System hangs on bootup

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nige
  • Start date Start date
N

Nige

Hi
I have attached a new hard disk to my system. During the bootup sequence it
auto-detects the disk and then later in the sequence it halts at "Samsung
HA250JC WE100-34 Ultra DMA-5 SMART Capable and Status OK" and the system
hangs indefinitely - I have left it for 20 minutes and nothing.
I have set the disk as 'Cable Select' and put it in the slave position on
the IDE cable where it gets detected as a slave.
This freeze occurs with 2 'master' disks connected or even if I disconnect
the 'non-boot' master disk and replace it with the new one.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you
Nige
 
Have you tried jumpering the two drives as "Master w/slave" and "Slave"
instead of Cable Select?
 
Bob,
Yes, I have now tried it and still no luck. I will try another disk to see
if the same problems occurs and also I will try this disk on another PC (if
I can scrape one together from parts!) to see if the problem moves with the
disk.
Meanwhile any other suggestions are welcome!
Cheers
Nige
 
Nige said:
Bob,
Yes, I have now tried it and still no luck. I will try another disk to see
if the same problems occurs and also I will try this disk on another PC
(if I can scrape one together from parts!) to see if the problem moves
with the disk.
Meanwhile any other suggestions are welcome!
Cheers
Nige
Click to expand...

Nige:
Just so we have a clear understanding of your setup & the precise nature of
your problem...

1. Your boot HDD containing the XP OS - when solely connected - boots
without incident and functions without any problems, right? Presumably that
HDD is connected as Primary Master.

2. The problem begins when you connect your new Samsung HDD as a secondary
HDD regardless of its position on either IDE channel, right? And that drive
does not contain an operating system, right? Can we assume that HDD is
unpartitioned/unformatted?

3. So the problem occurs when both your boot drive and the new Samsung HDD
are connected. What precisely happens? The system can never get to a
Desktop? The boot process never completes? Other than the message you
quoted, no other message(s)? Just a black screen?

4. Regardless of that SMART message, have you tried downloading the
diagnostic utility from Samsung to check out the disk? If not, do so.

5. Again, notwithstanding the SMART message, I assume you've checked the
BIOS and the Samsung is properly listed, yes?
Anna
 
Anna said:
Nige:
Just so we have a clear understanding of your setup & the precise nature
of your problem...

1. Your boot HDD containing the XP OS - when solely connected - boots
without incident and functions without any problems, right? Presumably
that HDD is connected as Primary Master.

2. The problem begins when you connect your new Samsung HDD as a secondary
HDD regardless of its position on either IDE channel, right? And that
drive does not contain an operating system, right? Can we assume that HDD
is unpartitioned/unformatted?

3. So the problem occurs when both your boot drive and the new Samsung HDD
are connected. What precisely happens? The system can never get to a
Desktop? The boot process never completes? Other than the message you
quoted, no other message(s)? Just a black screen?

4. Regardless of that SMART message, have you tried downloading the
diagnostic utility from Samsung to check out the disk? If not, do so.

5. Again, notwithstanding the SMART message, I assume you've checked the
BIOS and the Samsung is properly listed, yes?
Anna
Click to expand...
Hi
Many thanks for your reply.......

Firstly I will answer your questions then add some more info.....
1. Yes, essentially correct. My boot HDD containing the XP OS is a SATA
drive. Another disk is connected as the Primary Master IDE drive. All boots
OK. I have tried replacing the current Primary master IDE drive with the
Samsung but the PC still hangs as before.

2. Yes to the first and second points but the drive has previously been used
in a Sky+ box (PVR) so I have no idea how it's formatted.

3. The system starts to boot and it stops and hangs as soon as it reports
the SMART message saying the Samsung disk is capable and OK.

4. I have the Samsung utility but I can't check out the disk because the
boot sequence doesn't progress beyond the SMART message.

5. Can't even get as far as the BIOS - the system has hung by then.

Extra info
1. I connected an old Fujitsu disk with a Linux OS to my PC and it was
instantly recognised and listed correctly in the BIOS so I conclude it must
be the formatting of the Samsung disk causing the problem.

2. I connected an old Maxtor disk to my PC (a Maxtor that had also
previously been used in a Sky+ box) and the same thing happened as with the
Samsung disk so, from this, I would still conclude that it is something to
do with the formatting of the Samsung and Maxtor disks that is the problem.

3. I connected the Maxtor to another PC that I cobbled together from old
spare parts and the Maxtor was instantly recognised by the BIOS. PC booted
perfectly and the BIOS properly listed the disk - everything hunky-dory.
This is what I would expect on any PC so now I think it could be(?) a
setting in the BIOS of my original PC that conflicts with the Samsung and
Maxtor disks.

4. I try to get a floppy disk connected to the old PC so that I can run the
Samsung diagnostic from boot-up and this is where I am at the moment since I
can't get the floppy disk recognised by the BIOS - could be cable problem
since I've tried 3 old floppy drives and all have the same problem.

5. I'm getting there but I'm surprised by the problem since others I know
have never experienced any problem with connecting an old Sky+ disk to a PC.
I've looked through the BIOS and can see no obvious wrong settings and I'm
not sure that it can be this since the BIOS recognises the Fujitsu disk OK.
The only thing not really common to both PCs is that my PC has a SATA hard
disk that it boots from whereas the older PC boots from a Primary Master IDE
drive.

Nigel
 
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