IDE controller

[Kaustav]

I've got a 4 year old Intex 440Bx Motherboard with the following details:
Program: Unicore BIOS Wizard Version 1.5
BIOS Date: 06/16/98
BIOS Type: Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG
BIOS ID: 06/16/1998-i440BX-W977-2A69KM4AC
BIOS Eval: W6119V1 V2.6 081799
Chipset: Intel 440BX/ZX rev 2
Superio: Winbond 977TF rev 0 found at port 3F0h

I've just purchased a Maxtor 7200 RPM 60GB Hard Disk and a CompUSA branded Ultra ATA100 IDE PCI Card. I got the card because my mother board only supports IDE 33. Anyway, the PCI card and HD are all hooked up and drivers and software for both installed. The system seems to boot up fine. I've installed the Maxtor Blast Plus 2 software to detect and format the 60 Gb Hard disk. I'm got the 60 Gb Hard disk plugged in to socket one of the PCI card and other two Hard disks I have are plugged in to the main 2 IDE sockets on the motherboard. In other words, I haven't touched my existing two HD's and left them as is. I've set the jumpers on the 60 GB HD as they are and not changed them. They are positioned to make the 60 GB HD a master device. Is this correct? Or should it be set to slave? The reason I ask is because Max Blast 2 software does not detect the 60 GB Hard Disk being plugged in. How do I get around this? Is there something I need to do in my BIOS set up? When my machine boots up in, in the boot screen a 60 GB Maxtor HD is shown as been detected.

What gives? I'm running Windows 2000 Pro.

Kaustav

 

[XeonTux]

The Maxtor, being on it's own IDE channel on the controller card, should be jumpered as a Single drive if there is such a jumper position, or as Master if there is no "Single" position. I am not too familiar with Maxtors, I don't have their jumper settings memorized

What chipset does the IDE card have? It is likely a rebranded-something-else.

Your 440BX BIOS may let you specify the order of boot including this card. If I were you I would boot and run my OS from it. as it will be alot faster.

And I'm not sure why that Maxtor software is needed.

 

[Kaustav]

The Maxtor software is the recommended formatting software as apparently FDisk isn't very good at exploiting the full capacity of large drives... *shrugs* that's what the blurb on the CD case says. Anyway, the Maxtor's jumper is currently set to Cable Select at the moment, so I'll flip it to MAster and see what it does. Hmmm....

In the BIOS setup, it only allows me to configure IDE postions for the IDE controller on the motherboard. There's no mention on any of the screens of the PCI IDE controller, even if I get the BIOS to auto configure everything. Hmmm, once again Anyway, lets switch the jumpers and see what happens...

K

 

[annoyed]

Havent messed with the setup your using but: did you format the drive yet,if so does it get dected in windows, if not formated, could disconnect other drives then format it using the utility programs then see if its drive c,d or e in windows, Did you want to make it your boot drive?

 

[Kaustav]

Basically, Martox are a bunch of trogladites LOL. They only supplied one jumper plug where in the instruction manual (gasp! The manual! NO!!!!) it clearly shows the use of two jumpers to activate the drive as a primary master drive. So it's off to the shops I go tomorrow to buy a jumper plug. And after that, yes, I will make the drive the main boot disk as I suspect my system will boot up and generally run much faster running off that drive as a) it's much faster b) it's running off the ATA100 PCI card where as my onboard IDE controller is only 33. Hmm, the things you learn from reading the manual.. The Manual!?!?!?! NOOO!!! ;-)

K

 

[KGB]

In order to boot from the Maxtor card, set the BIOS boot sequence to SCSI as the first device.
The BIOS will see the ATA100 card as a SCSI controller (Win2K will also ID it as a SCSI device).

Avoid connecting any CD drives to the Maxtor card unless you NEVER want to boot from them.
Selecting the boot sequence on the card is not an option.

Also make sure you get the latest drivers from Maxtor as they change them frequently.

 

[Kaustav]

I'm having miserable progress with this.

Have obtained second jumper and set Maxtor 60Gb HD as Primary Master. Inserted Max Blast Plus II CD and floppy in to drives and rebooted. Max Blast starts to boot up. DR DOS loads, and the Max Blast loading screen appears. Then the screen goes grey and all drives whirl down and then nothing. The screen just stays grey and notihng happens. Rebooted several times and tried jumpers in every position shown in instruction manual. Sometimes I get the grey screen, other times the systemjust locks up and hangs. I'm thinking that my motherboard just cannot cope with this Maxtor Disk. Even with the ATA 100 PCI adapter card installed, the HD still will not work. I've checked to make sure the card and its drivers are correctly installed, and they are. Well then, time to buy that new motherboard and AMD 2000+ me thinks! Oh well, I tried!

K