Blondes and Computers. HELP!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter SharonY
  • Start date Start date
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SharonY

Hi, all. I have a bit of a problem with an older computer of mine and the
hard drive. I have an Asus P2B 440bx motherboard with the lastest bios
update. My hard drive is an old WD 6.4 GB split into two partitions. I also
have a disk caddy that I use. In it is a newer WD caviar 80GB split into 3
partitions: 8GB, 25GB and 40Gb approximately. The disk caddy is hooked into
the secondary IDE as a master - a CD-ROM is the slave. My Bios initially had
the CMOS all set to auto. When i put the disk caddy in and boot, on the
second post screen, the computer would hang. Although both hard drives were
recognized properly, on the second post screen the PC would stop when it
reached the secondary master showing DMA, LBA 8166 (or some number probabvly
corresponding to the first partition size) and the number 2.
I tried almost every jumper setting on both hard drives and possible
combination to the IDE cables. I totally omitted the cd-rom. It wasn't until
I tried this procedure in addition to messing around with CMOS that the
computer finally booted. BTW, in the BIOS when I asked it to auto detect the
drives, when it got to the large drive [secondary master] the big red box
simply showed '2' and would not go any further. Anyway, I could only get the
PC to continue through the post by setting the CMOS secondary master to
'NORMAL'. 'LARGE' and LBA' would not work - same problem. With the PC booted
and running, when I go into explorer, it doesn't recognize the largest
partition on the 80 GB drive in the caddy. it shows C:, D:, E:, F: C=
primary IDE primary partition, D:= Secondary IDE - primary partition, E:=
primary IDE - extended partition and F:= secondary IDE extended aprtition.
The G: is not showing.
I could not figure out what was going on as this has never happened before
and i use this disk caddy in several PCs. I even used the WD utilties to set
the UDMA or whatever it's called of the 80GB drive from 66 back down to 33.
The only idea I can think of is that this partition itself is over 32 GB and
i recall reading that there can be a problem with some older motherboards
reading drives over 32GB. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks so much
in advance,
Sharon
 
Did you try the HD jumpered to 'single drive' and the CD rom
removed?......WD drives are unique in having a 'single drive' jumper
setting. See this data sheet:
http://eshop.macsales.com/Tech/manuals/idehdsettings/WD300.pdf
Not sure why you would be getting the problem when you had the CD as slave
but at least if you can get the drive working on it's own you have narrowed
the problem down a bit.
 
SharonY said:
Hi, all. I have a bit of a problem with an older computer of mine and the
hard drive. I have an Asus P2B 440bx motherboard with the lastest bios
update. My hard drive is an old WD 6.4 GB split into two partitions. I also
have a disk caddy that I use. In it is a newer WD caviar 80GB split into 3
partitions: 8GB, 25GB and 40Gb approximately. The disk caddy is hooked into
the secondary IDE as a master - a CD-ROM is the slave. My Bios initially had
the CMOS all set to auto. When i put the disk caddy in and boot, on the
second post screen, the computer would hang. Although both hard drives were
recognized properly, on the second post screen the PC would stop when it
reached the secondary master showing DMA, LBA 8166 (or some number probabvly
corresponding to the first partition size) and the number 2.
I tried almost every jumper setting on both hard drives and possible
combination to the IDE cables. I totally omitted the cd-rom. It wasn't until
I tried this procedure in addition to messing around with CMOS that the
computer finally booted. BTW, in the BIOS when I asked it to auto detect the
drives, when it got to the large drive [secondary master] the big red box
simply showed '2' and would not go any further. Anyway, I could only get the
PC to continue through the post by setting the CMOS secondary master to
'NORMAL'. 'LARGE' and LBA' would not work - same problem. With the PC booted
and running, when I go into explorer, it doesn't recognize the largest
partition on the 80 GB drive in the caddy. it shows C:, D:, E:, F: C=
primary IDE primary partition, D:= Secondary IDE - primary partition, E:=
primary IDE - extended partition and F:= secondary IDE extended aprtition.
The G: is not showing.
I could not figure out what was going on as this has never happened before
and i use this disk caddy in several PCs. I even used the WD utilties to set
the UDMA or whatever it's called of the 80GB drive from 66 back down to 33.
The only idea I can think of is that this partition itself is over 32 GB and
i recall reading that there can be a problem with some older motherboards
reading drives over 32GB. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks so much
in advance,
Sharon
Click to expand...

When you say that you have the latest Bios update for the motherboard
which one is it? I know that there are ones on the German site that do
support 80 GB hard drives but are marked as Beta but have been used for
years.
 
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