After reading through 100's of threads I didn't see my problem. I have a Quantum Fireball HD 10 GB. An Award Bios, 128 MB RAM. Win98 SE. My Computer is 2yrs old.I can give more info if needed. This problem started out of the blue. I can restart my computer all day long with no problem. But if the power goes off or someone shuts down the computer it will not detect the IDE Primary Master in other words no drive C . I can keep turning the power on and off and evenually it will detect it. Then no more problems till the loss of power again. I installed a new HD same problem. Ran scan disk , no errors . Defragged. I have talked to numerous computer techs. They are very confused also.Any help would be gratly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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 IamaSherpa on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
Unusual Hard Drive Problem
- Thread starter kycowgirl
- Start date
nightowl17
Technical User
This is very strange but I would Venture a guess at possable a bad IDE cable . Like a short in a light as long as you have power it will run but to dhut it down you will have to play with it to get back on . I would also suggest checking the power connection to the HDD
nightowl17
Technical User
Let me ask you this Have you tried to do a full format & install? Like using FDISK to delete the primary DOS part& reinstall it thin reinstall Win . this will wipe anything off the hard drive that might be causing the problem
- Thread starter
- #4
Thanks Nightowl I have changed IDE cables and the green HD light is on so I assumed it was getting power. Also I would really hate to format my HD and lose everything and maybe still not solve the problem.There is a storm brewing in my area right now ,I just hope my power stays on. Thanks again !!!
How about checking to see if it is spinning when it fails to ident.
This is kind of like the "sticktion" problem that happened several years ago with the platter lubricant. But since it happens with another drive it would more likely be a power problem feeding the motor. Or the AMP connector that feeds motor power. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
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.
This is kind of like the "sticktion" problem that happened several years ago with the platter lubricant. But since it happens with another drive it would more likely be a power problem feeding the motor. Or the AMP connector that feeds motor power. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
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.
Is there anything else on the IDE channel along with the Quantum drive? If another device is sharing the channel and it is failing it will lock up the channel, and therefore both devices.
If you have another device have you tried disconnecting it?
Edfair's suggestion of checking the power is a great one! The drive needs 2 voltages, 12V & 5V, which it gets over 4 wires - 4 places to fail. Try another power plug - for both devices if applicable. Your mileage may vary...
If you have another device have you tried disconnecting it?
Edfair's suggestion of checking the power is a great one! The drive needs 2 voltages, 12V & 5V, which it gets over 4 wires - 4 places to fail. Try another power plug - for both devices if applicable. Your mileage may vary...
- Thread starter
- #7
Thanks to all of you !!! I only have the Quantum Hard Drive on that IDE cable. I have a CD-ROM and a CD-RW on the other as secondary. I can switch them to master and the CD'S will be detected as Master but the HD still won't show up. What I don't understand is it will restart fine and run fine. But shutting it down it is hard to get it to detect the hard drive. I didn't change or add anything that I know of to cause this problem. How can I check my power without opening up the case(I don't want to shut it down if I don't have to)? Or can I do that? Thanks again for all your help !!!
nightowl17
Technical User
You will have to shut down to check the power . Disconnect the power to the HDD and switch with another if the power supply is the problem you will boot right up
Hope this helps
Hope this helps
It looks that you kept autodetection of IDE drives in BIOS setup. Just try to detect all the drives in setup and set fixed value (it will show in general option). If option for HDD Predelay is there, increase its value. Also try to disable the option of fast boot. With all these your problem should get solved.
Disabling Fast Boot will make your computer during Cold Start and use when previous option fail or not available.
Disabling Fast Boot will make your computer during Cold Start and use when previous option fail or not available.
prajapat's suggestion is a very good one! Set the BIOS to a fixed disk type and turn off fast boot. That will give the IDE channel time to settle.
Can you tell, when the drive is not being detected, whether or not the drive is spinning? Listen for it. Most head actuator voice coil-driven drives will make a 'chatter' sound during the initial spin-up process. The platter motor is a slight hum, or 'whine'. Are you getting both (it may be hard to tell if you are not used to listening, and hearing, those sounds for diagnostic purposes). Fans will get in the way of hearing those sounds - you can disconnect them, if only very temporarily. Also put you hand on the top plate of the drive - it will be 'vibrating' at a very, very high frequency (usually).
If nothing works - including turning off ROM shadowing (in case of a high memory bit error - you never know), power supply check out or replacement - it's beginning to sound like the MB's IDE controller is the culprit. Your mileage may vary...
Can you tell, when the drive is not being detected, whether or not the drive is spinning? Listen for it. Most head actuator voice coil-driven drives will make a 'chatter' sound during the initial spin-up process. The platter motor is a slight hum, or 'whine'. Are you getting both (it may be hard to tell if you are not used to listening, and hearing, those sounds for diagnostic purposes). Fans will get in the way of hearing those sounds - you can disconnect them, if only very temporarily. Also put you hand on the top plate of the drive - it will be 'vibrating' at a very, very high frequency (usually).
If nothing works - including turning off ROM shadowing (in case of a high memory bit error - you never know), power supply check out or replacement - it's beginning to sound like the MB's IDE controller is the culprit. Your mileage may vary...
- Thread starter
- #11
Thanks Again Well the power went off and no computer.(I borrowed a laptop to contact you again). I went into BIOS and didn't see a option for fixed disk or fixed value and what about ROM shadowing? I am dumb when it comes to this but I can follow step by step If you guys can help me. I do appreciate it
It could be a power supply issue. It may not be generating enough power to spin up all your drives. Try disconnecting the 2 CD-ROM drives to releave the power requirement and see if the CD will boot like that. If it does, you may need a stronger power supply.
- Status
Similar threads