Help with maxtor drive

[machintos]

Okay, here's the problem
I have 2 drives installed on my computer. 160GB 8MB for my master and 200GB 8MB for slave.
I never used my slave drive but in my computer it always had the icon (Drive F)
Well, today I wanted to move all my music and videos to that drive and the icon was gone.
I went to BIOS setting and my that drive is not in the setting anymore.
I checked my installation and everything was correct, I didn't accidently lose the jumper, or have a disconnected cable or whatever.
So basically, I just lost my slave drive.
Anybody know if this is the problem with the drive or something else? I figured I would ask you guys before I call customer service and be put on hold for God knows how long...
So... Help, please? Anyone?

By the way,
I have P4G8X deluxe motherboard, P4 2.53GHz processor, 4 x 512MB PC2700 HyperX
I included this information if this is useful for you guys to help me out...

Thanks a lot

 

[machintos]

and one more thing, the drive is only about 4-5 months old

 

[Slogun]

Highly doubt that it is a problem with the drive itself.

The drive was probably never installed quite correctly even though you saw it in the past.

If you are sure it is not a problem with drive jumper settings, I would do this:

Open up the case and disconnect either the power cable running to that drive or the ide ribbon cable.
Reboot the computer, after the comp reboots, shut it back down, reconnect the drive and reboot.
I would expect the add hardware wizard to kick in. If it does, you are set, and make sure to format that drive (you can do the quick format) before you use it.

If the drive still is not recognized, you should format that drive by itself.
You can do that by doing the following:

Shut down the comp. Disconnect your main hard drive's power cable or ide ribbon cable, leave only the problematic hard drive connected, reboot your system to your windows CD and select the option to format the existing drive it sees in the machine (format only, do not install windows, do not make the drive bootable, quick format is OK).
After the drive is properly formatted, connect everything normally and you should be good to go.

Hope this helps.

 

[machintos]

Thanks for your input.
I will try this right now. I'll post the result.

 

[machintos]

Originally posted by: Slogun
Highly doubt that it is a problem with the drive itself.

The drive was probably never installed quite correctly even though you saw it in the past.

If you are sure it is not a problem with drive jumper settings, I would do this:

Open up the case and disconnect either the power cable running to that drive or the ide ribbon cable.
Reboot the computer, after the comp reboots, shut it back down, reconnect the drive and reboot.
I would expect the add hardware wizard to kick in. If it does, you are set, and make sure to format that drive (you can do the quick format) before you use it.

If the drive still is not recognized, you should format that drive by itself.
You can do that by doing the following:

Shut down the comp. Disconnect your main hard drive's power cable or ide ribbon cable, leave only the problematic hard drive connected, reboot your system to your windows CD and select the option to format the existing drive it sees in the machine (format only, do not install windows, do not make the drive bootable, quick format is OK).
After the drive is properly formatted, connect everything normally and you should be good to go.

Hope this helps.

Okay, I've done everything you told me to, but the hard drive just wasn't recognized.
I tried to reformat the hard drive but I can't find it in the BIOS, in windows, or whatever.
How am I supposed to reformat the drive if I can't find the drive, right?
And oh, is it possible that the problem is in my motherboard?
I tried installing a different hard drive (seagate 30GB) as a secondary but I still don't see it....
any advice please???

Thanks a lot...

 

[lenjack]

Use maxtor's powermax utility to test the drive. Also, the jumpers can be very tricky.

 

[machintos]

Will I be able to use the powermax on the drive that is "claimed" to not exist.
I mean, the hard drive is not detected by the BIOS or the OS. So, can I still use the powermax on a drive that does not exist?

 

[Slogun]

It is true that the drive must be recognized in some way in order to be formatted.
I am still not ready to say you have a hardware problem.

I have one more suggestion which is a refinement of one of the steps I outlined previously.
Your system recognices your main C drive, correct?
Once again, disconnect the C drive, set the jumpers on the new drive as MASTER and connect it to the far end (MASTER CONNECTION) of the ribbon cable on your IDE1 channel.
Boot up with your Windows CD, go through the steps such as you would to do a clean install of Windows, stopping after the format.

What happened previously when you booted up with the Windows CD? It told you there was no drive at all in the system?

 

[machintos]

Originally posted by: Slogun
It is true that the drive must be recognized in some way in order to be formatted.
I am still not ready to say you have a hardware problem.

I have one more suggestion which is a refinement of one of the steps I outlined previously.
Your system recognices your main C drive, correct?
Once again, disconnect the C drive, set the jumpers on the new drive as MASTER and connect it to the far end (MASTER CONNECTION) of the ribbon cable on your IDE1 channel.
Boot up with your Windows CD, go through the steps such as you would to do a clean install of Windows, stopping after the format.

What happened previously when you booted up with the Windows CD? It told you there was no drive at all in the system?

I tried doing this a couple of time already, but what the hell... I gave it a 3rd try, and guess what? The BIOS finally detected my drive.
Anyways, before this, when I went into BIOS it would give me the first primary and slave, and the second primary and slave all set up to auto.
When I go into the IDE setting, the first primary would show me the HDD that I have, and when I went into secondary master and slave, it would give me the CD drives that I have, but it wouldn't give me the primary slave drive.

Anyways, I guess it's all fixed now, I really appreciate all your help

THANKS A LOT!!!

 

[Slogun]

Hey I'm glad things worked out