Maxtor 250GB "disk read error" with UDMA

[The Scarlet Pumpernickle]

I received a new 250 GB Maxtor ATA133, cloned my original 30 GB system
drive to it, and converted it to NTFS (all via Maxtor's software). I
intend to use the new disk as my system C: drive.

My XP SP1 system is now proving very unstable. If I enable UltraDMA
on the new disk, I can only use it as D... if it's booted as the
primary master, I get the "disk read error" immediately after
verifying DMI pool.

I can SOMETIMES boot the new disk as C when I disable UltraDMA, but I
don't find this an acceptable solution.

The errors seem to be linked to the filesystem. I also tried the new
disk without the NTFS conversion, and didn't have as many problems.
Seems I can boot successfully every time as long as my boot sector is
on the original FAT32 drive, but if my boot sector is on the NTFS
drive, I get all kinds of bad behavior.

Any suggestions? I am considering installing a small, hidden FAT32
boot partition on the new drive, allowing me to keep C: as NTFS and
preseve the driver letters. What is the best utility to do this?

 

[Fabien LE LEZ]

I received a new 250 GB Maxtor ATA133, cloned my original 30 GB system
drive to it, and converted it to NTFS (all via Maxtor's software).

AFAIK, Windows doesn't handle properly partitions bigger than 130 GB.

I usually create a small (<10GB) partition for the OS and the
applications, so that I can easily make a backup of the system, and
restore it later if it happens to get unstable.
Of course, all data goes to other partitions.

 

[Impmon]

AFAIK, Windows doesn't handle properly partitions bigger than 130 GB.

XP with SP1 pack can handle it. If the OP doesn't have SP1 installed
or has older Windows, an upgrade is on order.

Also some BIOS (pretty much any BIOS more than a year old) may have
problem with 48bit drives and consequently have problem handling
drives bigger than 137GB.

 

[Eric Gisin]

AFAIK, Windows doesn't handle properly partitions bigger than 130 GB.

Absolutely clueless. It handles 2TB just fine.

 

[Fabien LE LEZ]

Absolutely clueless. It handles 2TB just fine.

Wow, you have a 2TB UDMA hard disk? :-o

 

[The Scarlet Pumpernickle]

XP with SP1 pack can handle it. If the OP doesn't have SP1 installed
or has older Windows, an upgrade is on order.

Also some BIOS (pretty much any BIOS more than a year old) may have
problem with 48bit drives and consequently have problem handling
drives bigger than 137GB.

The mobo is a FIC KT-748, Athlon XP 2400+. I'm using the most recent
BIOS, Award 1.1 dated 10/2003. If anyone knows of a more recent
substitute, I'm listening. Also, I'm using an 80-pin cable as
required.

Windows is OK with the size of the partition... I can use it as the D
drive with no problems. I just can't boot from it as the C: drive
when it's NTFS. Does the boot partition idea make sense?

 

[Eric Gisin]

Wow, you have a 2TB UDMA hard disk? :-o

Do you even know what the difference between disks are partitions is?

You made an idiotic statement about partitions. Don't change the topic.

 

[CJT]

Wow, you have a 2TB UDMA hard disk? :-o

That's only one _partition_!

 

[Impmon]

Does the boot partition idea make sense?

Yes it does. You could make 2 partitions: the first one really small
(ie 20MB, FAT32 formatted) just for boot and the second one for
everything else. When installing Windows, choose the second
partition. It will automatically install the boot software on the
first partition and the main part on the second partition.

Once you get XP up and running, you can reassighn the drive letters so
the boot partition is out of the way (such as drive M and the main
partition as drive C: It will not affect the booting ability.

 

[Impmon]

Wow, you have a 2TB UDMA hard disk? :-o

It's probably a collection of 250GB or 300GB hard drives in RAID 0
setup. I have a total of 1.1TB but not as single partition, just
individual hard drives.

 

[Eric Gisin]

The mobo is a FIC KT-748, Athlon XP 2400+. I'm using the most recent
BIOS, Award 1.1 dated 10/2003. If anyone knows of a more recent
substitute, I'm listening. Also, I'm using an 80-pin cable as
required.

Windows is OK with the size of the partition... I can use it as the D
drive with no problems. I just can't boot from it as the C: drive
when it's NTFS. Does the boot partition idea make sense?

First, run Maxtor diagnostics and see if you have any bad sectors.

If not, the NTFS conversion (by MaxBlast?) incorrectly set up the boot sector.
When the boot code requests an invalid CHS, the message is "A disk read error
occurred".

I would not bother with FAT to NTFS conversions, performance will suffer. If
you reinstall, format as NTFS in set up.

 

[The Scarlet Pumpernickle]

Yes it does. You could make 2 partitions: the first one really small
(ie 20MB, FAT32 formatted) just for boot and the second one for
everything else. When installing Windows, choose the second
partition. It will automatically install the boot software on the
first partition and the main part on the second partition.

Once you get XP up and running, you can reassighn the drive letters so
the boot partition is out of the way (such as drive M and the main
partition as drive C: It will not affect the booting ability.

I want to avoid re-installing XP if possible. My plan is to use
partition magic to create a small FAT32 boot partition at the start of
C:, then keep my existing NTFS XP installation as the rest of C:.

Is there an easy way to transfer & modify the NT Boot Loader
information (boot.ini etc) so I launch my boot menu from the FAT32
partition?

 

[The Scarlet Pumpernickle]

First, run Maxtor diagnostics and see if you have any bad sectors.

I did, and there are none.

If not, the NTFS conversion (by MaxBlast?)

correct... not a conversion, per se, but one of the options while
cloning.

incorrectly set up the boot sector.
When the boot code requests an invalid CHS, the message is "A disk read error
occurred".

I would not bother with FAT to NTFS conversions, performance will suffer. If
you reinstall, format as NTFS in set up.

I attempted to re-install (or at least repair) several times, but
setup always rebooted as the pre-installation environment was
loading... last thing I would see loading was Windows Keyboard Layout
kbdus.dll... My Bart's PE disk would cause a reboot too at about the
same point. The only boot disks that worked were DOS-based.

I chalked all this up to the UDMA and/or NTFS conflict.