Harddrive boot Up Problem

[d.haran]

Just before July Fourth I started receiving this message on my Dell
dimension
4300
with XP proffessional on it.
My system originally arrived with a western digital 40 gig harddrive.


"Secondary harddiskdrive not found
Warning: Dell's disk monitoring system has detected that drive 1 on the

primary
EIDE controller is operating outside of normal specifications. It is
advisable to immediately back up your data and replace your harddisk
drive by
calling your support desk or dell computer corporation."


I added a second wetern digital 40 gig harddisk drive about four years
ago
and put windows 2000 on that drive

The computer recognizes windows xp and windows 2000 as being two
operating
systems but only allows me to actually boot off xp 2000 wich is fine.

I just store other different programs on windows 2000 for extra
storage.

What I tried to do to correct this problem:

For a while after this message was showing up every time I would boot
up the
system would show press "F1" to boot or "F2" to use cd utility. I would
press
"F1" and the computer would boot and all things would be normal.
In the boot sequence in my BIOS I would choose "c" drive, but I would
still
receive the above message.

Eventually "F1" no longer worked for me and the computer would not get
past
the boot process.

As of July fourth I backed up all of my "C" drive onto my "D" drive
then
tried to do a repair on my "C" drive using my exhisting cd rom xp pro
provided with my dell choosing the "F2" command.

To no luck I eventually reformatted my "C" drive and after formatting
was
completed I received the same message and I was to press "F1" on my
keyboard.

I purchased a new Wetern Digital 120 gig harddisk drive and even put in
the
new cable that came with the drive wich was identical to the cable that
came
with the Dell computer for attatching both drives to system, I set the
new
drive for master using jumbers on back of harddrive and set the windows
2000
40 gig to slave.

In XP you can set the jumpers on both harddrives for the same and it
will
automatically notice both drives, but I switched the jumpers since
automatically detecting drive was still giving me the problem message
listed
above even with the new drive formatted for xp pro.

Presently every time I boot up the computer I receive the same problem
message, I press "F1" and have to boot off of the cd rom that was
originally
supplied with my dell computer.


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You in advance,

Dan

 

[Chris Priede]

Hi,

"Secondary harddiskdrive not found
Warning: Dell's disk monitoring system has detected that drive 1 on
the primary EIDE controller is operating outside of normal specifications.

I added a second wetern digital 40 gig harddisk drive about four years
ago and put windows 2000 on that drive

I'd suspect the error message refers to *that* drive. EIDE devices are
normally enumerated from 0, so you have drives 0 and 1 -- not drives 1 and 2
as non-computing minds might expect.

To no luck I eventually reformatted my "C" drive and after
formatting was completed I received the same message and I
was to press "F1" on my keyboard.

I strongly suspect you reformatted the wrong drive.

I purchased a new Wetern Digital 120 gig harddisk drive...

...and replaced the wrong drive.

In XP you can set the jumpers on both harddrives for the
same and it will automatically notice both drives
What?

Presently every time I boot up the computer I receive
the same problem message, I press "F1" and have to boot
off of the cd rom that was originally supplied with my dell
computer.

The message is a BIOS message (reformatting has nothing to do with it).
Although I don't fully understand what you were trying to say about the
jumpers, I believe the message refers to your second drive (D that is
still in the computer. That would explain why you continue to receive it.

If I were you, I would download and run the WD Dataguard Tools (or whatever
they call their diagnostic software now). It will tell you which drive is
failing and why, and may be able to "repair" it by relocating the bad
sectors (although I'd still prefer to have such a drive replaced).

 

[DL]

Confused by your numerous refs to various hd's
Backup all data to external media.
Disconnect all your hd's
Connect the new hd, only, as master
Boot from Winxp CD
Partition/format etc install winxp
Install mobo chipset and other hw drivers from dell site
Update
Assuming winxp runs fine with no error msgs.
If err msg visit wd web site, download run their hd checking utility.
Connect the other hd as slave
If it boots to an err msg, your 2nd hd is toast.
If not run the hd checking utility from the manu of this 2nd hd.
Recover any data from this 2nd hd to your master hd.
Format the 2nd hd