[dmc792]

my system fails to boot after I installed an additional 160mb ultra ata hardrive. As the system is booting, it recognizes the new drive but then hangs up and won't proceed beyond. I have reconfigured the drive to every setting I can think of. I have used jumper selection and set it for master, slave and cable select with the same response. Even the bios recognizes the new hdd but the system still hangs up on boot after identifying the drive.
My system is a little older but it always worked great until now.
Pent 4, 3.06hz, 2mb ram, 120mb HDD, with cdrw, running xp w/sp3.
any ideas? thanks

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Is it really a new hard drive or are you reusing one, just new to this computer?
Does it have anything on it? If it does, you could try initializing it using DBAN.

To use DBAN, download the .ISO here: Darik's Boot And Nuke

Download and install ImgBurn.
During the install, take the Custom install choice and uncheck any extras, like Tuneup Utilities 2014 so they are not installed.



Put a CD-R in your optical drive then start ImgBurn.
Click Write image file to disc.

Select the DBAN .iso dban-2.2.8_i586.iso as the source.
Select the optical drive as the Destination.
Click the Write icon (box pointing to disc).

If the computer has a way to do a one-time boot to CD via a FN key then skip the BIOS Setup step.
Otherwise, reboot and go into BIOS Setup.
Set the CD drive as the first boot device.
Save the change.

Shutdown the computer or power off if in BIOS Setup.

Remove the original 120GB drive and connect the 160MB drive as master on the end connector (farthest away from the system board). Make sure it's jumpered for Master or Cable Select (CS). I'd try CS first.

Power up.

Boot the DBAN CD.
Once it's ready, type autonuke and press Enter.
Let it run for a few minutes so it wipes out the beginning of the drive, which will make it a RAW drive.
Remove the DBAN CD then power down.

Move the 160GB drive the the Slave position on the cable, 2nd from the end. Jumper it for CS.
Put the original 120GB drive back, jumper it as CS also.

Power up and see what happens. If okay then you can use Disk Management to partition the 160GB drive and format it for use.

[Ztruker]

Is it really a new hard drive or are you reusing one, just new to this computer?
Does it have anything on it? If it does, you could try initializing it using DBAN.

To use DBAN, download the .ISO here: Darik's Boot And Nuke

Download and install ImgBurn.
During the install, take the Custom install choice and uncheck any extras, like Tuneup Utilities 2014 so they are not installed.



Put a CD-R in your optical drive then start ImgBurn.
Click Write image file to disc.

Select the DBAN .iso dban-2.2.8_i586.iso as the source.
Select the optical drive as the Destination.
Click the Write icon (box pointing to disc).

If the computer has a way to do a one-time boot to CD via a FN key then skip the BIOS Setup step.
Otherwise, reboot and go into BIOS Setup.
Set the CD drive as the first boot device.
Save the change.

Shutdown the computer or power off if in BIOS Setup.

Remove the original 120GB drive and connect the 160MB drive as master on the end connector (farthest away from the system board). Make sure it's jumpered for Master or Cable Select (CS). I'd try CS first.

Power up.

Boot the DBAN CD.
Once it's ready, type autonuke and press Enter.
Let it run for a few minutes so it wipes out the beginning of the drive, which will make it a RAW drive.
Remove the DBAN CD then power down.

Move the 160GB drive the the Slave position on the cable, 2nd from the end. Jumper it for CS.
Put the original 120GB drive back, jumper it as CS also.

Power up and see what happens. If okay then you can use Disk Management to partition the 160GB drive and format it for use.

[dmc792]

thanks ztrucker...you're right, the 160hdd is not a new drive, just new to the system. It was completely and thoroughly cleaned so there is absolutely nothing on it, nada. I wish I could get the system to boot far enough to even try your idea, but I'm not able to boot the system at all, not just windows or safe mode or even dos. When I start the system, regardless of where I position the 160hdd, I get a good post, the system goes through it's hardware id process, tells me all about the bios, processor, ram, then starts to look at the mass storage units, id's all hdd and CDRW correctly but hangs immediately after it id's the 160hdd. I can't get to the point it will run at all after it id's the 160hdd. With the 160hdd installed it hangs before I can even get into bios and certainly a long way before it has any functionality. I can't even boot off of the CDRW if the 160 hdd is installed. Any idea on why the 160hdd could be hanging up the system? thanks

[Ztruker]

By clean do you mean formatted? If so, that's not the same as making it RAW using DBAN.
Formatting leaves the MBR (Master Boot Record) and MFT ( Master File Table) intact so if there are any problems, they remain. DBAN wipes everything.

Another possibility that has worked for me at times.

Power off the computer.
Unplug the power cord.
Remove the CMOS (CD2032 Coin Cell) battery.
Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds/
Put the CMOS battery back in.
Connect the new drive.
Plug in the computer.
Power up.

You will get a CMOS error on boot which is godd and what you want. Press F2 to go into BIOS setup.
If there is a Load Defaults ability, do that.
Set Date and Time.
Set boot devices as you want them.
Save and exit.

See if it boots now. If not you will need to try the drive in another computer to make sure it's good.

[dmc792]

thanks, I'll try it and let you know.

[dmc792]

Apparently my asus mb/bios doesn't like this drive very much. Followed your directions and whenI rebooted, the system would not post. Tried removing the new drive, system posted, showed bios error, then I shut the system down, attached the new drive, restarted, it posted but hung up on the bios error msg. could not get into default or bios set. Will try it in another system. thanks again