Hard Drive causes problems at startup

[dustbuster]

My system is Windows XP Pro SP2

I have a 260GB Maxtor drive, whenever I plug it in the system won't boot properly. It gets past the loading Windows XP screen then the video just cuts out.

When I unplug the drive everything works fine.

Is this a motherboard issue?
I have an Epox motherboard: ep-4bea9i

I've tried looking for a BIOS update but couldn't find one.

 

[micker377]

A little background on the drive: did it ever work in this computer? Is this from another computer? (XP doesn't allow this) Can you hook it up as a slave in another computer to check for malware?

 

[wahnula]

Might need more power, need more details like internal/external, IDE/SCSI/SATA/Firewire/USB? Is it the boot drive?

 

[BadBigBen]

Could also be the VIA IDE drivers, if installed...

had a similiar problem, where my HD would function to a point until the loading of the OS... drove me nuts for 5 days, where I had noticed that if I set the IDE transfer mode, in the BIOS, to PIO only, that the drive worked... so I got myself a clean version of XP SP2 (my other was a slipstreamed SP2 with all Hotfixes integrated with some drivers, like Promise and ATI gfx, and VIA IDE Ultra) installed it and voila, the drive did not hamper boot up anymore, even with UDMA turned on... it installed the MS own IDE drivers for VIA and they worked...

so I would give that a thought...



Ben

If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer...

 

[muzaqman2005]

I had the same issue. After dealing with it for almost a year I switched to a different plug and havent had a problem since...go figure.
Try using a different power plug inside the computer.

Hope it helps!

 

[ceh4702]

This might just be a corrupt file or a problem in windows startup routine. You should force some safemode startups to figure out what is wrong. Sometimes it is just the video drivers, so try safe mode VGA.

It might be hardware related, if you are getting something like memory errors or a low power condition on startup. During startup you use more power than at any other time.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[dustbuster]

Some background on this issue:

I had to reformat/reinstall Windows XP Pro on this machine. I want to leave the drive as is because there is data on it that I need (tertiary drive).

There are 4 drives in the system now: Main OS hard drive 120GB Maxtor, CD Drive; 120GB secondary drive, this 250GB drive.

I'll try what suggestions I can. Since we just reinstalled XP I don't want to go that route unless I have to.

 

[dustbuster]

I ran PowerMax on the drive and it came up with:
Bios Extension Support: Failed

I then ran the advanced test and it told me the drive needed to be replaced.

I guess that was the problem.

Thanks for all your help!