HDD's not detected at boot up

[Aya Dream]

When I turn on the PC and boot up the BIOS tries to detect all ID
devices. It finds mt two CD/DVD drives but fails to detect my two HD
drives (C:\ Primary Master 160Gb and D:\ Seagate Primary Slave 80G
Seagate).

I have recently done the following to try and eliminate this problem:

* Updated the BIOS from Award F2 to Award F12a - worked fine to begi
with.
* Checked both of my 2x 1Gb RAM sticks with Memtest86+ v1.65
GoldMemory 5.07 & DocMemory 2.2b - Both sticks passed all tests.
* Removed my ATI Radeon 9550 graphics card as monitor wasn't working
now using standard WinXP graphic drivers and ok.
* Added external USB HDD device (160Gb Seagate) for Acronis True Imag
backup
* Installed a second newer copy of WinXP on my D: drive (so I now hav
the option to boot from c: or d: drives at boot up but the syste
doesn't get that far as the HDD's aren't detected and it asks for
bootable CD/DVD disk only
* I Hiren's BootCD disk on CD-RW and it will start if inserted but
don't really know what I'm doing with all those tools!

Does anybody have any ideas as to what I should do to try and fix thi
problem?
Cheers, Ay

 

[Patrick Keenan]

When I turn on the PC and boot up the BIOS tries to detect all IDE
devices. It finds mt two CD/DVD drives but fails to detect my two HDD
drives (C:\ Primary Master 160Gb and D:\ Seagate Primary Slave 80Gb
Seagate).

I have recently done the following to try and eliminate this problem:

* Updated the BIOS from Award F2 to Award F12a - worked fine to begin
with.
* Checked both of my 2x 1Gb RAM sticks with Memtest86+ v1.65,
GoldMemory 5.07 & DocMemory 2.2b - Both sticks passed all tests.
* Removed my ATI Radeon 9550 graphics card as monitor wasn't working -
now using standard WinXP graphic drivers and ok.
* Added external USB HDD device (160Gb Seagate) for Acronis True Image
backup
* Installed a second newer copy of WinXP on my D: drive (so I now have
the option to boot from c: or d: drives at boot up but the system
doesn't get that far as the HDD's aren't detected and it asks for a
bootable CD/DVD disk only
* I Hiren's BootCD disk on CD-RW and it will start if inserted but I
don't really know what I'm doing with all those tools!

Does anybody have any ideas as to what I should do to try and fix this
problem?
Cheers, Aya

You may have the drive jumpers set incorrectly. If you;re using Cable
Select, the boot drive normally goes at the end of the cable. If you're
using Master and Slave jumpers, location on the cable doesn't matter. Both
drives must not be set to Master.

Remove the second drive and get the system to properly detect the primary
drive. Once that's done, add the second drive and watch carefully what
happens.

HTH
-pk

 

[Aya Dream]

You may have the drive jumpers set incorrectly. If you;re using Cable
Select, the boot drive normally goes at the end of the cable. If
you're
using Master and Slave jumpers, location on the cable doesn't matter.
Both
drives must not be set to Master.

Remove the second drive and get the system to properly detect the
primary
drive. Once that's done, add the second drive and watch carefully what
happens.

HTH
-pk

Hi HTH, thanks for the reply

* Checked jumper settings on HDDs for Primary & Slave drives
* Checked all wires & connections (including IDE ribbon)
Problem still exists.

Do I have a problem with my MBR's as the c: drive was cloned from the old
d: (which was fine by the way; just short on space).

Does it matter if my external USB HDD drive is connected or disconnected
when I start the PC up and shut it down? i.e. does the system get confused
if I close down the system with my external drive disconnected and then
power up the system with my external drive connected or vica versa?

 

[Patrick Keenan]

You may have the drive jumpers set incorrectly. If you;re using Cable
Select, the boot drive normally goes at the end of the cable. If
you're
using Master and Slave jumpers, location on the cable doesn't matter.
Both
drives must not be set to Master.

Remove the second drive and get the system to properly detect the
primary
drive. Once that's done, add the second drive and watch carefully what
happens.

HTH
-pk

Hi HTH, thanks for the reply

* Checked jumper settings on HDDs for Primary & Slave drives
* Checked all wires & connections (including IDE ribbon)
Problem still exists.

Do I have a problem with my MBR's as the c: drive was cloned from the old
d: (which was fine by the way; just short on space).

If the BIOS is not detecting the hard disks, it's not the MBR; that comes
later.

Does it matter if my external USB HDD drive is connected or disconnected
when I start the PC up and shut it down? i.e. does the system get confused
if I close down the system with my external drive disconnected and then
power up the system with my external drive connected or vica versa?

No, it does not matter.

You need to get the primary drive recognised by the BIOS before anything
else. Unplug the other drives and attach *only* the primary drive, and
verify that the BIOS is detecting the drive. Then add the others back in
one at a time, restarting and verifying each time that the drives are
recognised.

You might try removing the system battery and clearing the CMOS to be sure
that you're starting fresh.

HTH
-pk