BIOS can't find second HDD

[Pixelkitten]

Hi everyone, the last few days I've been having some troubles with my Primary Slave drive. Simply put, my PC can't find it. Bios doesn't note it is there, but it idles a lot, so I'm guessing that my Bios and my HDD talks to each other, just not getting any useful information out of it.

 

Since I keep my OS and all my programs on the first drive, this is really no big deal. However, I begin to miss listening to music, watching movies, and playing games.

 

I opened my case and checked if everything was OK, and noticed it was quite dusty, so I cleaned all the dust out (by compressed air ofc), and put everything back together. And it worked. For almost five minutes. Then it bluscreened.

 

After a number of test with Hirens boot CD and other stuff I don't really have the energy to write down, I decided that the fault might be in the cable. So I switch cables with one of my husks. And it worked. For five minutes. Then BSoD.

 

Now it's online, but I still can't find the second drive. And I have only guesses left of what might be wrong.

 

1. The drive is dead. If I'm lucky I might be able to save the data. Thing is, I've never had trouble with it before, the cooling is good, and the master drive, which is older (and a Maxtor), is still working.

 

2. The cable I "borrowed" is broken, even though it shouldn't be.

 

3. My mothercard is on the fritz. Probably the guess which will cost most and be the biggest pain in my <bodypart>.

 

It is a Western Digital Caviar by the way, I'm unsure of model and serial number.

 

I'd appreciate if you can help me, and don't hesitate to ask if you need more info from me.

Thanks in advance,

/Kitty

[Match]

Hi Kitty I take it were talking IDE given the age?

 

I would disconnect the master and plug the cable that currently goes to the master into the slave, Don't forget the jumper if it's IDE

 

Then reset the Bios,

 

Then if it's recognised in the Bios I would Boot from the XP CD and run chkdsk on it.

 

this should Narrow down whether its a Disk or Motherboard Problem as it will be running from a Port that is known to be good, and if the ports good we will find out if the disks ok and can take it from there :)

[Pixelkitten]

Hi Match, I forgot to say it was an IDE, sorry.

Thing is, since it is IDE, they're on the same cable. I agree that it might be an idea to switch the jumpers to master and then try to boot from cd. Only problem is I got to find my CD first...

[Match]

while your looking for your XP CD it might still be an Idea to swap the slave to master and disconnect the present master, at least then we will ether get a no Boot file error or alike, or you will get a No HDD found error or similar,

 

But if it is the hdd that's died, you wont be able to get chkdsk to run on it and so wont need your XP CD ;)

[Pixelkitten]

Computer found HDD, I found the XP CD, and chkdsk doesn't seem to find any problems.

Next step would be to either buy a fresh IDE cable, or try the harddrive in another PC. I have an old P3 I'm not using, and most of my local computer stores are likely to have closed by now.

 

I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

[Match]

At least the HDD appears to be working, so I would

 

replace the cable,

put the original master back in,

replace the slave drive (Don't forget the jumpers :))

Re-set the cmos, and Boot up with fingers crossed ;)

[Pixelkitten]

Reset CMOS? Never thought of that. Honestly, I'm not sure how I would do that, I've never tried it before.

[Match]

I'm not sure how I would do that, I've never tried it before.

The easy way is to remove the Battery for about thirty seconds, and it will reset all the Motherboard settings to default and when it's booted will check for all the components attached as it did when it was first built :)

 

the not so easy way is to find the reset jumper, lol that done just pull the jumper of the two prongs its on and put it onto the Centre and third prong and count to ten the put it back to where it came from.

 

what you are looking for is a little 3 prong connector by the battery normally, but no guarantee, that has a jumper across two of the connectors, it might be labeled CMS, SET, CMOS, RESET, or if your really lucky RESET CMOS, but then some don't even have that.

 

But you will also have to go through and reset and Bios settings that change, or weren't set to default, Phone Camera, Hint ;) saves on writing ;)

[Pixelkitten]

I think I'll try the jumpers option, when I get around to it. I actually have a clue where the reset jumper is on my motherboard, and I'm not so sure I can just reach in and pull out the battery like that. Any way, I'm lazy as a cat in a sunny window, so it's not likely to happen soon.

[Match]

Phone Camera, Hint saves on writing

I'm lazy as a cat in a sunny window

What makes you think we have something in common,

 

Right back to designing that radio controlled lawn mower, ;)

[Pixelkitten]

Well, I took the time to plug the harddrive into my old P3, and it works just fine. I haven't run any checks on it, because first I thought I should do a backup, but I skipped that when I found it it would require 45 DVDs.

