Bios not seeing 2nd drive

[CWBillow]

I have an 80gig drive as my master (system and files), and a 210gig for storage.

In the last couple days, if I cold boot, everything starts up fine, but if I warm boot, the bios doesn't see my second drive, and bombs out.

Even when I cold boot, eventually I have read / write errors. I tried replacing the cable but that didn't do it.

One guy told me that it might be the drive controller.

That's two steps past my hardware knowledge.

If it is the controller, is that controller just for one drive (and another for the other)?. Is it a separate "piece" from the drive itself (so that I wouldn't fix it just by replacing the drive)?

Thhe repair shop I use wants $65 just to find the problem. I don't hold making money against anybody -- as long as it's not mine, at least as little as possible!

Any help here would be appreciated...

Regards,
Chuck Billow

[JoeP517]

Have you run chkdsk? Some HD vendors supply diagnostic software. Have you checked that out? Is it under warranty? Have you run any diagnostic software for the PC generally just to make sure all it OK? Of course you've backed up the driver right?

Joe

[kaplinb]

First of all, what do you mean by "warm boot" ? Usually this term means "forced restart of the computer when operating system hangs". Do you have major problems with your Windows installation?

If you mean "start from Standby or Hibernation mode", the problem can be power saver settings for your hard drives.
Right-click your desktop on any place (except on an icon) and from pop-up menu select Properties. On Display Properties window click Screen Saver tab and then Power button closer to the bottom of the window. Power Option Properties window will appear. Make sure that "Turn off hard disks" is set to "Never" for your power scheme.

Answers to other questions:

If you have IDE hard drives and CD/DVD drives, they are connected to two controllers (by flat ribbon cables) on your motherboard. Each controller can handle up to two devices, then you can install up to four devices. If two devices are connected to the same controller, one of them must be configured as "master" and the other as "slave", or both as "cable select". There is a jumper on each device, set either on "master", "slave", or "CS" (on some hard drives is possible "standalone" position also). Without knowing how your devices are configured, it is impossible to say which configuration is better for you.

[viking33]

Chuck,
Have these two drives been working together OK for some time or did you recently add the second drive?
Are they both on the same IDE cable or separate cables? Primary and Secondary IDE?

Have you checked the masterslave jumpers on the back of the drives to make sure they are not both jumpered to master on the Primary IDE cable? If so, move the jumper to slave on the second drive.

Check that the jumper clips are tight and not loose in fit on the pins. They CAN fall out.

Make sure power connector and IDE cables are secure and not misfitted.

AND....this has happened to me and drove me up a wall trying to figure out the problem. I had a bad power connection on the back of the four pin power plug to the drive. Sometimes it would work, other times the drive just disappeared on me. Used another power plug and all was well again.

[CWBillow]

Joe:

I've tried every flipping diagnostic I can/could find...

Luckinly last nite (3am really) I was able to pick off the key files and copy them to my primary drive...

Chuck

[CWBillow]

By "warm boot" I just mean NOT to shut the machine totally off, but rather to just let it start through the startup process...

If I'm understanding your explanation of a controller, (yes my drives ARE ide and are master and slave) if the controller is bad, then how, without replacing the motherboard, could I fix it?

They've been this way for months and runnng fine... this has all been happening over the last two days, after no hardware intervention from me at all...

Chuck

[CWBillow]

Bob:

>>
AND....this has happened to me and drove me up a wall trying to figure out the problem. I had a bad power connection on the back of the four pin power plug to the drive. Sometimes it would work, other times the drive just disappeared on me. Used another power plug and all was well again.
<<

THAT I didn't try... I gotta give that a shot.

Thanks,
Chuck

[CWBillow]

Bob:

Checked jumpers, connections, cables etc...

Brief moment of hope when, after swiching the power cables, the problem seemed to subside... but alas, it came back.

I'm assuming that if my controller is bad, then so is my motherboard -- yes? Just outside of a year old... what a pain...

