mobo disc again i get the same, also on other prog discs, does this shed any light on the subject, strangely this had not occured before the clean install. thanx again Rikky for your interest and help. PS. Transfer of data eventually caused a BSOD.

 

Extraodinary problem calls for Extraordinary measures... Computer would not boot past the POST past the Logo screen not matter what I tried... so I did a Bare Bones boot which included taking out the memory as well and let com run for about 2 minutes, rebooted with memory and OK, rebooted with SATA HD's and OK, rebooted with 1 DVD/RW and OK, rebooted with both DVD/RW and OK. Put programme disc in and read OK and loaded OK. Total mystery but have about 3 hours up time.. Notice I have not yet added an EIDE.

 

Sorted... The last thing I had thought of was power prob. I managed to install another 2 HD's and then I noticed that the panel fan had stopped, well to cut a long story short i got fan going left the com running for a few hours and when I next looked the side fan and rear exhaust had stopped.. Umm says I ,, wire probs so I knew Rom power leads OK so put a slpitter on there, installed the Maxtor and everything ok now. So what was happening was 2 of the power leads are iffy and if I used one of them or both of them to connect to HD's it would either power it to be recognised or not find at all, if it did start working after a while power lead would break down and that was the 'CLUNK' I would hear.. A whole month of trying every way but which way and this was all it was .. really effing annoyed,, but lesson learnt .. and thats computing for ya..