help ... failure to detect hd ....

[john1]

hi,

bios fails to see ide ??
i have a drive overlay running,
could that be a problem... ?

John

 

[norton850]

New install problem? Any more info about your setup will be helpful. Jumpers set OK?

 

[john1]

Hi Norton,

Its a samsung 40gig hd, but my bios will only see
a max of 32gigs, so i included a drive overlay prog
from the samsung site so it could use the full 40gigs.

Its been running ok since i installed it, about six months ago.

Now for three days ive had problems starting up.
It says cannot detect primary IDE,
and demands a system disk.

The jumpers were fine, and have not been altered.
Anything you would like to ask about my system,
will be posted right away.

Could the overlay be a problem ?

 

[john1]

There are some pics of it here ...

http://forums.techguy.org/t298405

 

[john1]

after about twenty eight, or maybe twenty nine unsuccessfull attempts
this machine has finally 'seen' the hard drive, and actually started.

I am going to try and run a virus check,
although i dunno that a virus could prevent the bios from
seeing the hard drive.

I wish i knew why it cant see the hd most of the time ......

I'm still suspicious of that overlay programme.

 

[john1]

The hard drive is 40 gigs,
my bios will only see drives up to 32 gigs,

If i partition it into two parts (15 & 25 maybe )
Would the bios then see it,
or is that not possible ... ?

 

[john1]

Maybe Fdisk could set partitions in it ...
I don't think Fdisk will see it untill the bios can see it,
The bios won't see a bigger drive than $) gigs.

 

[norton850]

john

The problems you have been having are suspicious for a bad hard drive. Check all your connections to the hard drive and anything else that is on the same cable. Check the motherboard end also. Most manufacturer's web sites have a small utility that fits on a floppy that when you run it will check the hard drive.

As a precaution make sure you have back ups of anything that you can't afford to lose.

Edit: also try a new IDE cable

 

[john1]

I think i will set the jumpers to limit the drive size to 32 gigs,
then maybe it will play nice.
Shame to lose 8 gigs, but if thats what it takes ...

 

[norton850]

I'm not sure that will solve the problem and you if you do that you will probably have to reformat the hard drive.

 

[kilowatt1]

Hello john1,

Have you tried the hard drive on IDE 2? Doing so should at least narrow it down to either the hard drive or the port.

Just a thought.

Kilowatt

 

[DoubleHelix]

I've never heard of a jumper setting limiting the recognized size. There's master, slave, and cable select.

This sounds like a BIOS/system limitation. Since you tend to work with older systems, that's likely the problem.

 

[Triple6]

I've never heard of a jumper setting limiting the recognized size. There's master, slave, and cable select.

Most drives do have a jumper to limit size but in many cases you have to go to the manufacturer's website to find out how.

If the drive worked and was recognised and only now has quit working then I'd think either the drive has failed or you need to reseat or replace the IDE cable.

Does the drive even spin up?

Also formatting/partitioning the drive will have no affect on the BIOS.

 

[john1]

Hi Norton,
Yes, i agree - those symptoms can be attributed to a failing hard drive,
but they could also be down to a corrupted file showing an unfeasibly long filename,
or maybe, as i am hoping that the overlay programme is not working properly.
I have indeed copied on to CDs most of the stuff that i would not want to lose,
but i am hoping that the hard drive wil not be un-usable.
I will try to check out the IDE cable ... just in case.

If it will run problem-free without the Samsung overlay programme, then i will consider
the loss of 8 gigs to be acceptable. I can't even run Spinrite with that overlay
between the HD an everything else. I realise this would entail formatting.

Hi Kilowatt,
No, i haven't gone inside it yet ... i could try it on IDE 2 ... i will do that.

Hi DoubleHelix,
Yes, limiting the hard drive size using jumper settings is an option on many drives.
And yes, you are right, it is due to a limit in mainly older BIOSs.
Samsung have a small programme called an overlay as a 'workaround' to handle this.
I am a bit suspicious of this overlay programme, maybe wrongly.

Hi Triple6,
Yes, its been working fine since about November, till the last three days.
Yes it spins up, but it doesn't seem to know what its doing, just clicks at intervals.
I've heard of something called the click of death, but i dunno what it is.
I realise that formatting the hard drive will have no affect on the bios,
but the bios will not see an un-formatted drive. If i want to lose the overlay
this would mean dropping to 32gigs and a format.

I appreciate the input from you all,
and i will do what i can,
i'm using a smaller secondary machine at the moment.

Cheers, John

 

[Triple6]

Well if the drive has suddenly started clicking then you've found your problem. Its called the 'click of death' for a very good reason - because the drive is now dead.

And the BIOS does and must see a drive even if its unformatted. Like I said before partitioning and formating have no effect on the BIOS. If the BIOS cannot see the drive then it cannot be accessed and therefore it cannot be partitioned or formatted.