*Help* I got some issues here....

[Spooner]

I just moved, and with that move, moved my computer. I go to hook it up and it beeps all crazy, finally sayin "Primary Slave drive failed"

*Gulp* ! I have three drives. One with the OS, one large drive, and a smaller one that I don't care about. I've tried all different hookups, but even if it gets by the drive recognition screen..... it tries booting and just displays "PRESS A KEY TO REBOOT."

Did I screw up all my drives? Is there any way to salvage/run tests on them? It won't even boot

 

[HappyPuppy]

Unplug all of your drives, HDDs and CD drives, except your boot drive and try again.

 

[Spooner]

I did that and right at the point where you'd expect to see the OS screen, it goes black and displays "PRESS A KEY TO REBOOT"

 

[Harvey]

If you have any utilities like Norton Disk Doctor, try running it from the installation CD.

 

[HappyPuppy]

Clear the BIOS and reseat EVERYTHING, cables, cards and memory.

If you're getting that far it sounds like the drive is good. If the above doesn't help, run the Disk Fitness Test on the bootable drive.

 

[Spooner]

run the Disk Fitness Test on the bootable drive.

How do I do this? I don't think I have any disk utility software

 

[HappyPuppy]

Originally posted by: Spooner

run the Disk Fitness Test on the bootable drive.

How do I do this? I don't think I have any disk utility software

Who is the manufacturer of your HDD? IBM has a DFT and I'm sure all the other manufacturers do as well. Check their websites under downloads/utilities.

 

[Spooner]

I have Maxtor and Western Digital drives

 

[Harvey]

PowerMax.exe for Maxtor drives.

Various Western Digital diagnostic progs.

Hope that helps.

 

[Spooner]

I ran both manufacturer's utilities and the drives test fine.

 

[Spooner]

motherboard issue?

 

[Harvey]

Go into your BIOS, and let it go through the detection process, again. Also, IDE cables can go bad. Try a new one on one drive at a time.

 

[Spooner]

i put someone else's drive into the machine and tried booting it, and it hang after posting to the BIOS

motherboard issue?

 

[Harvey]

Can you get into the BIOS? If so, does it report your drives and other things correctly? Go through every setting to see if it's where you left it. If the battery was transiently disconnected by vibration, etc., during the move, something could have changed that his affecting your system.

 

[crisp82]

Make sure that all drives are connectd to the correct IDE channel. Listen to ur comp when u power up. Does the HD heads start moving/accessing data?

 

[Spooner]

Does the HD heads start moving/accessing data?

No, this does not seem to happen.

But it detects the drive and the correct information in BIOS.

 

[Harvey]

Verify that all jumpers on the drives are correctly assigned as Master, Slave, or "Cable Select." On systems using Cable Select, the drive at the far end of the cable is the Master, and the one closest to the motherboard end is the Slave. The problems you describe could happen if one drive is set as Cable Select, and another drive on the same cable is set as Master or Slave and is in the wrong position.

 

[Spooner]

I have removed all drives and cables and am trying to boot to one drive hooked up as Primary Master.