BIOS does not recognize EIDE HDD

[Willy]

:( I moved my 1GB Western Digital EIDE HDD from one computer to another, both are LX motherboards. The HDD is set as master. The HDD was working fine with no bad sectors before I moved it.

After I installed the HDD in the second computer, the BIOS in the second computer does not recognize the HDD on primary or secondary EIDE connector. The HDD sounds like it is spinning.

I moved the HDD back to my first computer, the BIOS in the first computer does not recognize the HDD either.

I did not drop the HDD or bang it during the move. I don't understand why it stopped working.

Any suggestions will be highly appreciated.

:confused:

[S.D.Willie]

how old is the drive??? western digital is pretty good with RMA's ive heard. if it used to work in our old machine and now its doesnt, try a different hard drive in one of the machines to rule out a system board or bios issue. sounds like you might have a drive that has gone bad. also, mess around with the jumper settings. sometimes on these drives ive seen there can be two jumper settings for master. or at least ive seen this in my experience. good luck.

SD

1 gig huh? im not sure if a bios update would be any use to detect such a small drive like that considering it was working before

[Fingers]

Make sure the power and IDE connections are secure and connected in the right orientation. WD's (although I'm not sure about ones that old), have a setting for "Single" or "Master"... use "Single" if it's the only drive on the channel (cable).

[Mr. NoOne]

If you didn't ground yourself & have really bad luck you could have killed the drive....

[Willy]

I put the HDD back in the first computer (with Intel AL440LX motherboard) and checked the cable. Turns out the cable was loose and the HDD worked again in the first computer.

I put the HDD in the second computer (with QDI Legend 6 motherboard) again, checked the cable. The second computer BIOS still did not recognise the HDD.

I tried the HDD with two other motherboards. One is a FIC super 7 motherboard and its BIOS recognized the HDD. The other is a Gigabyte 486 DX4-100 motherboard and its BIOS did not recognize the HDD.

The HDD seems to be fine because the BIOS of two motherboards recognized the HDD as 1GB, LBA, mode 4. Once recognized, I could boot and ran Win98 without problem.

I am more confused than ever. How come two out of four motherboard did not recognise the HDD?

:confused:

[Rmcky]

Try the "Cable Select" jumper setting on the drive. Some older motherboards require that setting instead of single/master. Might work, might not?:)

Rick

[Willy]

:) :)

You guys are amazing. You solved my HDD mistery.

My HDD jumper was set at Master. I changed the jumper to CS (Cable Select) as suggested by Rmkcy and the BIOS of the second computer recognized the HDD. I was able to boot Win98 using the HDD in the second computer with no problem at all.

Thank you for all your suggestions.



:) :)