 

I still have no clue what's wrong. And I'm getting tired of just using my laptop. I probably should put the drive back in my regular computer to see if the problem has magically fixed itself (not the first time that has happened), or just buy a new drive and copy everything to it.

[Match]

I still have no clue what's wrong

 

The Drive is fine so its ether the cable or the motherboard, if you can swap the cable for a new or known working cable, and it still won't work then that leaves the motherboard if the cmos is reset then its something hardware related with the motherboard, and will probably need the motherboard replacing,

 

Next step would be to either buy a fresh IDE cable, or try the harddrive in another PC.

 

So now I'm waiting for the results of changing the cable, or resetting the cmos? :)

[Pixelkitten]

So now I'm waiting for the results of changing the cable, or resetting the cmos? :)

 

Well, I've tried changing the cable, but not changing to a completely fresh one. If my grandma doesn't bog me down too much tomorrow, I might take the time to go into town and buy one. And maybe some other stuff, I'd love to see if those SATA drives really measure up to what every ones been saying!^^

Edited June 24, 2010 by Pixelkitten

[Match]

I'd love to see if those SATA drives really measure up to what every ones been saying

 

Really it depends on the rest of your system but I have 2 SATA II drives and they leave IDE for dust, the system I built for my wife has a 3gHz AMD Dual core, with 4Gig of DDR3 RAM, and it leaves my system that's the same but for DDR2 RAM for Dust,

 

However as my system is now getting old, I'm Looking at upgrading to a Quad core, DDR3 RAM and a Sata III HDD, I would like to go for a SSD but doubt if the pennies will allow me to do that :(

 

But upgrading from IDE to SATA is a definate plus on speed that you will see ;), without using a stop watch that measures milliseconds

[Dalo Harkin]

All true however, my SCSI drives 15,000 RPM does leave most SATA II and III drives for dust :D not bad for 'old' kit

[Pixelkitten]

I put everything back in, reset the CMOS, plugged everything in, and booted up.

 

Only thing that's been weird so far is that I can't set the date correct. Max date seems to be 12/06/2010.

 

But at the moment, I haven't seen any problems. Haven't gone looking for them either, so who knows?

[Pixelkitten]

Only thing that's been weird so far is that I can't set the date correct. Max date seems to be 12/06/2010.

 

Figured it out. Since I'm European, I thought that the first number would be the day, not the month. Couldn't they have snuck in just a short line of text saying MMDDYYYY?

[Match]

Couldn't they have snuck in just a short line of text saying MMDDYYYY?

 

That would be too easy, but

 

But at the moment, I haven't seen any problems. Haven't gone looking for them either, so who knows?

 

So all's Good? :D and you have given yourself a pat on the back for being clever and sorting it out yourself ;)

[Pixelkitten]

So all's Good? :D and you have given yourself a pat on the back for being clever and sorting it out yourself ;)

 

Actually, I'm pretty sure it sorted itself out. And the only "problem" I have noticed is that it seems a bit slower than I remember. Think I'm gonna run a defrag and some crap clean on it.

[Match]

Think I'm gonna run a defrag and some crap clean on it

 

Defrag, Clean out temporary files, Scan for Spyware, and Viruses, BUT Please Please Don't run any registry Mechanics,Optimisers,Cleaners

 

Check to see what is running in the background and at start up as well (MSCONFIG)

[Dalo Harkin]

Running a defrag at the best of times can cause some problems.

If you run a defrag on a drive that may be faulty then you could end up killing the drive completely

[Pixelkitten]

Running a defrag at the best of times can cause some problems.

If you run a defrag on a drive that may be faulty then you could end up killing the drive completely

 

Why, thanks for making me paranoid Dalo! And don't worry, since I'm so lazy I haven't done anything but read webcomics and play Machinarium, which btw is an awesome game.

[Dalo Harkin]

Only trying to help you from Nerfing your PC :D

[Pixelkitten]

Dalo, would you mind explaining why it would be such a disaster to defrag my HDD? I analyzed, and it needs to be defragged, and I'm not gonna give up a belief I've had for ten years just because you say so.

[BeeCeeBee]

Because it is highly unlikely that you will find Dalo over the weekend I am posting a link to another forum where just 2 days ago a thread was started on this subject. I am only doing this because it was in reaction to a comment made by Dalo in yet another thread that really does not matter. However if you read Dalo supports his position in a number of posts on the thread.

 

To Defrag Or Not To Defrag? - Computer Help Forums

 

Note: If admins here feel this is inappropriate you may remove it. However I have only done this because it is directly on point and specifically refers to Dave. Most important he defends his position and answers the precise question raised and responds to those who offer different opinions.

Edited July 1, 2010 by BeeCeeBee