Detecting /

[jglaysher]

I have a PC with two HD's. One for System stuff (C) and the other for Scratch stuff (D). They are both IBM Deskstars. C: contains the Windows folder.

When I turn the PC on, at the Disk Detecting stage, the C: drive is not spotted. The D: drive is. I then get a message PRESS A KEY TO REBOOT.

Pressing a key brings the PC start up routine back round to the detecting stage again. The drive is not spotted etc....

Listening to the case it sounds like the drive is spinning up to speed (a high pitched squeek) followed by a click which seems to stop the drive and it then tries to speed up again followed by the click again etc....

As I never get past this stage I cannot get in to my system. I have the IBM Disk Fitness Test on a floppy which I will run tonight but any suggestions would be much appreciated.

System runs WinME with AMD 1Ghz on the Asus A7V mobo.

Thank you.

[arthur888]

I'm afraid your drive is dead. Did it work in this configuration before? Try to run it single drive, maybe that works so you can find out if it is the drive or something else. Good luck...

Arthur

[jglaysher]

Thanks for your attention 888.

This has happened once before to another Deskstar about a year ago. To lose two HD's seems like awfully bad luck. Are there any reported problems in the relationship between the Bios, WinME and the Promise drivers?

I will post my results from running the DFT, tomorrow.

[arthur888]

It's very unlikely for it to be a driver or OS problem because it occurs before the OS is loaded. As far as I know there are no compatibility issues between the hardware or bios and the drive. Maybe you should try it in an other system. I hope you can get it back to life.

Arthur

[Mshaw213]

Has the drive worked in the past (I presume it has to have Windows installed on it)? If it hasn't worked on this board, there may be issues related to the size of it. How big is the drive?

If it is 40Gb, there is a capacity clip jumper to limit the size to 32Gb, which should have it detected by the BIOS.

If it has worked, and is not not being detected I would tend to agree with arthur888

[Imperion1]

Try the drive by itself and see if bios picks it up.

In Bios, be sure that the Primary Master and Slave are set to Auto.

[jglaysher]

I think that there is a prob with one of the HD ports (0,1) on the mobo.

I was running both drives as Masters. Now I am using one port (2,3) with C: as Master and D: as Slave. This started the PC fine and it seems stable.

Only fly in the ointment is that, even with the Slave unplugged the IBM DFT cannot spot the C: HD. Yes the drive is a 40Gb.

Thanks for all your suggestions.