Computer sits at "Detecting IDE drives"

[Gunslinger08]

Any opinions? It just sits there forever.

 

[sonoma1993]

what motherboard and harddrives?

 

[boomerang]

Is this a new build? If so, it's usually jumper settings.

 

[Gunslinger08]

No, this isn't a new build. It's about a year old, nForce2 mobo with a Western Digital drive.

 

[sonoma1993]

maybe harddrive or your ide controller going bad? try resetting the cmos.

 

[Ionizer86]

Also worth trying another IDE cable. (I've seen them go bad). If that turns out to be the problem, then this would be the cheap, easy fix.

 

[boomerang]

Probably just a HD and optical drive I assume?

Disconnect each one individually until it doesn't hang. This will tell you which drive is the problem drive.

Once you know, try a different cable on the drive. If that doesn't do it, switch the problem drive to a different channel. For example IDE 1 to IDE 2.

This will narrow it down so you'll know which component is the culprit.

Edit: If it looks as though the motherboard is the problem child, reset the CMOS before declaring it dead.

 

[Quiksilver]

Check the jumper settings our your HDD's/ Optical drives.

 

[Wolfshanze]

Yes, check the jumpers of the drive(s) in question, swap the IDE cables and also double-check the BIOS settings... sometimes just turning the IDE settings on and off in BIOS does the trick. Also, use one drive at a time to narrow the problem down.

 

[lxskllr]

I had a similar problem where it would wait forever, error out then tell me to press F1 to continue, which I did to successful os loading. I hooked up a second hd and it would boot to the os right away. I never figured out what the problem was because having 2 hds works well enough, but that might be something for you to try just for kicks.

 

[dunkster]

One of my first suspects for this type of failure with an Nforce board is the Nvidia IDE/Atapi driver. You would not be the first victim.

If the drive is recognized in your BIOS, see if the HD is recognized with any/all other IDE devices removed.

If you have the Nvidia IDE/Atapi driver installed AND can't boot to Windows to roll-back the IDE/Atapi driver to the standard Windows IDE driver, you may be screwed.

That probably means a Windows re-install is in your future. If that happens, decline installing the Nvidia IDE/Atapi driver when you install Nvidia drivers.

Hope this helps!