Chuck

[bigaldoc]

I wouldn't make that motherboard assumption just yet if I were you. This whole thing, barring the dialogue with Bob about cables, jumpers and such, sounds like you may have a bad drive on your hands. I would first try installing that big drive in another computer if you have one available. And of course, finding another drive, albeit temporarily, to install in this machine would possibly test the "bad motherboard" theory. And of course, I hope you don't lose any data from that drive!!!

[viking33]

Chuck,
You also didn't reply to my first three questions in my <post#=624.485>post 624.485</post#>
The more information you can give, the easier it is to come up with a possible solution. ( you oughta know that, Chuck )

[CWBillow]

Al:

I'm in the process of a version of that:

I have a drive that had started being a bit flaky at one point (still worked and read fine) that I'm going to install in the bay that is giving me so much bother, and then go from there...

All I got to do is find the jumper settings for the drive (Maxtor) to move it from master to slave...

Chuck

[CWBillow]

Bob:

Apologies... I've been on a mad data-saving chase this pm...

>>
Have these two drives been working together OK for some time or did you recently add the second drive?
Are they both on the same IDE cable or separate cables? Primary and Secondary IDE?
<<

Were working fine (I thought) until yesterday, and yes, they are both IDE and on the same cable. But now, with just the one drive "hot", my system seems to be faster, so I wonder if this has been brewing...

>>
Have you checked the masterslave jumpers on the back of the drives to make sure they are not both jumpered to master on the Primary IDE cable? If so, move the jumper to slave on the second drive.
<<

Jumpers were/are fine.

>>
Make sure power connector and IDE cables are secure and not misfitted.
<<

Double-checked it, and although the drive then seemed OK for a while, then it wasn't again...

>>
AND....this has happened to me and drove me up a wall trying to figure out the problem. I had a bad power connection on the back of the four pin power plug to the drive. Sometimes it would work, other times the drive just disappeared on me. Used another power plug and all was well again.
<<

Swapped them and it did no good...

Chuck

[CWBillow]

Guys:

Maybe I'm in luck... I installed an old 40 gig drive I had, and it seems to be running OK... time of course will tell, but it sure would be nice if that's "all" it was/is...

I was able to salvage most of the data off the faulty drive...

Quick remark: What the heck good is SMART tech if it shows me a "failing drive (that continued to run for another 8 months) and then shows me nada on a drive that just up and dies? I can just guess on my own, thanks very much...

Thanks though for all the help and suggestions... they did keep me looking, which has (apparently) saved me a bit of change as well...

Yea for this board (one more time again!) !!

Regards,
Chuck Billow

[JoeP517]

Drives fail at different rates. One could be operating in the marginal area of its specs and continue for a long time. Another could fail catastrophically. An analogy might be a very small slow leak in a tire that would allow you to contiue to drive without a problem for some period of time vs. a tire blowout which stops you right away. To answer you question about SMART - if it gives you early warning you are (or should be) able to do something to avert severe damage. If you choose to ignore the warning then you get what you deserve.

Joe

[CWBillow]

Joe:

Certainly different problems occur at different rates. But, tires aside

>>
To answer you question about SMART - if it gives you early warning you are (or should be) able to do something to avert severe damage. If you choose to ignore the warning then you get what you deserve.
<<

I didn't ignore the warning (not this time) -- I didn't get a warning. *That* was my point. To get a warning that ends up being overly cautious, but then to NOT get one that could have very well been a real problem... well, to me a better analogy might be

A fire alarm goes off, sometimes if there's a fire, sometimes if it's too sunny outside, and then sometimes when it flipping is in the mood. At the same time, a fire alarm won't go off if it has gone of too many times this week, or if you paid too much for the battery, or if it doesn't like the color of the room it is installed in.

I am all for prevention. I think in the case of S.M.A.R.T. technology, they need to rework the formula somewhat.

Regards,
Chuck Billow