Not detecting hard drive

lukin

I bought a Maxtor hard drive a few weeks ago with the intention of installing it on my PC along with the one I already have ( a 10 GB Western Digital).
I want to have the new one as master and the old one as slave (it's the other way round at the moment).
I am able to install it as slave to the old one but I can't install it as master for some reason unbeknownst to me.
It just says "Detecting Primary Master...."as it's booting up and then stops.
I've tried everything, changing the jumpers to every possible position, fiddling with the BIOS but nothing works.
(The drive is 40 GB in size and I am running Windows 98)
I am at my wits end! Help!

Occidental

lukin,

As obvious as one of them obvious thingies, but just confirm that you have changed the pins on you're old 10gb to set it as slave.

Also have you tried it as primary master without the 10gb connected and last, will it recognise as a secondary master.

zAbbo

Try setting your new drive as Master and the 10gb as Cable Select, should sort out the prob.

Occidental give good advice so try that first
let us know how u get on.

Gaz

How old is you system ? If its 3 or more years you will most likely need a bios upgrade ...check with supplier of computer what the max size your motherboard will detect.

Saruman

Some drives have a Master (Single) setting.. you may be setting it to that but its messed up as there is a slave drive there too! Make sure its not set to this option if there is one.. and as PCIRL said.. setting to CS will probably sort it out too! Could also be a case your hdd not spinning as fast as bios.. so set hard disk pre delay to 10 seconds when on master.. on slave its ok as it would have spun up by the time it came to detect it! I have seen that on some drives.. Quantums usually but then Maxtors are just quantums with maxtor stickers since the bought quantum!

EvilGeorge

You go girl!

zAbbo

Nice advice SaruMan,

Check the 10gb drive and make sure there is only one jumper on it going vertival and not 2 jumpers(one vertival, one horizontal), this seems like an easy enough prob to sort, but i fear that once you sort this out you`ll need a bios update to recognise more than 32GB

Best of luck!

lukin

The answers to your questions are as follows:

1.I've tried installing the new drive on it's own,
removing the old drive completely and it still doesn't detect it.
2.I have a cd-rewiter set as secondary master.
3.I've changed the jumpers to ever position there is.
4.My system will be three years old this July and I've tried reinstalling the BIOS from the disc I got with the mainboard, but it won't let me, it gives an error message.
5.I've looked everywhere on the BIOS for "hard disk pre-delay" and I can't find it anywhere!
6.I'm not going to ask my supplier for a BIOS upgrade as I had a bit of a falling out with them.
Can anyone tell me where I can get a BIOS uprade elsewhere?

I'd say you're right pcirl.com, cause there's 40 GB on the drive but it's only showing 32 GB.
I didn't know that about the BIOS actually.
Cheers.

Occidental

Tell us what the board and BIOS are

tribble

If all else fails try these

Old (p2) Compaq's had some strange gotchas (especially a 4000 series) these may manifest in some other brands.
1. master hard disk HAS to be on the end of the ide cable or it won't detect.
2. If it's not the original hard disk (quantum in the 4000 series) then there HAS to be a slave (anything, CD, DVD, HD anything) on the primary IDE (it boot's as far into windows until the floppy bus is probed then it dies, don't ask)
3. bios updates never cured these on the compaq - but they cure a HUGH number of problems with PC's so deffo try that...

THESE ARE COMPAQ 4000 series QUIRKS but try them anywayz

EvilGeorge

Did you ask compaq whats the largest size drive your machine can see on its present BIOS rev ?

zAbbo

Take a look at this cable



The blue end goes into your motherboard, The grey connection is for your SLAVE drive and the black connection is for the MASTER drive. Also the actual jumper settings on the drive must reflect this as well.

Concentrate on setting up the hard drives first, unplug the secondary IDE cable(the one for the CD Drives)

Once the hard drives are sorted then add the CD Drives

EvilGeorge

I dont think the guy is a complete muppet, if he can get his original from master to slave and back something is ok.

Check whats the largest drive the present rev of BIOS can see - should do this before purchasing any drive.

zAbbo

Originally posted by tribble

..... master hard disk HAS to be on the end of the ide cable or it won't detect.

I was just further inforcing this point,

and on a personal note Evilgeorge i suggest you post constructive posts only, as your comment "I dont think the guy is a complete muppet" adds nothing to this thread apart from +1 to your posts count.

Saruman

Did you actually get new cables with your hard disk? chances are its ATA100 and usually you will get an ATA cable like the one PCIRL posted the pic of.. the one above it is a standard IDE cable and wont have the nice colours on it and thats what you most likely have in your machine originally! if you have not changed the cable to an ATA cable then i suggest you do so.. may make no diff but worth a shot!

Saruman

Oh yeah and if its down to bios etc.. ignore it.. get yourself a promise ATA 100 controller card.. costs feck all and will be much faster than your mobo controllers! Also you will see ALL 40gb

koneko

Chill out "pcirl". EvilGeorge was being helpful, the BIOS suggestion was a good one. Who made you lord of the manor? :P

Good suggestions from all so far. Check out the latest BIOS update, and cables.
Do you know what board you have in there?

Gaz

Like i said way back in the thread it is most likely the bios not recognisng a drive that large ...find out what board you have and where you can download an upgrade. It is most likly on the website but you will need the motherboard name.

Now stop all this bitchin and listen to me in future

lukin

Look, I'm not stupid, I just can't understand why it will recognise it O.K. as slave but not as master.
It can't be that it doesn't recognise a drive that size as it wouldn't install it as slave if that was the case.
The name of the motherboard is P6EXP-Me I'll have a look for it's website and see have they got an upgrade.

halfab

If you can get in to the BIOS settings and check that Primary Master is set to auto detect .. sometimes these can be manually set and will not work with the drive other than than the one specified..

zAbbo

Heres The bios page

http://www.ecs.uk.com/download/p6expme.htm

Hope it helps:

I won`t explain to you how to update the BIOS as you`re "not stupid"

Best Of Luck!

EvilGeorge

Forget what I just poster a moment ago - why not just leave it on slave, pop you other cd to the master of the drive here - use the 40GB as your primary boot drive, then put the old drive on the sec master of slave.

Might be a bit of a hassle though messing it arround like that, if you can see it as the full wack on the slave and say can fdisk it or whatever your going for at least you know the mbd will recognise it fine.

May the two drives dont like each other, happened with an early WD Caviar drive and one of the quantum models where they couldn't be kept on the same cable.

lukin

Problem solved, everyone.
Or at least about to be solved.
It turns out I need a BIOS upgrade after all.
I went onto Google and searched for "BIOS" and found this site http://www.wimsbios.com/
I then downloaded a file which identified everything about my current BIOS and then asks you to submit your details to order the new one.
I hope it doesn't cost too much.
Anyone else who has problems with BIOS compatibility should check out that site. It's really good, has got forums and everything.

Gerry

Or you could just leave the new drive as slave, and install win2k on it. It will boot from it.

gurramok

Originally posted by EvilGeorge
May the two drives dont like each other, happened with an early WD Caviar drive and one of the quantum models where they couldn't be kept on the same cable.

Exact same happened to me. I have 2 Maxtor drives and 2 Wd Caviar drives.
No matter which way i put a maxtor and a wd on the same channel, the bios would not detect the combination !
However when i put 2 wd's on one channel and 2 maxtors on other or even put a seagate disk on same channel as wd, everything was ok !
weird eh ?