Hard-drive not detected when cold booting, but detected upon restart?

[Mateo1041]

Hi folks,

I recently purchased a third hard-drive that is 80 Gig in size. This new drive is my master drive and I also have a slave 20 Gig drive on the primary IDE channel. I also have a CD writer as a master and another 20 Gig drive as a slave on the secondary IDE channel. All three hard-drives are standard drives.

For some odd reason, the last hard-drive (slave on the secondary IDE channel) is never detected during a cold boot, such as when I first turn my computer on in the morning. However, it is detected just fine on subsequent reboots.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm kind of stumped. Thanks.

- Matt.

 

[edfair]

In earlier times it has been identified as the drive not coming up to speed and being ready in time to report to the bios when it is questioned.
About the only way to resolve it is to hit the reset button 2 or 3 seconds after powerup. The extra time gives it spinup and recalibrate time.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[Mateo1041]

Thanks for the input. I wonder if there is any way to avoid having to hit reset and always having it come up right away when it is supposed to. This didn't happen before I purchased the larger 80 Gig drive and switched the other two 20 Gig drives around. The other two 20 Gig drives are a bit older (around 3-4 years), but nothing too ancient. Maybe a BIOS/CMOS setting would help?

 

[edfair]

Fast boot disabled? Floppy seek on boot? Either would slow it down.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[BadBigBen]

Hola,

could also be a weak PSU... state wattage of PSU and the Amperage of the +5v rail...



Ben

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

 

[Mateo1041]

Is "PSU" the "Power Supply Unit"? At this point I'm willing to try anything that does not require purchasing a new computer. :-/

I also have tried replacing the power supply and put in a really nice powerful one. That unfortunately did not solve anything. But at least I now have a nice power supply.

 

[Freestone]

A couple things:

In BIOS, ensure IDE detection is set to AUTO.

Try setting the 20 Gig drive as a master on the secondary IDE channel and the CD writer as slave.

 

[jurgen36]

Go into the Cmoss and try to find a drive delay setting, once you found it sett the delay to 5 or 10 seconds. This will give the drives tim to stinn up to full speed. You probably find the setting in your MBO manual. Regards

Jurgen

 

[BadBigBen]

Hola,

Yes, PSU is Power Supply Unit, at least this is out of the question...

others have mentioned the BIOS settings... this should be looked into...

once you have it up and running, do a Drive Check up with the manufacturers HD Utility to ensure that it is functioning correctly...



Ben

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

 

[Mateo1041]

I'd like to follow up on my original post. I finally had the chance to check my BIOS/CMOS settings and did see the option for a drive delay when booting. It wasn't set, so I set it to a 6 second delay. It now works like a charm!

Thanks a ton everyone.

- Matt.

 

[garebo]

I would not have guessed a 20 gig hard drive to cause this prob. Usually its the old 2 to 6 gig range where you hear about this prob. Good to know!

 

[Mateo1041]

I wouldn't have expected that either. It must have been a motherboard problem though. I just built a new computer (the old one kept crashing...probably the mobo) and all hard-drives now work just fine with the new board.

 

[garebo]

That makes more sense, older bios on older mobo.