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[SOLVED] Mobo doesn't recognize any hard drive.

3K views 12 replies 3 participants last post by  magnethead 
#1 ·
Hello all
Here's the thing, I got a machine with specs like this:

-Mobo: ASRock P4i45GV Rev 5.0
-CPU: Intel Celeron 1.7Ghz
-RAM: ECI 256MB running at 266Mhz

When my friend gave me this machine 3 days ago, I plugged in a Maxtor hard drive and it was recognized normally. But that drive has a lot of bad sectors so I got it RMA'd. When I got the new HDD 2 days later, I plugged it in and the machine refused to recognize it.

I checked the jumper settings, all correct. Then I thought it was another faulty HDD, but I plugged it into 2 other computers and it worked normally.
Maybe it was the HDD cable I used? I changed between 4 different HDD cable that I had (2 are brand new) but it was still not recognized.
So I turned my doubt to the motherboard, I switched between IDE1 and IDE2 slot to no avail. But a Samsung CD ROM drive was still recognized perfectly when plugged into either one of those two slots, so I don't think they were faulty either. The mobo recognizes everything else (RAM-Processor-CD/DVD drives) but not the hard drive.

I'm very frustrated right now, as the problem remains hidden to me.

I just tried plugging my working HDD from a different computer and it wasn't recognized by this machine either.

Can anybody give me some pointers here?
 
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#3 ·
Re: Mobo doesn't recognize any hard drive.

Sorry I'm not really a big guru when it comes to hardware. What is LBA mode? Is it Logical block addressing? I read about it but I don't really understand what it does, and how it may affect my mobo.
As for the cables, I used all kinds of cables I could find, none of them worked.
And about the 'user' and 'auto' setting you mentioned, is it something that is in the BIOS? Or is it some jumpers on the mobo?
As I said, I'm not a big hardware guru, so sorry if my questions are funny.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Re: Mobo doesn't recognize any hard drive.

It is a 30GB Maxtor ATA/100. I tried plugging it into BOTH IDE1 and IDE2 slot. It was stand alone (no slaves or anything, it has the whole cable for itself).

So far I'm pretty sure that it is not the fault of the IDE slot or the Power Supply or the IDE cable, because a CD drive still works perfectly when plugged into the same slot, using the same power wire, with the same cable.

I also doubt it has anything to do with jumper settings either. I tried setting it to Master and Cable Select, and tried both IDE slot with that settings, it did not work. Plus, I plugged this very same HDD to 2 different computers and it worked then, so it shouldn't be a jumper problem.

I've spent a whole day on it, and exhausted all possibilities. I even tried plugging another working 80GB Maxtor ATA/133 into it and it wasn't recognized either. My last guess was that maybe I screwed something up in the BIOS, so I flashed it to the latest one provided by ASRock (ver 3.40) and load the default settings, and it still didn't work!

Would it be possible that this ASRock mobo doesn't like Maxtor branded HDDs? Should I borrow a Seagate or something to test it?
 
#6 · (Edited)
Re: Mobo doesn't recognize any hard drive.

I think something is not hooked up correctly yet. I know, you tested it, but want you to give this another go before we get too far, just to make sure how you have it connected and where you have it on the ribbon cable.

First, be sure to check BOTH drives on that cable If you use two drives on one IDE port. You must make sure you don't have a CS and Master/Slave conflict.

Put the Maxtor drive as Master with the jumpers and put it on the end of the ribbon cable. Leave it there alone and put the CD rom on the other IDE port. See if that gets it going.

If that does not work, try the same on IDE #2.

If that does not work, then put the Maxtor or master on IDE #1 with the CDRom as slave. Be sure to make sure the CDRom is not set to CS.

If that does not work, then try it as CS with the drive on the END of the ribbon cable.

Please remember, Maxtor ships drives as CS, so YOU have to set the jumpers as Master for the master/slave configuration.

I mention this because many assume it is set to master as it comes and they are not.

Very Important: When you say it does not recognize it, do you mean in the BIOS or where? If the drive has not been formatted, you won't see it in some places until it is formatted. Also, download and run the Maxblast software (Maxtor website if you don't have the software that came with the disk) and see if it finds the drive. This might be the answer to your problem.

Post back with questions/concerns.
 
#7 ·
Re: Mobo doesn't recognize any hard drive.

Thanks for your reply Tumbleweed.

I think something is not hooked up correctly yet. I know, you tested it, but want you to give this another go before we get too far, just to make sure how you have it connected and where you have it on the ribbon cable.

First, be sure to check BOTH drives on that cable If you use two drives on one IDE port. You must make sure you don't have a CS and Master/Slave conflict.

Put the Maxtor drive as Master with the jumpers and put it on the end of the ribbon cable. Leave it there alone and put the CD rom on the other IDE port. See if that gets it going.

If that does not work, try the same on IDE #2.
That's what I've been doing for the last 2 days, I've been putting my HDD and CD Drive on 2 separate channels. Switched between IDE1 and IDE2 too, it didn't work.


If that does not work, then put the Maxtor or master on IDE #1 with the CDRom as slave. Be sure to make sure the CDRom is not set to CS.

If that does not work, then try it as CS with the drive on the END of the ribbon cable.

Please remember, Maxtor ships drives as CS, so YOU have to set the jumpers as Master for the master/slave configuration.

I mention this because many assume it is set to master as it comes and they are not.
Come to think about it, I didn't try putting the HDD and the CD ROM on the SAME cable like that. I'll do it later tonight, see how it'd go. Thanks for your suggestion.

Very Important: When you say it does not recognize it, do you mean in the BIOS or where? If the drive has not been formatted, you won't see it in some places until it is formatted. Also, download and run the Maxblast software (Maxtor website if you don't have the software that came with the disk) and see if it finds the drive. This might be the answer to your problem.
I meant in the BIOS, it does not show up there at all. It's as if the HDD wasn't even plugged in. This is not an unformatted HDD either. As I said I plugged it into other computers and it worked normally, I even installed Windows Xp on it. As for the MaxBlast software, it was included on the boot CD I've been using (UBCD-Ultimate Boot CD). I tried it but it couldn't detect the drive either.
 
#8 ·
Re: Mobo doesn't recognize any hard drive.

Have you tried clearing the CMOS and then seeing if there is any change?

If it were me, I would stick with the Maxblast, no one knows Maxtor drives better than Maxblast made by Maxtor Corporation.

I do hope you are using an 80 connector cable and not one of the old 40 connector cables.

Post back with a summary of behavior after you get the cmos cleared.
 
#9 ·
Re: Mobo doesn't recognize any hard drive.

Have you tried clearing the CMOS and then seeing if there is any change?

If it were me, I would stick with the Maxblast, no one knows Maxtor drives better than Maxblast made by Maxtor Corporation.

I do hope you are using an 80 connector cable and not one of the old 40 connector cables.

Post back with a summary of behavior after you get the cmos cleared.
I've discovered that nowadays, apparently 40 and 80 wires are getting less and less interchangable....on the 320 in my computer, all i had was a bunch of 40 wires and it wouldnt detect...i went and got an 80 wire and it detected it...
 
#10 ·
Well I tried all of the above suggested stuffs but none worked. But I finally got it to work, kinda weird but it did.
The thing is, only 'smaller form factor' HDDs work with this machine (2.5 inches I think). All the non-working one I tried was the thicker sorts (3.4 inches?). I never thought there was a difference between these 2 kinds of HDDs. I learnt something new today.
 
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