Hard drive does not wake up

[Walter R.]

Running WinXp SP2

My bootdisk is a SATA 300GB. Works fine. My backup disk is an IDE 80 GB.

Sometimes, when I boot the system, or when the system wakes up from
stand-by, the IDE drive does not show up. It is neither in the BIOS, nor in
Windows.

When I then re-boot, the IDE drive shows up. The IDE drive is a Maxtor and,
when it shows up at boot-up, the smart test for the drive says it's OK. When
I look at the drive in Everest Sysinfo, all 'smart' parameters are normal or
pass.

What could be causing this erratic behavior upon boot-up and wake-up?

 

[Don Phillipson]

Running WinXp SP2

My bootdisk is a SATA 300GB. Works fine. My backup disk is an IDE 80 GB.

Sometimes, when I boot the system, or when the system wakes up from
stand-by, the IDE drive does not show up. It is neither in the BIOS, nor in
Windows.

When I then re-boot, the IDE drive shows up. The IDE drive is a Maxtor and,
when it shows up at boot-up, the smart test for the drive says it's OK. When
I look at the drive in Everest Sysinfo, all 'smart' parameters are normal or
pass.

What could be causing this erratic behavior upon boot-up and wake-up?

Probably the IDE driver(s). either damaged or in need of update.

 

[Walter R.]

Thank you, where would I find Maxtor IDE drivers and how would I install
them? Never installed a driver for a HD before.

 

[Walter R.]

Just wondering, while mulling over your response: How can this be a driver
problem when the computer fails to see the drive in the BIOS (before Windows
loads)?

 

[Bob Willard]

Running WinXp SP2

My bootdisk is a SATA 300GB. Works fine. My backup disk is an IDE 80 GB.

Sometimes, when I boot the system, or when the system wakes up from
stand-by, the IDE drive does not show up. It is neither in the BIOS, nor in
Windows.

When I then re-boot, the IDE drive shows up. The IDE drive is a Maxtor and,
when it shows up at boot-up, the smart test for the drive says it's OK. When
I look at the drive in Everest Sysinfo, all 'smart' parameters are normal or
pass.

What could be causing this erratic behavior upon boot-up and wake-up?

I suspect the HD is taking too long to spin up. Check the BIOS to see if
there is a way to wait a few seconds longer before starting the POST, to
allow the HDs to get up to speed; that feature is fairly common.

 

[Walter R.]

Thank you, Willard. You were absolutely right. The BIOS got ahead of the
hard drive. I delayed the bios and have had no more problems.