hard drive recognised but not showing capacity in bios

[mjfletch]

Hi,

Firstly, my machine specs:

ECS 7050M-M motherboard

Athlon X2 Dual-Core 4600+ CPU

2GB DDR 2 Memory

500gb WD IDE Hard drive (WD5000AAKB)

Attempting to install Windows 7

So, my machine recognizes everything whilst it’s booting up i.e., CPU, memory etc. But when it comes to loading slave drive, it initially recognizes that and IDE drive is attached but then when it comes to the second phase of loading where it specifies the capacity. The computer states that there is a hard drive problem. The machines quotes:

"Primary Slave Hard Disk Error"

I know the hard drive is not at fault as I tried using it in another machine but the installation failed as the PC's spec was not up to the required spec. I can also confirm that the hard drive does spin up and registers on the Hard drive LED.

Can anyone please offer assistance?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Is this just a problematic drive MJ or are you trying to install Windows 7 to it?

[mjfletch]

Is this just a problematic drive MJ or are you trying to install Windows 7 to it?

 

 

Hi Wolfey,

 

Its a problematic drive. Although Win 7 does not recognise the drive as being installed when it comes to attempting to load Win7 . My main concern is why the bios is not accepting it.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Are you sure you have the jumpers set correctly for a slave drive.

 

Over and above that, you cannot install an operating system to a Primary Slave, Secondary Master or Secondary Slave and expect it to boot as a dual boot system.

 

If you want to install Win 7 on that box you will have to make a partition on the Primary Master, in other words C: and then install 7 to that.

 

Now the drive.

 

If you have the drive on the middle connector on the IDE cable jumpered as Slave then all should be good and it should show in the post screen immediately on boot up.

 

If it does not show then alter the jumpers to CS (cable select).

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Arr wait a minute.

 

I have just re-read your thread and if I'm right what's happened here is that you have installed 7 onto the drive from elsewhere and then you have put that drive in your box as slave and are expecting to boot from it yes?

[mjfletch]

well. the jumpers were set to cable so I moved them to the middle. But now the PC has a new issue. I think the brand new motherboard may have gone as the pc won't turn on now. The fans run for about a second when I first turn on the power but nothing else happens and it refuses to turn on.....oh well, back to the drawing board. This time with a large scotch.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Pull the molex from that slave drive and reboot Mark ok then tell us what happens.

[mjfletch]

same thing im afraid

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Well this has gone to the extreme and I doubt a a faulty drive, if that's what it is, has caused this.

 

Send the board back mate.

[mjfletch]

will do.... ****y world here i come.

 

Thanks for your help wolfey. Sorry if you feel i have wasted your time.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

You did turn the box off before you messed with the jumpers and the molex yes?

[mjfletch]

Yes power was off when I moved everything over.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Remove that slave drive completely and retry and if it's the same send the board back MJ, this is a weird set of circumstances. :confused:

[mjfletch]

Right. Swapped the power supply and now Im back to where I was before. I did try the drive with my USB-IDE connector. Although the computer stated the device was working properly, It did not appear in "My Computer" as an attached device.

 

I have tried the device on master and this caused the start up to not even recognise the optical drive, let alone the hard drive. when the HDD is set to CS do I get the most joy, ie the computer see's both optical drive and hard drive.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

So are we good to go or not Mark?

[mjfletch]

when I say it recognises the HDD its still falling over when its comes to reading the drive. I get the same "Primary Slave Hard Disk Error" message as before.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

An optical drive?

 

Where is that positioned?

[mjfletch]

Sorry. Thought I had mentioend the optical drive. DVD RW. The IDE cable is plugged into it. Master connection on the IDE.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Now it becomes apparent.

 

Set the hard drive as Master on the end of the cable and set the optical drive as slave on the middle connector.

[mjfletch]

Did that. Gues what happened ?! exactly the same issue as I had before when I swapped the PS out. Turn on power and the fans whir then the machine powers down and won't switch on.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Ok how many IDE connectors do you have on the board, 1 or 2?

[mjfletch]

1 IDE

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Ok, we will get there in the end.

 

Try changing the jumper on the hard drive and the jumper on the optical drive to cs and see what happens then.

[mjfletch]

will do but how do setup the ide cable. HD as master or optical ?

 

Thanks,

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Set the hard drive on the very end that's not attached to the board as CS (Cable Select)

 

Set the Optical drive on the middle connector also as CS (Cable Select)