System will not auto detect hard drive

[KamelKiller]

Ok, I zero filled a 2 gig western digital hard drive to clean out a boot sector virus. Using a IBM P1 I reinstalled MS DOS 6.22 back onto the hard drive. I took the hard drive out and installed it onto another p1 system and tried to boot it up but the computer did not recognize the hard drive. I went into the setup of the system and tried to use the auto detect to locate the hard drive but no luck. The hard drive was working fine in the first computer. So, I took an older hard drive like a 400 mb and hooked it to the cable and did the auto detect and it found it without any problems. I am very confused now because the 2 gig hard drive works fine in the first P1 but not when I move it to the other computer.. I even tried loading the size of the cyl, heads sectors by hand and it still didn't find it. When I load the values in by hand and reboot I get primary master hard disk failure. I am almost ready to give up but I figure you guys are my last hope with it before I just toss it.

 

[Dreamland]

This sounds like a configuration issue with the drive itself, not the BIOS. Nothing special at the DOS/Format/FDISK level you need to worry about - the machine isn't even getting that far anyway. The drive is fine (considering) - don't toss it just yet.

You *may* have to set the C/H/S if the BIOS won't autodetect, but I doubt there's any difference between the BIOS if they're the same model machines. I assume you're referring to an IBM PS/1 here - the little desktop c. early-mid 90's? Or are you talking about a Pentium I machine? At any rate, the error message indicates that the BIOS can't seem to find a master drive on the cable for some reason - not that the drive itself is faulty.

Was the drive sharing it's cable with anything else (like a CD-ROM or another hard drive) in the first machine? Are the cables the drive is using plugged into the same socket on both machines? (There might only be one place they can plug in - I'm fuzzy on the PS/1s) The cable setups don't have to be identical - you just *may* have to change jumpers on the drive itself depending on which machine it's in. You *shouldn't* have to if both boxes drive cables are set up the exact same way. The position on the cable (first or second connector) is usually not important if there's nothing but the drive by itself.

Hard to give a generic answer on how to set the jumpers if that's what is needed - it varies by drive. Generally, when two devices are attached to the same IDE cable, one has to be jumpered as master (MA) and one as slave (SL). Some drives have a different setting for a master by itself on a cable, or a master with a slave. Are the jumpers clearly marked on the back of the drive and/or do you know how they should be set? If not, reply with the model number and we can post a link.

 

[edfair]

And you will find that some controllers don't like drives that were low levelled on other machine's controllers.

You have the utility. Try low level on the machine that is the target. Then fdisk and format again.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[jonhiker]

edfair has a good answer, the 2nd machine may not like a HDD that already has an OS installed.

Try a different cable and check your pin orientations(been there, done that).

I would format the HDD to remove the OS, then try it in the 2nd machine. If it reads it then, try loading the OS.

 

[jmatt]

Another way .

Enter BIOS-setup, and from Standard CMOS Setup , ensure that the PRIMARY MASTER is set to 'AUTO' (not some number from 1 to 46) and is set to 'AUTO' (not NORMAL/LARGE/LBA).

Then , use the BIOS's "auto-detect IDE hard-drive" function.

If that dos'nt work , go back to Standard CMOS Setup & manually put the info in .

Arrow down to the drive , use page up or page down to set on Auto .
Now use arrow across , which takes you to the far right entry , use page up or page down to set on Auto .
Press Esc & then , use the BIOS's "auto-detect IDE hard-drive" function .