Seagate SATA HDD Nightmare!

[josephclange]

Hi all-- Hopefully someone can help.

I have a Dell Inspiron 8600, 2ghz, 1 gb RAM. I recently bought a
Serial ATA PCMCIA card so i could hookup a Seagate Barracuda 160 GB
drive. It is an internal 3.5" drive that i am running externally- with
an enclosure.

I went through all the Disk Wizard setup with no problem - it said i
formatted the drive and everything should be peachy. But when i try to
access the drive through Windows XP, it says it is not formatted. I
have tried many times to format it through Disk Manager, but it is
extremely slow... (only 23% OVERNIGHT).

All drivers are current, and cannot be updated. I have also gone to
the dell.com site and updated my BIOS - but to no avail. The PCMCIA
card seems to work fine-- the drive is recognized but it is seen as
formatted.

Another thing-- when the SATA cables are hooked up and i restart, my
laptop stalls on the "Windows XP with scrolling status bar" and will
stay there forever, until i power down, and disconnect the cable.

I can't seem to crack this one. Any options?

 

[johns]

I haven't been through this with a laptop, but I have seen the
problem with a couple of Dell desktops. I think the problem is
caused by the Dell BIOS wanting to see a SATA 150, but
you have a SATA 300. Only thing I could do was switch to
a quick format ... and that worked fine. Also, like I said to
the ( youknowwhos ), these 3rd party formating programs
are pure crap. Do not use them. In Disk Manager, delete
the partition .... MAKE DAMN SURE IT IS THE RIGHT
PARTITION .. NOT JUST THE DRIVE LETTER YOU THINK
IT MIGHT BE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...... and then
remake the partition in WinXP and do a quick format. Those
crap 3rd party programs do not make an NTFS partition
.... and those programs expect you to only access the drive
through them. Also, you MUST dismount the drive under
their program, or the drive will dissappear instantly, if you
just power down. I don't know about the delay on boot
problem ... other than maybe the system thinks it is a
bad partition and wants to run a disk check ???? Try
powering it on after you are in WinXP. I've seen a thumb
drive do the same thing ... hang the boot for several
minutes.

johns

 

[Garrot]

I haven't been through this with a laptop, but I have seen the
problem with a couple of Dell desktops. I think the problem is
caused by the Dell BIOS wanting to see a SATA 150, but
you have a SATA 300.

If that is the case then there should be a jumper setting on the HDD
that will make it compatible with SATA 150. I know my Samsung SATAII hdd
has a jumper setting for SATA 150 compatibility.

 

[Clint]

By default, the Seagate SATA HD I plunked in recently was set to SATA150,
and I had to set the jumper manually to set it to SATA300. Not saying the
OP's drive is the same, but there you go.

Clint

 

[AKJACKAL]

I just went thru an ordeal myself when installing a Seagate drive. I
contacted Seagate to see if they had any insight. The tech literally told me
that DiscWizard software is not worth a damn with windows XP. He recommended
doing all partitioning and formatting with the windows disk management tool.
(Right-Click on My Computer and left-click on Manage, then choose disk
management on the left hand menu.) Also, be sure to have your SATA drive set
as a master. If you need SATA drivers for your motherboard, go directly to
the chipset manufacturer's site, not the motherboard manufacturer
(especially if you have the nVidia250 3 chipset.)

-Jack

 

[Rod Speed]

I just went thru an ordeal myself when installing a Seagate drive. I
contacted Seagate to see if they had any insight. The tech literally
told me that DiscWizard software is not worth a damn with windows XP.
He recommended doing all partitioning and formatting with the windows
disk management tool. (Right-Click on My Computer and left-click on
Manage, then choose disk management on the left hand menu.) Also, be
sure to have your SATA drive set as a master.

There is no master/slave with SATA drives.

 

[AKJACKAL]

Correction:..... I meant to be sure all physical drives are listed as
master. This can include cd-rom and dvd-rom drives.

 

[Rod Speed]

Correction:..... I meant to be sure all physical drives are listed as master.

Still wrong.

This can include cd-rom and dvd-rom drives.

Wont work if there is more than one on the particular ribbon cable.

 

[johns]

I hadn't thought of that, but the quick format does
work.

johns