A7N8X2.0 hard drive detection problems

[Paris Hilton's dog]

Bios Rev 1008 on Win2k SP2. Primary Master of 80 gb is detected OK, both in the Bios and Win2k.
Secondary Master is detected OK, both in the Bios and Win2k. However when I try to install the 80 gb as a Primary Slave the bios
won't auto detect it. And Win2k in Disk Management reads it as something totally different (like a 6 gb unformatted drive). I've
tried another 80 gb as well with similiar results. So its not the hard drive. I got the cylinder/heads/sectors info from the hard
drive manufacturers' websites and tried to manually input those figures but when I did the size of the hard that the bios computed
from my inputted figures wasn't even close to its actual size. On an older system I never had these problems. Then when I try to
get it to auto detect it freezes and ESC, page down, etc, no keys work.

 

[Rob Hemmings]

Bios Rev 1008 on Win2k SP2. Primary Master of 80 gb is detected OK, both in the Bios and Win2k.
Secondary Master is detected OK, both in the Bios and Win2k. However when

I try to install the 80 gb as a Primary Slave the bios

won't auto detect it. And Win2k in Disk Management reads it as something

totally different (like a 6 gb unformatted drive). I've

tried another 80 gb as well with similiar results. So its not the hard

drive. I got the cylinder/heads/sectors info from the hard

drive manufacturers' websites and tried to manually input those figures

but when I did the size of the hard that the bios computed

from my inputted figures wasn't even close to its actual size. On an

older system I never had these problems. Then when I try to

get it to auto detect it freezes and ESC, page down, etc, no keys work.

Check that the existing primary master has its jumpers set to that and not
cable select.
If that's not the issue, then try setting both drives to cable select. IME
some combinations
of different make drives just don't like each other, but I've not had this
trouble for a few
years.
Also make sure the primary master is on the last connector on the cable with
the slave
on the middle one.
HTH

 

[Jbob]

Bios Rev 1008 on Win2k SP2. Primary Master of 80 gb is detected OK, both
in the Bios and Win2k.
Secondary Master is detected OK, both in the Bios and Win2k. However when
I try to install the 80 gb as a Primary Slave the bios
won't auto detect it. And Win2k in Disk Management reads it as something
totally different (like a 6 gb unformatted drive). I've
tried another 80 gb as well with similiar results. So its not the hard
drive. I got the cylinder/heads/sectors info from the hard
drive manufacturers' websites and tried to manually input those figures
but when I did the size of the hard that the bios computed
from my inputted figures wasn't even close to its actual size. On an
older system I never had these problems. Then when I try to
get it to auto detect it freezes and ESC, page down, etc, no keys work.

Check the jumper settings. If using Cable Select then cable position is
important. If the BIOS won't detect, the OS never will detect correctly.
Auto Detect should work though, if not then that is probably a sign of other
issues. FWIW, I occasionally have trouble with this board locking up in the
Bios.