HD Not detected. User error or Bad Drive?

[CQuinn]

Here is the problem I am having, and I wanted to make sure my
less than expert) conclusions are correct on this.
(My apologies, I misplaced my good notes on this)

I was trying to help a friend upgrade his harddrive.
His current system is a generic P-III (500) with a Fujistu 13Gig drive
on the primary IDE channel, with a CD and CD-RW drive on the second channel.

We were trying to install an OEM Maxtor 60Gig drive, I forget the exact
model number, but I think it is a 5400rpm ATA-66/100 model.

The problem comes when we attached the drive and tried to boot with it on
the system. The drive is not recognized at all by the BIOS setup, either
with the channel set to AUTO, or by trying to go thru the IDE detection
setup.


I have tried
setting it to both Master and Slave.
connecting the drive to both positions on the IDE cable.

I have even tried switching the cable around, in case I got pin 1 wrong
while hooking it up.
Hooked up the "right way" the detection just hangs the system.
Hooked up the "wrong way" no drive is detected. or it detects a
drive with 0 cylinders and 0 sectors.

This system is running with a 40-pin (ATA-33) cable, but I'm pretty sure
it would still at least detect the drive without needing to hook it up with
a ATA-66/100 rated cable. The Fujitsu still runs fine when it is hooked
back up.

Before I call this in for my friend to find out our RMA options, I just
wanted to get a second opinion (or two). Does this sound like a DOA drive
to you, or is there something I might have done hooking it up to blow the
drive this badly? I did make sure to wear a grounding strap and was especially
careful in handling the drives.

 

[IgoByte]

Try the new drive alone and see if it's detected.

 

[CQuinn]

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear on that...

We did try the new drive alone. Same results, either it locks up on detection, or it is not detected at all.

And when I say "locks up" I mean that if freezes during the detection and hitting the F4 key (which normally skips detection)
or Esc, fails to work. I can still hit Crtl-Alt-Del to reboot the whole system, so I assume it is only the detection that is stalled.

 

[miken]

Do you hear the drive power up? The power connector is snug?

 

[Zugzwang152]

I agree. check to make sure the power is plugged in properly..if so. try booting with the fujitsu on primary, and the maxtor on secondary. run the diagnostic program that comes with the maxtor hdds, see if its a faulty drive.

 

[WhoDeeny]

Check to make sure your jumpes are correct for Single/Master...

 

[CQuinn]

The power connector was snug, but we did not hear the drive power up.
I could not be too sure over the rest of the system noise, so I held
a finger against the drive during one boot, and I don't think I felt
any vibration from it either.
I'm not sure we tried with another power connector though, so I may
go back and try that.

Assuming that it was plugged in properly...
>> try booting with the fujitsu on primary, and the maxtor on secondary

We tried that, that was the original configuration we set it up in.
The diagnostic program would not work, probably becuase the system cannot
see the hard drive enough to pass info about it back thru the contoller.

Jumpers were correct for Single, Master, and Slave as we tried different ways
to get it running.

Add: According to the copy of the reciept my friend gave me, it is
a 7200rpm ATA100 drive.

 

[S0me1X]

Have you tried the new 60GB drive on a newer system? Could it be your motherboard not supporting that large of a drive?

 

[alisajid]

My two cents worth:

1. Does the old drive still work (by itself)?
If not, you may have bigger problems.

2. Check to see if any pins on the IDE connectors on your mother board or IDE controller card are broken.
I've broken floppy controller pins before and had weird problem, but since the power isn't coming on I'd say its something else.

3. Try the new HDD in a separate system.

 

[CQuinn]

Quick Followup:

I tried the drive on my home system (KT7-RAID), and it detects just
fine and I was able to see and partition the available drive space.

The motherboard we were attempting to install on is a FIC VB-601,
running a P-III 550. Checking the FIC site, there are BIOS updates
that add support for HDs greater than 32GB, so that would seem to
be the main issue here. (Now I just have to find which variant of
the 601 he actually has). I will also be picking up an 80-pin cable,
in case that can help, and because his current cable is not keyed to
better recognize where pin 1 fits.

Thanks for the help and suggestions.

 

[DN]

90% of the time, it's either BIOS doesn't support - upgrade BIOS, IDE disabled in BIOS, improperly installed data/power cables - reversed/not plugged, improper jumper settings for master/slave - competing for master/slave, improperly fdisk'ed/formatted..

Sounds like you fall under the BIOS doesn't support category.. so far..

 

[Damage]

For a last ditch attempt, set the drive for cable select and try running it by itself. As for which way does the cable go, in 10 years of system bulding (anyone else remember MFM and RLL?), the red stripe ALWAYS goes on the side of the power connector.