BIOS Utilities

[tfrrost2002]

I am having a problem booting with a new MB and HD. I have asked questions in a number of forums and have diligently tried suggestions to no avail. I have noticed that in various permutations that it appears that I have two BIOS utilities operating 1) the Phoenix Award Bios v.6 utility and after exiting that I gain access to (2) Highpoint Technologies HPT 370/373 Bios Setting Utility. Number two is for creating a raid array but does not recognize the hard drives because none are listed. How do I get this utility to recognize the HD? Should there be two utilities?

Maybe this contributes to my overall problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[soaplover]

If you don't have two disks disable raid in the bios .
Boot priority should be
1:Floppy
2:CDROM
3:HDD-0 (assuming it's on IDE chl 0 as master)

Set disk channels to auto and press enter on each of
them (HDD CDROMS) this makes bios recognize the ide devices

//soaplover

 

[paparazi]

With so little information about your setup I can only guess but:
The Promise HPT370/373 Highpoint controller chip is an addition on high end motherboards, it needs drivers loading to function properly.
At the start of installing XP, for instance, an option is flashed up to "load third party SCISSI and Raid controller drivers" it is at this point the drivers (that should have come supplied with the motherboard) can be loaded, enabling the motherboard to boot from said device.
Otherwise, if your raid controller can be used to for extra IDE connections, you could connect the hard drive on the normal IDE connector, install Windows and mainboard drivers, install Raid drivers, then connect the HD on a raid channel.
Note* not all motherboards that have raid connections have the function to use them as additional IDE channels but those that do usually have a simple bios option to change these connections from RAID to ATA.
I used to have the Gigabyte GA-7VAXP which worked exactly this way.
Martin


Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[tfrrost2002]

Soaplover, thank you I tried your suggestions but to no avail.

Paparazi, if I could load an operating system I would load the drivers. But I am not able to load anything which is the main problem. I can boot only one disk from the A: drive (Techworm Boot Disk) but am unable to boot from the CDROM. The functioning boot disk does not allow for recognition of the CDROM to begin any installation. I get the "nonsystem disk ...." notice with any other disks including booting from C. I have tried many configurations but they haven't worked.

My motherboard is a KT 333 dragon ultra platinum edition and the HDD is a Special Edition Western Digital (7200rpm)with a AMD Athlon 1900+. Is this the information you needed?

Thank all of you for the help.

 

[firozmm]

hi,

I had also the same problem but no one was able to help me. By the way I have AMD K6 processor. my new 80GB 72000 rp HD also was not detecting. When I changed the same with 40GB HD it worked. so now what I believe is that it may be becaue of the speed of HD (72,00) that the motherboard cannot accept.

regards

 

[rockerfellerz]

When you boot from the floppy, can you see the hard drive with fdisk? If you don't have fdisk on that floppy, then get hold of a win98se boot disk and boot from that and run fdisk and see if it detects your drive. It would then still have to be partitioned and formated before you can install the OS. If you just put in the cd for the OS(you don't say which one...) you should be able to boot from that as long as it is in the boot sequence( a, cd-rom, ide-0 ) and the floppy disk is not in the drive.
With one drive you should connect it to ide-0 as a master, and disable the raid controller in the bios. There is usually an option to select "boot from scsi or ide" that is seperate from the boot sequence.On my raid board there is also an option in the bios which loads the raid controller bios or disables its loading.

If you're going through Hell...keep going... (Winston Churchill)
RocKeRFelLerZ

 

[tfrrost2002]

rockerfellerz,

The system will not boot from any Windows Boot Disk, 98, 98SE, XP. I get the "nonsystem disk ...".

Boot sequence is as suggested and has been tried in every variation. In DOS when I try to access the CD it does not have a drive letter. I have not been able to do anything with the CD, the light comes on on boot up but I have not been able to access the drive.

As for SCSI boot option it is included as an option after floppy, CD, HDD then SCSI. I have tried the various options for that as well.

The MB is a Soyo KT 333 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition. The HD is Special Edition Western DIgital 80 gig.

Thank you for your help.

 

[soaplover]

This is from soyo's support page .
Haven't you been there first ?

My Western digital HDD is not being detected during boot-up or No fix disk present.


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Change the jumper settings to cable select or single or remove the jumpers.

 

[soaplover]

You should not use "master" strapping with only one HDD.
Same with my rig(doesn't have the same mb, but still..)

 

[soaplover]

Also make sure you connect your HDD to the blue
ide connector at the mb (IDE1 of 4).
Connect CDROM at IDE2.
The yellow ones IDE3&4 is for RAID .

 

[tfrrost2002]

Soaplover,

I have tried your suggestions and yes I have been to the Western Digital web page. I currently have this same discussion going with people in the WD Forums. Nothing is working so far.

Thank you for your help. Eventually we will eliminate all possibilities and hopefully solve the problem.