[steelman2202]

Hey all

I got a 20gig WD Caviar (WD200) off an old HP Pavilion and I want to use the drive for some extra storage space.

The problem is that the drive will not post and will drive the boot process to a complete stop in my MSI K7N2 Delta2 LSR mobo. (It hangs at Detecting IDE Drives ...)

The drive worked fine in the HP Pavilion, In my old P-II/Soyo 6ba+ and in a Asus P4C800E. It contains a bootable Win98 that I could eventually get to boot with no problems on all of the above systems. But I am not really looking to boot with that drive - if I could just get the darn thing to post I would zero it and hook it up as a slave or a master to my CD-ROM. But it does not work in any master/slave config - even with just that HDD plugged in as a master.

The strange thing is that I have one identical model # 20gig WD caviar plugged in as my boot drive right now - and I never have any problems with it. I also have a WD600 as a slave to the boot drive...

Any ideas how I can get that drive to show up on POST?

 

[Tumbleweed36]

Hi,

A common error when someone tries to do this is they ignore the settings on the main drive. For example, most drives come from the factory as Cable Select so your main drive may be set that way. The first thing I would recommend is to make sure the original booting drive is set to Master, and then set this one to slave. The master goes on the end of the ribbon cable and the slave in the center.

Or, since you already have the 600 model as slave on the main drive, then if you wish to make this a master on the secondary IDE slot, then put it on the end of the ribbon cable (assuming it is the only drive on that slot) and take off all the jumpers..

However, if you have a CDRom on this ribbon cable, then set the jumpers to master on the hard drive and the jumpers to slave on the CDRom and run it that way. That gives you some options to look at.

Addendum: Remember, if you loaded windows and the chipset drivers on this drive from another computer, then you won't be able to use this as a boot drive on this computer. It just won't work for you, but you can use it as a slave to keep your programs.

Post back after checking these issues.

 

[steelman2202]

The first thing I would recommend is to make sure the original booting drive is set to Master, and then set this one to slave. The master goes on the end of the ribbon cable and the slave in the center.

Still the same problem, it takes a long time to get to "Detecting IDE Drives..." and then it just hangs there.

Or, since you already have the 600 model as slave on the main drive, then if you wish to make this a master on the secondary IDE slot, then put it on the end of the ribbon cable (assuming it is the only drive on that slot) and take off all the jumpers..

Nothing new.

However, if you have a CDRom on this ribbon cable, then set the jumpers to master on the hard drive and the jumpers to slave on the CDRom and run it that way. That gives you some options to look at.

Nothing new either...

When I was swapping drives on my old pc's did get it to boot on both my Soyo 6ba+ and the HP pavilion, no reinstalls necessary. But I guess they were both using a similar chipset... The P4C800E would boot into safe mode but the regular mode required a reinstall.

Why does it only like intel?????? :4-dontkno

 

[Tumbleweed36]

Hi,

I missed something on your earlier post: "Detecting IDE Drives..." and then it just hangs there., but I just caught it on this one.

You talk about the different motherboards, but have the problem with this one. You don't by any chance have the RAID controller enabled in the BIOS setup menu, do you? That would cause it to search and then hang. Most boards come from the factory with that feature enabled, but it needs to be disabled if you aren't using raid (which I don't think you are). As an example on the P4C800 series it is called Promise Raid Controller, but since I don't have your board, don't know what the reference would be in your particular BIOS setup menu..

Post back after you take a look at that. Oh, also make sure you have the BIOS set to auto where you have that drive placed.

 

[steelman2202]

Raid is disabled. I think...

I went into BIOS and the only thing about raid I found was "IDE Raid" and that was disabled already.

Just to make sure I disabled Serial ATA. (It was on Enabled)

The IDE channels that I wanted to use that HD on are all on Auto.

Can't understand why does the mobo not like the drive!

 

[Volt-Schwibe]

this is going to sound odd, but it's simple, and it can tell us alot...

take the ide cables, and unplug them from the motherboard. (and disconnect the power connectors from the hard disks and cdroms.)

connect that problematic disk as master on a cable, and connect the cable to the motherboard on channel 1. (and connect power to it)

what i am hoping, is that all by itself, it can boot.

then, once we see this disk boot on this motherboard, we can one by one connect the rest of the hardware, and see which one is causing the hang.

 

[steelman2202]

Nope

The PC would still hang at detecting IDE drives...

 

[Compumaniac12]

welcome to the wonderfull world of compalibility...

 

[steelman2202]

Arrrrrghhhh

:OPEN "Case"
:INSERT "Drive A" IN "Case"
:REMOVE -ALL "Ide Cables"
:REMOVE -ALL "Power Cables"
:INSERT "Ide Cables" AND "Power Cables" IN "Drive A"
:CLOSE "Case"
OWER -ON
:WATCH "Screen"
:IF "Detecting IDE Drives" = "TRUE" THEN GOTO LINE "11"
:IF "Detecting IDE Drives" = "FALSE" DROP "Jaw" ON "Floor" AND GOTO LINE "13"
:SMASH "Head" ON "Table"
:IF "Brain" > 0 THEN GOTO LINE 1
:EXIT

:deveous:

 

[Volt-Schwibe]

ok, since it didnt boot even by itself, it tells me something might be seriously wrong with it.

however, it works in the other machine, but what position was it in on that machine? primary master?

you might try it in each position, master and slave, on both ide1 and ide2, and then also try it on both cables in both positions with it set to cable select.

if you find a position that it works in, you could maybe work around that.

i mention all this hoo ha because i have a western digital drive that will only work in cable select and only as a slave, and i never did figure out why, i just went with it and still use it that way.

 

[steelman2202]

Still no post for the WD200

Sorry for the long absense - I had my hands FULL this past weekend

Finally got around to playing with this drive - still cannot get it to post.

There is a weird improvement though - the first boot after I hook the pc up - (IDE1 (WD200(boot)/WD600)IDE2 (CDROM/WD200 (problematic dr)) The pc runs through post just fine WITHOUT detecting the WD200 on the secondary IDE If I use WD Lifeguard or simply the Device Manager - the drive is NOT there. The CDROM is though. After a reboot - the PC hangs on POST just like the previous three hundred thousand times... If I unplug the system, check the cables, plug them in and out, and boot again - the scenareo repeats.

Why?

 

[steelman2202]

thats both IDE channels running in "Cable Select"

Forgot to mention that :arrowu: (tried in different master/slave combinations with "Cable Select" too.)