BIOS is slow to detect new hard drive

[JoePC]

Greetings,

I'm new to this newsgroup so forgive me if my description of my problem
is verbose.

The hard drive (Maxtor 91020D6) "crashed" on my Gateway GP6-400 PC
(PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0) running Windows 2000 SP4. I installed a
new hard drive Western Digital (WD400BB-75FJA1).

The new Hard Drive works better/faster than the old one (I've excepted
the old Hard Drive is toast). However, every time when I power on the
machine, when the BIOS initializes it detects the Keyboard/Mouse right
away but takes about a good 30-60 seconds for the new Hard Drive to
show and about another 10 seconds for the CD-RW drive to show up. This
did not happen with the old Hard Drive.

The jumper on the new hard drive is set to Master. No other jumper
settings on the hard drive are set.

I looked at the BIOS setup and the Hard Drive is set on the Primary IDE
channel as the Master and the CD-RW drive is on the Secondary IDE
channel as the Master. There is also a IOMEGA 100 Zip drive which does
not show up in the BIOS setup but Windows detects it.

The only hardware change is the new hard drive.

My thoughts are it has something to do with the new drive and the CD-RW
being on separate channels with both as Master but I haven't unplugged
the CD-RW drive yet (that should be my next troubleshooting step). That
would seem unlikely though because the old Hard Drive was picked up by
the BIOS right away. That would then lead me to beleive that the
problem has something to do with either the BIOS or the firmware on the
new Hard Drive.

I've searched various manufacturer sites and haven't come up with much
other than the logic in the last paragraph. I've already tried setting
the hard drive to above the CD-RW drive in the BIOS boot order for OS
detection.

Any ideas? Has anyone else experienced this problem?

PROBLEM: Hard drive detection by the BIOS is slow after installing a
new hard drive.

ENVIRONMENT:

PC: Gateway GP6-400 PC
BIOS: PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0
OS: Windows 2000 SP4
HARD DRIVE: Western Digital (WD400BB-75FJA1)
CD Drive: Samsung RW 52-24-52
ZIP Drive: IOMEGA 100MB

Thanks,
Aaron

 

[Andy]

Greetings,

I'm new to this newsgroup so forgive me if my description of my problem
is verbose.

The hard drive (Maxtor 91020D6) "crashed" on my Gateway GP6-400 PC
(PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0) running Windows 2000 SP4. I installed a
new hard drive Western Digital (WD400BB-75FJA1).

The new Hard Drive works better/faster than the old one (I've excepted
the old Hard Drive is toast). However, every time when I power on the
machine, when the BIOS initializes it detects the Keyboard/Mouse right
away but takes about a good 30-60 seconds for the new Hard Drive to
show and about another 10 seconds for the CD-RW drive to show up. This
did not happen with the old Hard Drive.

The jumper on the new hard drive is set to Master. No other jumper
settings on the hard drive are set.

There should not be any jumpers on the drive.

 

[Rod Speed]

I'm new to this newsgroup so forgive me if my description of my
problem is verbose.

The hard drive (Maxtor 91020D6) "crashed" on my Gateway GP6-400 PC
(PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0) running Windows 2000 SP4. I installed a
new hard drive Western Digital (WD400BB-75FJA1).

The new Hard Drive works better/faster than the old one (I've excepted
the old Hard Drive is toast). However, every time when I power on the
machine, when the BIOS initializes it detects the Keyboard/Mouse right
away but takes about a good 30-60 seconds for the new Hard Drive to
show and about another 10 seconds for the CD-RW drive to show up.
This did not happen with the old Hard Drive.

The jumper on the new hard drive is set to Master.
No other jumper settings on the hard drive are set.

WDs are funny, they have a different jumper config for
the only drive on a cable and master of a pair of drives.
http://www.wdc.com/en/library/eide/2579-001037.pdf

I looked at the BIOS setup and the Hard Drive is set on the Primary
IDE channel as the Master and the CD-RW drive is on the Secondary IDE
channel as the Master. There is also a IOMEGA 100 Zip drive which does
not show up in the BIOS setup but Windows detects it.

Which cable is the Zip drive on ?

If the WD is on the cable by itself, you should have no jumpers on the drive.

The only hardware change is the new hard drive.

