Yet Another "No Fixed Disks Present"

[mudoggy]

Yet another tail of having to reformat a drive after doing god knows what to the computer. I tried to install a second drive (original WD 2.5 oem Caviar drive as master).
It's a gateway p-166 w/ 32m ram, modem, video & sound cards, tiger eye I motherboard.

Now, it does not recognize my original OR new (if I try to switch it back) hd as existing, nor does it see the cd-rom, either. I have tried 4 different cables, notched ( http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif ), and all jumpers are where they belong. The bios was still set for auto configure, etc., and was even reset to defaults (in setup, not by jumper). Devices have power, since they spin up/whirr/etc, but don't exist when I run setup, WD e-z drive, fdisk, etc.

Help me keep my sanity!!! Did I damage the motherboard/IDE sockets? NOTE: Come to think of it, in the bios setup, everything is set to auto/detect, but I think the drivers are listed as disabled...I'll have to check again tomorrow. How does one enable them? I'm about ready to put my fist through it! hahahaha At least the newer computer I built runs good! I want to get this one going again, though , to give to my sister. What a nice guy, eh?

Thanks to all who might help! I really enjoy reading this site, and it helped my build a computer (nice sense of accomplishment, after you resolve all conflicts and actually get it running!).

[This message has been edited by mudoggy (edited 07-09-99).]

[sourjon]

Try booting with a system disk and at the A:\ type sys C:\. Reboot and you should be able to see it. If not run Fdisk from the A:\ and check to see if C:\ is set to be the active partition. While you are there see if the usage is 100%. If not need to set up the rest of the disk(s). When you format if you use the /s switch it will make the drive bootable.
hope this helps.

[800XL]

Make sure both IDE channels are enabled in the BIOS setup. It should be under a submenu called peripheral setup. They may have gotten disabled somehow in the process. That is most likely what is going on with things now.
Also, with Western Digital drives, they have a master, slave, and single setting. If you are trying to get the old drive working by itself, put it to single not master. That should be with the master/slave jumper off completely. That Tiger Eye board should be able to see fairly large drives, but who knows. You may have a bios limitation slowing you up with the new drive. How large is it?
I would try each device on its own at first. Put Hard drive "A" on the cable by itself jumpered to master, or single if a WD drive. Then see what you get. It would not hurt to talk to the drive manufacturer if this is a new drive. They may have some experience with the Tiger Eye board or Gateways in general.

[mudoggy]

OK, now that the drive is recognized, the computer runs AGONIZINGLY slow. It will test memory. Wait. Detect Hard drive. Wait.
Detect cdrom. Wait.
Finally I get to a prompt.. why the LONG lags.. takes forever to get to the bios setup...

For the record, I had to pull a jumper and power up to clear the NVRAM settings.. that allowed the IDE drivers to be enabled again..
Thank you to all who answered! I REALLY aprreciate it!

[800XL]

I hit the same thing on that board. I never did exactly track down why. Try setting any unused hard drive positions to none instead of auto and see if that helps. Might also be able to lock down the drives you have and make them not "auto" also. I think it has to do with the drive autodetection routine in the bios and working around that idea may get you what you want. Also, look around for a "quick boot" enable or anything that sounds like it would make the POST process faster.

[philipg]

My two cents.

I've been at the WD web site for the last week investigating my problems with a 6.4GB HD.

www.westerndigital.com

They have a very large help support online file system that describes your situation to a tee. Try them and let use know.

[This message has been edited by philipg (edited 07-13-99).]

[mudoggy]

DRUMROLL PLEASE:
"And the cause of the slow boot is...
Hard drive jumper in wrong position!"
Now, before you start throwing things at me, I found out (from gateway) that the manual that came with the computer containing the drive specs/info/etc had incorrect jumper info. How do ya like that!? Once I pulled it off, PRESTO! Up and running like new.
800XL: You're right on the detecting part.
As an aside... cdrom drives work better when the power cord is plugged into the back of them after messing with hard drive cables and jumpers.. hehehehee.
Thanks again! It's been fun and a learning experience.
Remember: Just because it's in print, doesn't make it true! hahaha http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif