sometimes when I boot up the ist drive(I use the secondary ide drive to boot-up) is not seen even though the slave on the same cable is. I use different drives and get the same problem. Sometimes taking out the cable and reinstalling it gets it to work for maybe several weeks--then it can't be seen by the OS. I have changed cables and drives and get the same result. What is the problem?
Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations gkittelson on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
Primary ide HD sometimes not detected 3
- Thread starter nf9j
- Start date
-
1
- #2
-
1
- #3
nf9j,
This is a common sign that the drive could be failing. Waste no time, take no chances and create a backup image of your hard drive now.
In addition, try the following in the order mentioned:
1) Make sure the primary drive is installed on the end connector of the IDE cable since it's the master. Make sure the slave is connected at the middle connector. Usually this doesn't matter, but some drives work better in this configuration. Anytime a master drive is by itself on a cable, it should always be on the end connector.
2) That leads me to my next suggestion. Try the hard drive on the IDE cable by itself for long-term testing. See if the problem comes back and wait at least a month if it doesn't before assuming you've found the problem.
If the drive continues to randomly fail after all that, then chances are it's the drive. If it's still under warranty, call the manufacturer for suggestions and possible replacement. It also wouldn't hurt to run the diagnostic like micker377 said, because the drive's tech support will have you do it anyway.
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
This is a common sign that the drive could be failing. Waste no time, take no chances and create a backup image of your hard drive now.
In addition, try the following in the order mentioned:
1) Make sure the primary drive is installed on the end connector of the IDE cable since it's the master. Make sure the slave is connected at the middle connector. Usually this doesn't matter, but some drives work better in this configuration. Anytime a master drive is by itself on a cable, it should always be on the end connector.
2) That leads me to my next suggestion. Try the hard drive on the IDE cable by itself for long-term testing. See if the problem comes back and wait at least a month if it doesn't before assuming you've found the problem.
If the drive continues to randomly fail after all that, then chances are it's the drive. If it's still under warranty, call the manufacturer for suggestions and possible replacement. It also wouldn't hurt to run the diagnostic like micker377 said, because the drive's tech support will have you do it anyway.
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
Once we get the age and other info on the computer, we can find out if you have s.m.a.r.t capabilities in your bios. If you do have smart in your bios and you have enabled it, smart will tell you for sure if your hard drive is failing.
Thats one very easy thing you can take care of right away.
I wanted to get more info before making more suggestions as to which way to proceed, but, again, if your bios has smart capabilities then thats one easy way to check out the hard drive.
Good advice + great people = tek-tips
Thats one very easy thing you can take care of right away.
I wanted to get more info before making more suggestions as to which way to proceed, but, again, if your bios has smart capabilities then thats one easy way to check out the hard drive.
Good advice + great people = tek-tips
-
1
- #6
A possiblity, though distant, is that the drives you've tried are taking too long to spin up to speed and are not ready when BIOS scans the IDE interfaces for attached devices. As garebo has asked, what is the age of your computer and the drives you have tried?
S.M.A.R.T. technology is great, but not entirely accurate. There are many instances that I've seen where a hard drive is failing then dies, and no indicator was ever alerted by the system. I'm not knocking the suggestion, but only cautioning against relying 100% on whether it has been set off or not. Usually it will tell you something at bootup during the POST if it detected something wrong.
There is no exact way to approach this problem. A combination of gathering more info as garebo mentioned and taking pre-emptive measures to back up your system is needed. If S.M.A.R.T. isn't there, enabled, or doesn't find anything, then you're back at square one.
Remember: Just because SMART doesn't see a problem, doesn't mean a problem doesn't exist with the drive.
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
cdogg, I stand corrected, should have said smart will usually work but not always. I guess that is a given but should be stated, specially when one says "for sure"
Perhaps i should have said if he has smart and its enabled and if smart says the hard drive is failing, then its one more sign that it indeed is failing.
I wouldnt rely totally on smart either, which, as we have all now suggested, we need more info on the system as smart is only one tool, there are others.
Freestone, that was exactly my thinking, drives may be too old and not have enuf time to spin up, so we asked for more info on the system.
We are all on this like bees on honey!
Good advice + great people = tek-tips
Perhaps i should have said if he has smart and its enabled and if smart says the hard drive is failing, then its one more sign that it indeed is failing.
I wouldnt rely totally on smart either, which, as we have all now suggested, we need more info on the system as smart is only one tool, there are others.
Freestone, that was exactly my thinking, drives may be too old and not have enuf time to spin up, so we asked for more info on the system.
We are all on this like bees on honey!
Good advice + great people = tek-tips
- Thread starter
- #9
I think my problem is something else. I notice that the message appears when boot-up starts------primary ide mo 80 channel cable installed. I can't understand how it can see and get drives intalled and not have a cable. It must be related to the cause of the drive sometimes not being detected. I have tried manydrives and eventually the bios doesn't see it. It might go for weeks like the drive I have in now, but I never know when it will need to have the cable pulled out and reinstalled. Any suggestion would be helpful. I'm running an athlon processor and winXp pro.
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name tem Manufacturer VIA Technologies, Inc.
System Model VT8365
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 7 Stepping 0 AuthenticAMD ~1001 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG, 2/21/2001
SMBIOS Version 2.2
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\System32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920)"
Time Zone US Eastern Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 223.22 MB
Total Virtual Memory 1.69 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.17 GB
Page File Space 1.20 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name tem Manufacturer VIA Technologies, Inc.
System Model VT8365
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 7 Stepping 0 AuthenticAMD ~1001 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG, 2/21/2001
SMBIOS Version 2.2
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\System32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920)"
Time Zone US Eastern Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 223.22 MB
Total Virtual Memory 1.69 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.17 GB
Page File Space 1.20 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
The error message is stating that you should have (according to your BIOS), an 80 wire IDE cable - as opposed to a 40 wire cable you probably are using. If the cable socket on the motherboard is blue, the system wants an 80 wire cable. If your primary is a CD, or something that doesn't really need 80 wire, you should be able to turn off the "80 wire" detection in BIOS.
tekuser999
Technical User
Hi Nf9j,
I concur that you should run diagnostics from your hard drive manufacturer.
But I had similar problem with my P4 2.4. Same senario, hard disk detected sometimes and worked for couple of weeks and not detected etc. Installed a new hard disk, problem persisted. Finally, changed the power supply and the problem went away. The computer has been working for a few months now without problem.
Might be an idea to look at changing your power supply.
Good luck.
I concur that you should run diagnostics from your hard drive manufacturer.
But I had similar problem with my P4 2.4. Same senario, hard disk detected sometimes and worked for couple of weeks and not detected etc. Installed a new hard disk, problem persisted. Finally, changed the power supply and the problem went away. The computer has been working for a few months now without problem.
Might be an idea to look at changing your power supply.
Good luck.
- Status