Hard drive problem

[David Kistner]

My motherboard failed and I replaced it with a new Biostar K8NHA-Grand.
I tried to do a Windows XP repair to get my old SATA hard drive to
work with the new mb. This didn't work. Bios "sees" the drive, and I
loaded the SATA drivers from floppy when Windows XP prompted me (hit
F6). But Windows Repair just "freezes up" and stalls after it tries to
examine the hard drive (bios and XP both "see" the drive). I take it
that I'm out-of-luck getting this drive to boot into Windows. If I
could get my files off of the drive I'd reformat it....but sure would
like to save my files.

I had an IDE hard drive and so I thought I'd load XP on it and then try
to copy files from the SATA drive to the IDE drive. The IDE drive
loaded windows and everything works fine if the SATA drive is not hooked
up. But, when I boot the system WITH the SATA hooked up the system
boots REAL slow and Windows is unstable and will freeze up dead (I can
"see" the SATA drive under My Computer briefly before the system freezes).

I tried another SATA drive to see if the same thing would happen and it
did. I downloaded the latest bios and flashed the bios to the latest
version. I also downloaded the latest SATA drivers for the board too.
Still no luck. I tried different cables. Nothing seems to work.

Any ideas on what the problem is? I was very careful to read and follow
the manual for the Biostar mb. Everything seems to be correct (although
the manual is pretty skimpy on information).

 

[nos1eep]

It is further alleged that on or about Sat, 31 Dec 2005 23:13:47 GMT,
in alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt, the queezy keyboard of David
Kistner <[email protected]> spewed the following:

|My motherboard failed and I replaced it with a new Biostar K8NHA-Grand.
| I tried to do a Windows XP repair to get my old SATA hard drive to
|work with the new mb. This didn't work. Bios "sees" the drive, and I
|loaded the SATA drivers from floppy when Windows XP prompted me (hit
|F6). But Windows Repair just "freezes up" and stalls after it tries to
|examine the hard drive (bios and XP both "see" the drive). I take it
|that I'm out-of-luck getting this drive to boot into Windows. If I
|could get my files off of the drive I'd reformat it....but sure would
|like to save my files.
|
|I had an IDE hard drive and so I thought I'd load XP on it and then try
|to copy files from the SATA drive to the IDE drive. The IDE drive
|loaded windows and everything works fine if the SATA drive is not hooked
|up. But, when I boot the system WITH the SATA hooked up the system
|boots REAL slow and Windows is unstable and will freeze up dead (I can
|"see" the SATA drive under My Computer briefly before the system freezes).
|
|I tried another SATA drive to see if the same thing would happen and it
|did. I downloaded the latest bios and flashed the bios to the latest
|version. I also downloaded the latest SATA drivers for the board too.
|Still no luck. I tried different cables. Nothing seems to work.
|
|Any ideas on what the problem is? I was very careful to read and follow
|the manual for the Biostar mb. Everything seems to be correct (although
|the manual is pretty skimpy on information).

Have you tried to hot swap the drive? Unplug your SATA, boot windows,
plug in the SATA.
--

-nos1eep

One night at Cheers, Cliff Clavin explained the "Buffalo Theory”
to his buddy, Norm. "Well ya see, Norm, it's like this. A herd
of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when
the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back
that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd
as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group
keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In
much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the
slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know,
kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest
brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer
eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and
more efficient machine! That's why you always feel smarter after
a few beers.

 

[BigJim]

I think you should have just done a repair install since the sata drivers
were already loaded.

 

[David Kistner]

It is further alleged that on or about Sat, 31 Dec 2005 23:13:47 GMT,
in alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt, the queezy keyboard of David
Kistner <[email protected]> spewed the following:

|My motherboard failed and I replaced it with a new Biostar K8NHA-Grand.
| I tried to do a Windows XP repair to get my old SATA hard drive to
|work with the new mb. This didn't work. Bios "sees" the drive, and I
|loaded the SATA drivers from floppy when Windows XP prompted me (hit
|F6). But Windows Repair just "freezes up" and stalls after it tries to
|examine the hard drive (bios and XP both "see" the drive). I take it
|that I'm out-of-luck getting this drive to boot into Windows. If I
|could get my files off of the drive I'd reformat it....but sure would
|like to save my files.
|
|I had an IDE hard drive and so I thought I'd load XP on it and then try
|to copy files from the SATA drive to the IDE drive. The IDE drive
|loaded windows and everything works fine if the SATA drive is not hooked
|up. But, when I boot the system WITH the SATA hooked up the system
|boots REAL slow and Windows is unstable and will freeze up dead (I can
|"see" the SATA drive under My Computer briefly before the system freezes).
|
|I tried another SATA drive to see if the same thing would happen and it
|did. I downloaded the latest bios and flashed the bios to the latest
|version. I also downloaded the latest SATA drivers for the board too.
|Still no luck. I tried different cables. Nothing seems to work.
|
|Any ideas on what the problem is? I was very careful to read and follow
|the manual for the Biostar mb. Everything seems to be correct (although
|the manual is pretty skimpy on information).

Have you tried to hot swap the drive? Unplug your SATA, boot windows,
plug in the SATA.

I tried this. XP recognizes the new hardware and after a moment XP gives
me a message "your new hardware is ready to use" (like XP does with any
new hardware). But after 5 or 10 seconds XP "freezes" and locks up,
requiring a reboot.

 

[old jon]

I tried this. XP recognizes the new hardware and after a moment XP gives
me a message "your new hardware is ready to use" (like XP does with any
new hardware). But after 5 or 10 seconds XP "freezes" and locks up,
requiring a reboot.

Hi David. have a look at your Event Viewer to see what errors\warnings you
have.
bw..OJ

 

[David Kistner]

Hi David. have a look at your Event Viewer to see what errors\warnings you
have.
bw..OJ

I'll do that now. One additional bit of information is that when I put
the SATA drive in another XP machine, it works perfectly as a 2nd drive
(so I haven't lost my data) and can get my data off of the drive. I
still have the problem that SATA drives won't work on the machine with
the new Biostar motherboard.