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BIOS not detecting hard disk

Started by Droog13 , Sep 25 2005 07:53 PM

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#1
Droog13
Posted 25 September 2005 - 07:53 PM

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Hi,

I seem to having some troubles with bios detecting my hard disk. I have 2x HDD one master one slave. I start my computer and enter BIOS and I notice that primary master/slave are both empty. I go into primary and auto-detect and that works fine. I then go to primary slave and go to auto detect but it does not come up with anything. (If I unplug the primary and start up bios it then can detect the slave.) I save bios and exit with the primary master set. It goes to the HP screen and stays there. I then shutdown/start up the PC again and it does not detect the primary master. I go into BIOS and again the primary master is not there.

I have set BIOS to boot hard drive so I know that is not a problem either.

I have the master jumper set on master, slave on slave. I have also tried them both on CS. The primary master came with the computer (HP Pavilion) and I bought the slave seperate. They have both been running fine together for awhile and this is a sudden problem. I have also checked all the plugs and I know the IDE cords are correct (slave first and master on the end).

Why isnt bios auto-detecting the hard drive?

I have attached my system specs. Sorry for all the clutter, but I just happened to have this emailed to myself and obviously I cant start my computer to get better info.


Thanks for the help,
Droog

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#2
fungit
Posted 26 September 2005 - 08:10 AM

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Possible solution is to set your primary slave HDD to Secondary Master HDD which means that one of your CD-ROMS will have to be set to primary slave.


Normal set up is usually slave device on the end of the IDE cable.

Edited by fungit, 26 September 2005 - 08:13 AM.

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#3
Samm
Posted 26 September 2005 - 10:51 AM

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Normal set up is usually slave device on the end of the IDE cable.

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Actually its not. The master device should be on the end of the cable with the slave device in the middle of the cable.


Fungit's right - making the second drive a master on the secondary controller should work fine, however attaching a CDROM drive to the same controller as a hard drive, will slow the hard drive down.

Do you know the make & model numbers of both hard drives? This should be written on the label on top of each drive.
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#4
davesfx
Posted 26 September 2005 - 11:06 AM

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2 things to keep in mind.

ide cables can go bad, especially if you wrinkle them or bend them. I would first try replacing the ide cable.

Next try using different plugs from your psu.
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#5
Droog13
Posted 26 September 2005 - 03:38 PM

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OK, trying new IDE cable. I see my old one said "Rev B" on it and the new one "Rev A" Also my Cd-r/dvd roms are on a rev a ide cable. Will this matter at all?

Edit: Considering I have 2 hard drives and 2 disk drives (1 cd-rw and 1 dvd-rom) I dont think that switching would be a good long term option.
I just read something about rev a's sometimes damaging the slave drives or something along those lines and to stick with rev b's if the mobo supports it, so Ill see if i can get a rev b.

Edited by Droog13, 26 September 2005 - 04:13 PM.

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#6
Droog13
Posted 26 September 2005 - 06:57 PM

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I just went ahead and tried the rev a IDE, didnt work. Everything was exactly the same.
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#7
Droog13
Posted 26 September 2005 - 07:40 PM

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Disk drives:
WDC WD2500PB-98FBA0 5.1.2535.0
WDC WD800AB-22CBA1 5.1.2535.0

Those are the 2 hard drives (250gb slave on top, 80gb master on bottom). I knew the slave was western digital, i guess the master is too.

Here are a few others opinions on the matter;
-I just need a new mobo.
-mobos older than 18 months cant handle over 137gb and the strain finally killed my mobo, again i need a new one.
-possibly corrupted hard drives. (I have knoppix on a cd, which i know i could test this out with if i knew the correct commands, but i dont.)
-update bios

Thanks,
Droog
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#8
Samm
Posted 26 September 2005 - 07:59 PM

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I didn't realise that the slave drive was that large. If you remove the 80GB drive completely, jumper the 250GB as a single (master) drive & connect it on its own to the end of the IDE cable, does the bios recognise it then? If so, does it recognise its size correctly?
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#9
Droog13
Posted 26 September 2005 - 08:17 PM

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Yes, im pretty sure it does (it did earlier). I will double check though.

Edit: It will recognize it in the sense that when i am in BIOS it can identify it, but no OS or anything like that on it.

Edited by Droog13, 26 September 2005 - 08:18 PM.

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#10
Samm
Posted 27 September 2005 - 01:15 PM

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OK, double check that the bios is reporting the drives capacity as 250GB. It may recognise the drive model number etc but this doesn't mean it can see its full size.

Do you have service pack 1 or 2 installed for XP?
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#11
Droog13
Posted 27 September 2005 - 02:04 PM

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Edit:
I have sp2 installed, however it originally came with only sp1 installed.

I will check the bios again when I get home in about 90 minutes.

Edited by Droog13, 27 September 2005 - 02:08 PM.

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#12
Droog13
Posted 27 September 2005 - 03:30 PM

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So i unplugged the Master and plugged the 250gb as the master and set the jumper to master. It did not recognize it or anything. I then tried the jumper as CS and not only did it recongnize it, it auto-detected it. Though no OS is installed on.
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#13
Samm
Posted 27 September 2005 - 03:45 PM

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Does the bios recognise the drive as being 250GB though?
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#14
Droog13
Posted 27 September 2005 - 03:58 PM

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Yeap, it says 250GB for size (or capacity or whatever) on the primary master (what its currently set to) page in BIOS.

I have heard that possibly the 80gb hard drive has crashed. I think that would make sense, though im no proffessional.

Thanks,
Droog
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#15
Samm
Posted 27 September 2005 - 04:04 PM

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depends, if you disconnect the 250GB, reconnect the 80GB (as a master) & the bios recognises it & you can still load windows from it, then no, it hasn't crashed.
Try this and let me know happens.

BTW, how many pins are there in total in the jumper block on the rear of the 250GB drive? (i.e where the master/slave jumper is). There should be either 10, 9 or 6 pins.
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