Bios won't recognise hard drives any more

[White Spirit]

When I switched on my PC today, the primary master and slave hard drives
(IDE) weren't recognised by the BIOS. I tried a different cable, which
had no effect, and tried putting the cable for my two CD-ROM drives in
the slot that the hard drive cable was in, and vice versa. The CD-ROMs
worked in both slots, but the hard drives wouldn't work in either.

I had this problem before, intermittently, with any hard drives I used,
but it was resolved when I replaced the hard drive cable (I was using a
standard IDE cable but needed an ATA100 cable). Before I think about
getting a replacement hard drive (I haven't yet tried putting the slave
in the primary position and seeing whether that works), I wondered
whether anyone might have any advice on what may be the problem. It
would seem that the IDE controllers are both fine since they recognise
my CD-ROM drives okay.

 

[Rod Speed]

When I switched on my PC today, the primary master and slave hard drives
(IDE) weren't recognised by the BIOS. I tried a different cable, which
had no effect, and tried putting the cable for my two CD-ROM drives in
the slot that the hard drive cable was in, and vice versa. The CD-ROMs
worked in both slots, but the hard drives wouldn't work in either.

I had this problem before, intermittently, with any hard drives I used,
but it was resolved when I replaced the hard drive cable (I was using a
standard IDE cable but needed an ATA100 cable). Before I think about
getting a replacement hard drive (I haven't yet tried putting the slave
in the primary position and seeing whether that works), I wondered
whether anyone might have any advice on what may be the problem. It
would seem that the IDE controllers are both fine since they recognise
my CD-ROM drives okay.

What's the details on the system, cpu type and speed and the power supply size ?

It may be that the power supply is too puny and the hard drives arent
initialising properly because the power supply sags as they try to spin up.

 

[Sparks]

When I switched on my PC today, the primary master and slave hard drives
(IDE) weren't recognised by the BIOS. I tried a different cable, which
had no effect, and tried putting the cable for my two CD-ROM drives in
the slot that the hard drive cable was in, and vice versa. The CD-ROMs
worked in both slots, but the hard drives wouldn't work in either.

Have you tried connecting one of the drives, on its own, then the other one
on its own?

Maybe there is one disk that is taking the IDE channel down?

Sparks...

 

[White Spirit]

What's the details on the system, cpu type and speed and the power supply size ?

1.3GHz Pentium 4, 200W power supply.

It may be that the power supply is too puny and the hard drives arent
initialising properly because the power supply sags as they try to spin up.

It has been working fine for six months. I bought the first drive, a
60G Maxtor, second hand, so it could be that the drive has had it. If
the first drive cannot initialise, would that stop the second?

If it is the Maxtor, I think it's still under guarantee.

 

[White Spirit]

Have you tried connecting one of the drives, on its own, then the other one
on its own?

I'll try that now.

Maybe there is one disk that is taking the IDE channel down?

I'm using an Alpha workstation at the moment. I was rather hoping to
put the second drive under the CD-ROM in this machine as I only have a
4Gb SCSI disk. It's going to be a pain if either of the drives has had
it.

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

1.3GHz Pentium 4, 200W power supply.

Thats not too bad, at least its not an athlon.

It has been working fine for six months. I bought the first drive, a
60G Maxtor, second hand, so it could be that the drive has had it.
If the first drive cannot initialise, would that stop the second?

Yes, that can certainly happen. The obvious test for that possiblity
is to see if it will boot with just the boot drive connected.

If it is the Maxtor, I think it's still under guarantee.

Yeah, quite likely.

 

[White Spirit]

Have you tried connecting one of the drives, on its own, then the other one
Tried it. The slave won't work at all and the master works perfectly
without the slave present.

 

[White Spirit]

Yeah, quite likely.

Are Maxtors that bad? My Maxtor (the prim. master) has been working
fine since I bought it. The Fujitsu that came with the machine, on the
other hand, has caused nothing but trouble and now finally conked out.

Which brand can be considered the most reliable?

 

[Rod Speed]

Are Maxtors that bad?

Hard to say currently. There has been a bit of a burst of reports
of early failures, but thats likely not statistically significant.

My Maxtor (the prim. master) has been working fine since
I bought it. The Fujitsu that came with the machine, on the other
hand, has caused nothing but trouble and now finally conked out.

Yeah, the Fujitsu MPGs definitely do have a design problem.

The earlier ones were fine.

Which brand can be considered the most reliable?

Hard to say since we dont get to see the industry return
rate statistics that are the only thing thats statistically reliable.

You dont see too many howling about their WD dying lately.
Almost none with Samsung, but they definitely sell in much
lower volume so it may not prove a damned thing.

 

[CJT]

Are Maxtors that bad? My Maxtor (the prim. master) has been working
fine since I bought it. The Fujitsu that came with the machine, on the
other hand, has caused nothing but trouble and now finally conked out.

Which brand can be considered the most reliable?

They all can fail.

I've found Seagates to be quite reliable.

I would put Maxtor and WD just behind Seagate, and about even with
each another. YMMV.

Others I generally don't bother with. I've had trouble with IBMs.

In every case, keeping them as cool as possible, and avoiding mechanical
and electrical shock, can help. Good power is also important, as I
learned yet again quite recently.

--
After being targeted with gigabytes of trash by the
"SWEN" worm, I have concluded we must conceal our
e-mail address. Our true address is the mirror image
of what you see before the "@" symbol. It's a shame
such steps are necessary.

Charlie

 

[Colin Watters]

You dont see too many howling about their WD dying lately.

I got one :-(

It died on me today with a horrible noise - sounds like the heads were
scraping off the oxide. I'll probably take it apart and have a look see.

 

[Rod Speed]

I got one :-(

Stop that howling, it lowers the tone. Big boys aint sposed to cry |-)

It died on me today with a horrible noise - sounds like the heads were
scraping off the oxide. I'll probably take it apart and have a look see.

I really just find that wav file of the Death March |-)