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HARD DRIVE PROBLEMS
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nicknrh
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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1. September 2004 @ 14:46 |
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My problem is that when I boot,my hard drive is not being detected.At first I thought my drive had crashed but now I am not so sure.Since both the PC & hard drive are about 4 years old & have had a lot of use, I purchased a new hard drive.IDE Western Digital Caviar 80 gigs;I also wanted a new drive because the previous one was too old & too small.Anyway, I installed the drive & booted up-nothing happens,the BIOS cannot detect it. I checked the jumpers & cables-still nothing. The drive is good;I can hear it spinning.Having reached the limit of my technical knowledge, I am now asking for help.
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AfterDawn Addict
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1. September 2004 @ 17:25 |
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Something a lot of people forget is that the bios battery can go bad. If you don't know what it is, it looks like a quarter on the main board. If it goes bad, no boot up.
Jerry
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The_OGS
Senior Member
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1. September 2004 @ 17:33 |
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WD drives are not like Maxtors or Seagates with their jumpers.
Jumpering it single (like you would a Maxtor, single-drive master on the controller) will mess up the WD.
If it is a single-drive master on the controller, the WD requires no jumper.
If jumpered master, and there is no slave present, it will not detect (it spins, and pauses, and thinks about it, and spins, and then won't detect).
Hopefully this will help you ;-) Your symptoms sound exact...
If not that then ?
If the HD is good, then your answer should be either in the jumpers, or else in the BIOS.
Regards
ABit AB9 Pro
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 @ 2.4GHz
2GB OCZ PC2-6400 Platinum XTC R2
ATI Radeon X1900XT 512MB
Enermax Liberty 620W
320GB/16MB WD, 150GB/16MB Raptor
Plextor PX-755SA DVD (SATA)
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nicknrh
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2. September 2004 @ 00:23 |
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Jerry746-when I switch on the power I see the first POST screen & then it stops responding. Could this be caused by the CMOS battery? I assumed that this would prevent even the POST appearing?
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nicknrh
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2. September 2004 @ 00:25 |
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The_OGS.I know about the jumpers,but thanks anyway.What could be the problem in the bios appart from the battery?
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The_OGS
Senior Member
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2. September 2004 @ 05:55 |
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With a dead battery, it will beep and post 'warning - BIOS default settings' or somesuch, and then startup with time/date Jan 1 1990, y'know?
So something you would need to address ASAP but, doesn't seem the problem here...
Can you ID your mobo make/model for me?
Sometimes must chase old HD setting from BIOS before it will detect new HD, hopefully this is your situation :-)
Can you press DEL and get into BIOS setup before it 'stops responding'?
L8R
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nicknrh
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2. September 2004 @ 13:01 |
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I can get into the Bios setup.Mobo is MS-6163va.ATX via.BTW,it was not the battery.
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haymarket
Member
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2. September 2004 @ 13:41 |
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May sound obvious but it is worth disconnecting the other IDE device - as freezing can be caused where you get a Jumper setting conflicting.
Bios problem - in my experience as long as the device remains plugged in and only turned off by the standard shut down, the BIOS battery isn't used i.e. won't reset until you take the plug out.
"If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask?
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nicknrh
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2. September 2004 @ 14:35 |
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Haymarket,I am open to all suggestions cos this is really baffling me.
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haymarket
Member
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2. September 2004 @ 15:51 |
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Next silly question you have activated the disk first.
Actually reading your thread again - it sounds like you have taken the new drive out of the box and plugged it in and nothing happens ?
If that is the case most new hard drives need to be partitioned first.
Run Windows 98 Startup and then type A:\fdisk
Create Primary Drive if you are not partitioning the drive then do the whole lot in one.
When you reboot you will be able to see the hard drive and then you must format it NTFS probably especially as FAT32 only see 64 Gb per partition.
Cheers
"If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask?
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haymarket
Member
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2. September 2004 @ 15:56 |
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If my previous suggestion had no affect - please describe exactly what you have done and what happens when you turn on the power.
Are you saying that only the new drive is in the PC ?
Are you saying that the BIOS stops and goes no further.
Have you entered the BIOS usually pushing the Del Key to see if it is there?
Are you saying the Bios hasn't loaded at all ?