My thoughts are it has something to do with the new drive and
the CD-RW being on separate channels with both as Master
but I haven't unplugged the CD-RW drive yet (that should be
my next troubleshooting step). That would seem unlikely though
because the old Hard Drive was picked up by the BIOS right away.

WDs have a unique jumper config when the drive is the only drive on a cable.

That would then lead me to beleive that the problem has something
to do with either the BIOS or the firmware on the new Hard Drive.

Its likely just the drive jumpering.

I've searched various manufacturer sites and haven't come
up with much other than the logic in the last paragraph. I've
already tried setting the hard drive to above the CD-RW
drive in the BIOS boot order for OS detection.

Thats irrelevant to the detection of the drives.

Any ideas? Has anyone else experienced this problem?

See above. With some bios the WD wont even be seen when
its jumpered as master and its the only drive on the cable.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Greetings,

I'm new to this newsgroup so forgive me if my description of my problem
is verbose.

The hard drive (Maxtor 91020D6) "crashed" on my Gateway GP6-400 PC
(PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0) running Windows 2000 SP4. I installed a
new hard drive Western Digital (WD400BB-75FJA1).

The new Hard Drive works better/faster than the old one (I've excepted
the old Hard Drive is toast). However, every time when I power on the
machine, when the BIOS initializes it detects the Keyboard/Mouse right
away but takes about a good 30-60 seconds for the new Hard Drive to
show and about another 10 seconds for the CD-RW drive to show up. This
did not happen with the old Hard Drive.

The jumper on the new hard drive is set to Master. No other jumper
settings on the hard drive are set.

I looked at the BIOS setup and the Hard Drive is set on the Primary IDE
channel as the Master and the CD-RW drive is on the Secondary IDE
channel as the Master. There is also a IOMEGA 100 Zip drive which does
not show up in the BIOS setup but Windows detects it.

The only hardware change is the new hard drive.

My thoughts are it has something to do with the new drive and the CD-RW
being on separate channels with both as Master but I haven't unplugged
the CD-RW drive yet (that should be my next troubleshooting step). That
would seem unlikely though because the old Hard Drive was picked up by
the BIOS right away. That would then lead me to beleive that the
problem has something to do with either the BIOS or the firmware on the
new Hard Drive.

I've searched various manufacturer sites and haven't come up with much
other than the logic in the last paragraph. I've already tried setting
the hard drive to above the CD-RW drive in the BIOS boot order for OS
detection.

Any ideas? Has anyone else experienced this problem?

I have had this only when something was seriously wrong. It
may be that the drive is damaged and takes a long time for initial
head movement calibration. It may also be that you PSU is marginal
on the 12V line, causing the same effect. Then it may be a software
problem, where the BIOS and drive have problems with each other.

Having heard a lot about WD drives being kicked from RAID
arrays because they sometimes take a long time to response
lately, it could also be plain mis-design.

Nonetheless I think you should not trust this set-up. Make regular
backups until you figure out hwat the problem is.

Arno

 

[Michael Cecil]

There should not be any jumpers on the drive.

Andy is right. Single WD drives should be jumpered as "single" drives
when alone on an IDE channel. Either remove the jumper or put it in the
park position.

 

[Stimpy]

I have had this only when something was seriously wrong. It
may be that the drive is damaged and takes a long time for initial
head movement calibration. It may also be that you PSU is marginal
on the 12V line, causing the same effect. Then it may be a software
problem, where the BIOS and drive have problems with each other.

Having heard a lot about WD drives being kicked from RAID
arrays because they sometimes take a long time to response
lately, it could also be plain mis-design.

Nonetheless I think you should not trust this set-up. Make regular
backups until you figure out hwat the problem is.

Babblebot having no idea as usual but can't help himself and happily
babbles away. It's the age old "put the jumpers right" problem, Arnie.
If you had waited a bit you would have noticed 2 people gave the correct
answer already, but no you had to make a fool out of your self once again.

Anyone who has the faintest clue about harddrives knows that the mas-
ter waits for the slave to get ready at POST and that most -if not all-
harddrives have a jumper to disable this behaviour in case of them be-
ing alone on the channel and not need to time out before they carry on.

 

[JoePC]

Removing the jumper so that there are no jumpers on the new drive
resolved the problem. The BIOS now detects the drive in about 6
seconds, which means it detects it right away since the BIOS has a 6
sec detection delay.

Thanks to everyone for your help!