Dell OptiPlex GX1 HD Problem... Help!

[NateSLC]

I have a Dell OptiPlex GX1 with a Pentium II 400. I have tried to install a 20 Gig HD. I keep getting a Primary Hard Disk drive 1 not found error message. Now, it won't even detect the old 6.4 Gig HD.

The error message allows me to continue using the F1 key, and the OS loads but there is a significant delay during POST.

I have the IDE Device type set to Auto in the BIOS. Any other ideas as to what is going on?

Thanks!
Nate

 

[NateSLC]

ttt

 

[Soulbane]

I have those at work.. For some reason the love to f*ck up a hard drive. I've had 2 with bad hard drives in the past 3 weeks.

did you make sure all the connections are secure?

Maybe clear the bios and let it redetect.

 

[allwood]

Dell computers are setup cable select from the factory.. make sure you set the new hdd to cable select and try it again..
also clear nvram and set system defaults - I believe for the gx1 you turn on all 3 keyboard lights(num,scroll,caps lock) and then press ALT-E then ALT-F.

 

[NateSLC]

Soulbane,

I have tried a couple different IDE cables, and made sure the connections are secure.

I have also cleared the BIOS (NVRAM), but it may not be a bad idea to try again.

allwood,

I also have tried using Cable Select...

Any other suggestions?

 

[HotWire]

Did you transfer the contents of the old drive to the new drive? Fdisk the new drive making it the primary drive and take away that designation for the old drive, the larger drive must be the master drive (pins) after all is said and done and you can slave the smaller drive to it. Also are you sure you don't have a 8.4 Gig restriction with that motherboard (bios) sounds like a dell support call might be in order.

 

[Geekbabe]

What ide cable do you have that hd on ? I've got some older optiplex's that will not see/boot an hd unless it
is on the same cable as the cd-rom drive, once you put the hd on the primary controller along with the cd-rom drive
you can then add additional drives on the second controller

 

[NateSLC]

HotWire,

I didn't transfer the contents of the old drive. I want a fresh installation of Windows NT. I didn't have any fdisk that would create a partition bigger than 2GB (FAT16 I think), so I put it in another machine (OptiPlex GX1 PIII 500) as the Master on the Secondary IDE controller. I then used Disk Administrator to create 2 partitions. (5GB and 15GB Extended). Is there anything else I need to do in Disk Administrator that would affect POSTing?

The BIOS on both machines recognized it as EXACTLY a 20GB drive, with a reported size of 20000. I thought that was a little strange.

baffled2,

I will try putting the CD-ROM as slave. Seems kind of a quirky solution, but these Dells are exactly that. Quirky. What do they have against standard BIOS anyway?