"If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask?
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nicknrh
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2. September 2004 @ 22:23 |
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The bios loads,looks for Primary Master,cannot find it;then I get the message "boot drive failure,insert system disc & press enter".This is what happened with the original h/drive,so I thought the h/drive had failed.I purchased a new h/drive & exactly the same thing happens.I tried booting from Win XP;XP finds & formats the new drive,reboots to continue the install & then finds & formats without getting any further.When I tried to boot from Win 98,I get a message saying "you have no hard-drive or your hard-drive is damaged".So this is all very strange.
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nicknrh
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2. September 2004 @ 22:26 |
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BTW,I am in The Netherlands-GMT + 1.I have to go to work now.
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haymarket
Member
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3. September 2004 @ 01:47 |
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Hi Netherlands - I am just outside London
Next thing to do is see if the hard drive is detected in the Bios - Long straw from your description of the fault. I am starting to run out of ideas.
"If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask?
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The_OGS
Senior Member
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3. September 2004 @ 06:38 |
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Here is some info on the mobo:
? Support Slot 1 for Intel
? VIA® VT82C596B Chipset
- Advanced Power Management Features
- Dual bus Master IDE Ultra DMA33/66
? An IDE controller on the VIA® VT82C596B Chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA33/66 operation modes.
The most recent Award® BIOS (v3.5 dated Oct.2/2000) contains this fix: "Support IDE HDD size over 65GB"
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=115
Make sure you have BIOS 3.5 (mobo shipped with 3.0) and so, five revisions = many fixes :-)
Report to us your BIOS version and we will continue methodical troubleshoot from there...
Also after update BIOS make sure recent VIA 4in1 installed!
Quote:
If that is the case most new hard drives need to be partitioned first. Run Windows 98 Startup and then type A:\fdisk
Thanks haymarket - but you're getting a little ahead of yourself... ;-)
Know you're just tryin' to help,
L8R
ABit AB9 Pro
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 @ 2.4GHz
2GB OCZ PC2-6400 Platinum XTC R2
ATI Radeon X1900XT 512MB
Enermax Liberty 620W
320GB/16MB WD, 150GB/16MB Raptor
Plextor PX-755SA DVD (SATA)
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nicknrh
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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3. September 2004 @ 22:45 |
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How can I update the bios?
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nicknrh
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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4. September 2004 @ 01:11 |
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Bios version is 4.51PG.
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The_OGS
Senior Member
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4. September 2004 @ 06:34 |
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I believe the 4.51 is an Award Version (the brand of the BIOS used by MSI for your mobo) and not the specific version of the BIOS revision (the information that can be uploaded or 'flashed' onto the mobo eeprom).
Work with me here - I'm not getting paid for this :-)
You flash your BIOS like everyone else, in 'real' mode (as opposed to 'protected' mode).
Real mode is how the 80x88 CPU used to operate, before they invented the 386 circa 1990.
You can start a modern PC with a system floppy disk, without any config.sys or autoexec.bat, and get real mode (using 8088-like 20 bit addresses and 16 bit registers).
Without getting too technical: that's how you flash your BIOS.
The package for your mobo (w6199vav35.exe - 234KB) contains, within the compressed file package, the flash utility you should use.
Supposedly there is a Windows-friendly MSI 'Live Update' utility which you could install & run, but this of course assumes your system is functional...
Anyway we're showing you the 'old fashioned' way, which still works fine ;-)
So flash that corksucker and let's see if we can get you up & running again...
BTW tell me what size was your old HD? I wonder why it quit, anyway (if it used to run OK with your BIOS version.)
This may not be your ultimate solution, could still be something funny goin' on, but it should be flashed anyway.
We must be methodical. Don't worry, if that mobo isn't totally f*cked we will get it going again!
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nicknrh
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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4. September 2004 @ 14:21 |
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Since my system is not functional,flashing the bios is not an option.Anyway,I have to admit that I took the system into a repair-shop today.The guy tried a few things which we had also tried,without result of course.They are going to delve deeper after the weekend,but "could be your IDE channel".I sincerely hope not,but we will see.I will keep you posted;in the meantime,many thanks for your input.
