Going hard-drive install crazy, please help...

[my8950]

Hi, I am new to the list but am hoping to get some good info after joining up...What I am doing is trying to build a Novell server for my Novell class. Consisting of a PII 300, 128MB Ram and 40GB hard-drive hopefully. The proc. and MOBO were bought a while ago when the PII 300 was new on the market...I have built many machines before, but for the life of me cannot get the HD in this setup to actually work. I set up the machine and powered up, but the HD will not POST. I tried jumper settings, I tried new cables, I put the HD in my machine it would not work. I took it back and got a different one, but this one is doing the same thing. I for the heck of it tried all the same stuff with HD#2 and everything is the same. I got a 3rd one from a different store on the other side of town, thinking maybe there was a few bad ones in production? Same gig....I believe the MOBO and everything are ok, cause is I put my spare test HD on it, it works fine..Cant use spare drive because its only 500MB...Anyone have any ideas? Its a Western Digital 40GB 5400 rpm....??

Thanks
Noah

 

[AU Tiger]

Take a close look at the jumpers to make sure they are correct for what you are trying to do. I had the same problem with a Western Digital I bought until I realized there were different jumper settings for standalone and master.

Put your ear close to it or hold a finger on it when you power up to make sure it is getting power and spinning.

 

[CloroxCowboy]

You are saying the harddrive will not post. Do you mean the Motherboard is not even seeing it? or are you booting and then the OS is not seeing it? If it will not post to the Motherboard as I am taking your sentence then it has nothing to do with the OS. What Motherboard are you using?

 

[zephyrprime]

Could it be that the mobo doesn't support the big modern drives? May have to set the size limitation jumper on the HD if it has one. Or may need an IDE add on card.

 

[my8950]

Yeah, nothing to do with the OS, I havent got that far. I was thinking that it might have something to do with large size HD's, but haven't really had a problem like that in a long long long time...I thought that maybe the PII was out when I also had a pretty big HD...I know it is spinning up...When I turn the machine on, it says "Detecting Pirmary IDE Master" and just hangs there for a bit, then everything fails....But I have nothing else plugged in cause I am trying to narrow the problem down. Not sure what type of motherboard it is exactly, it was bought with a Comp USA machine a few years ago, doesnt have much, no sound or video. Just the basics...

 

[Jasonh100]

Not only check to make sure there aren't seperate setting for single and master with slave, but check the orientation of the jumpers on the drive and the diagram. Go as far as to set the jumpers backwards to what you would think if there is no conclusive evidence to lead to the jumper's orientation.

Also, just to throw something out, if one of your ide cables is twisted on another device (pin 1 on the motherboard is oriented correctly but incorrectly on the drive or vice versa) it is possible that no ide devices will be detected.

 

[my8950]

Yep, I tried putting the cable both ways, but they are keyed and I am using a keyed cable. I tried another cable and flipped it just to see, but no go...I have tried numerous jumper settings, but nothing is seeming to make any difference. Another guy told me that maybe the MOBO doesnt do EIDE, which this HD is now? I didnt realize that until he pointed that out??? What can I do if this is the case then? Are strictly IDE HD's readily available at most stores?

 

[CZroe]

Look for a BIOS upgrade. If you don't know the manufacturer of your board, do a search for some of the numbers you see written on it (I've uncovered some nice Asus boards in Compaq systems this way).

 

[my8950]

Yep, its an Award BIOS says this on top of it.
PCI/PNP 686
125382998

 

[Duvie]

I agree with above...get your hands on an ata controller card...that will bypass any size limitations of the bios...

 

[CloroxCowboy]

It would seem a chipset that old would be IDE only. I would try to get a used drive at a computer show or buy a PCI expansion card.

 

[CZroe]

Most motherboard manufacturers use Award BIOS I believe, but you still have to know who made your board to find a BIOS update made for that board.

 

[my8950]

Yep, I hear that. Thats where I am at now. the BIOS string is 2A69KB3C-00 .

 

[my8950]

Kinda looks like its an American Pro MOBO? It says CompUSA American PRO (DR730) BIOS REV:1.03
String looks to be
11/11/98-i440BX-W977TF-2A69KB3EC-00

 

[WarCon]

I am pretty sure that its just the size thats causing your issue. I would say use the Lifeguard software to format it with the capacity limiting jumper, but Note: These alternate jumper settings WILL NOT work for Windows NT, OS/2 Warp, Novell NetWare, or UNIX. - from Western Digital's webpage.

I think your only solution is to get a harddrive with less than 8 gigs (will work for sure). Most likely the limitation on that mobo is 8 gigs or it could be 32 gigs, but you won't be able to beat it unless a bios upgrade will actually allow you to use Int13 Extensions - which is not likely for that mobo, or buy a separate controller card as a few have suggested (has to be one that will be recognized by Novell too, so do your homework before you buy.)

 

[Boobers]

Have you tried removing the jumper on the HD and seeing if it gets detected?

My Western Digital HD requires that the jumper be removed for it to work by itself on an EIDE cable. The jumper only needs to be set if there are two devices on the same cable. If there are two drives, then one needs to be set to master and the other set to slave.

 

[my8950]

Yep, tried the no jumper setting as well....Does the same thing....Whats Boobers??? If I may ask????

 

[CZroe]

If it's a Pentium II board, it'll go higher than 8GB for sure! All he needs is the right BIOS upgrade...

 

[Boobers]

Everybody loves Boobers. (o)(o)

 

[my8950]

Yeah, I looked last night for quite a while to try & find pages for a BIOS upgrade, but cant come up with anything...I did find out its a CompUSA package and some other stuff about it, but nothing really useful....??? Stuck for now...

 

[Bozo Galora]

just send your bios string to MrBios.com and pay them for a new proprietary bios that will recognize up to
127 GB

 

[Tominator]

Why not partition the drive in to less than 8gig sizes? It is odd that the comp won't even post. Are you booting from a floppy?

Also, most drives come with the ATA100 standard enabled. This can conflict with older IDE controllers. Use the utility on the floppy that came with the drive to disable the ATA66/100 feature.

 

[my8950]

Well, I found and old heap machine here my brother had and got lucky, 2 drives, 1 is a 2.2G and the other is a 3.4 or something....Plugged in and works fine!...Gotta be something to do with large drive support....Although it will be no MP3 server like I intended, it will be good for my project in school....Thanks for all the help everyone....I appreciate the info....

 

[WarCon]

CZroe is right about it handling more than 8gigs, if its and Award Bios older than November 1997 (and the mobo manufacturer hasn't modified the code so that it won't) it will handle Int32 Extensions. Which means it can handle 32gigs.

Also managed to find out that it is a : BCM Model: DR730-QS440BX motherboard if that helps.

The link to mobo manufacturer is bcmcom, but the links to bios's wouldn't open for me.