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The_OGS
Senior Member
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5. September 2004 @ 08:09 |
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You misunderstood me;
The Windows-based MSI 'Live Update' utility requires a functional system to update BIOS.
A 3.5" BIOS-flashing boot disk does not!
You just insert and start PC.
You don't require any hard drives installed, nothing but a video board and keyboard (not even a mouse).
Very simple stuff :-)
I have given you a direct link to your mobo, where instructions on creating the BIOS flashing disk can be found.
It clearly states v3.5 "Support HD larger than 65GB" which I felt might be important for you...
Let's see if your repair guy figures it out, shall we?
Good luck
ABit AB9 Pro
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 @ 2.4GHz
2GB OCZ PC2-6400 Platinum XTC R2
ATI Radeon X1900XT 512MB
Enermax Liberty 620W
320GB/16MB WD, 150GB/16MB Raptor
Plextor PX-755SA DVD (SATA)
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haymarket
Member
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5. September 2004 @ 12:29 |
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Quote:
The bios loads,looks for Primary Master,cannot find it;then I get the message "boot drive failure,insert system disc & press enter".This is what happened with the original h/drive,so I thought the h/drive had failed.
I know I am getting ahead of myself ! I accept that the Bios may need to be upgraded to support a large Hard Drive and it is a great place to start - but based on the comments made by nicknrh The problem happened with the old drive as well. It is certainly possible the old drive failed or the boot sector isn't recognised and yes although unrelated, it would not recognise the larger hard drive if the Bios isn't capable, it does strike me as that the original problem may still need to be addressed.
Lets hope the Bios Upgrade works and or the repair guy can sort the problem.
"If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask?
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nicknrh
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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8. September 2004 @ 13:35 |
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It seems like The_OGS was right.The repair guy called today;problem was that 1.)original h/d failed so was no longer "seen" on boot-up.
2.)Bios needed updating in order to recognise new (modern + much larger) h/d. Which is basically what your premise was.Thought you would like to know.Also,what Haymarket says is quite true;it is just a coincidence ( do they exist? )that these 2 events sort of merged into one;if you know what I mean.Cheers!
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The_OGS
Senior Member
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8. September 2004 @ 15:50 |
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Yes - there was no explanation for why your old HD stopped working... but now, we have one :-)
I would have made a 2GB FAT16 partition on the new HD, SYS'd with DOS (Win98), leaving 78GB unclaimed (unpartitioned/unformatted).
Then a Windows 2000/XP install would claim the space and format it NTFS.
Nicknrh would then be able to dual-boot Linux or whatever, and he would be able to access his boot files (like boot.ini) on the little system partition in the event his NTFS OS will not start.
Great to hear your rig is back up!
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nicknrh
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26. September 2004 @ 06:18 |
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Here I am again-with a whole new set of problems.
The repair shop managed to format my new WD 80 gig h/d & installed Win 98.I want to add extra partitions;not possible with Partition Magic or WD Lifeguard. Should I try Fdisk? Also tried updating NVIDIA drivers for a game-related problem;this did not work & I have a feeling that this is all connected.Anyone got any ideas?
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The_OGS
Senior Member
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26. September 2004 @ 08:29 |
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Quote:
tried updating NVIDIA drivers for a game-related problem; this did not work & I have a feeling that this is all connected
That what is connected?
That you have only a C: partition?
If you have only one (primary) partition on a HD and it is active, it has both the boot files and the system files, and cannot be Partition-Magic'd at all.
How did they format an 80GB Fat32 partition?
I thought you would need to do 40GB + 40GB (Fat32)
I would have done 2GB Fat16 (system partition with boot files) and 78GB NTFS D:
Oh, well...
Now if you want new nVidia video drivers, that is a separate matter. Go for it!
Make sure you have VIA 4in1 (v4.35 I think they recommend for Win98) and DirectX 9 installed, first.
What video board do you run?
BTW I would have changed that mobo battery, too (the one we were worried about).
ABit AB9 Pro
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 @ 2.4GHz
2GB OCZ PC2-6400 Platinum XTC R2
ATI Radeon X1900XT 512MB
Enermax Liberty 620W
320GB/16MB WD, 150GB/16MB Raptor
Plextor PX-755SA DVD (SATA)
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 26. September 2004 @ 08:31
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