Odd Hard Drive Issue

[imported_waldo]

So, here is the scoop. I have a seagate 7200.7 160gb drive. It was running fine. I decided to switch machines, and bam....nothing....can't access the drive.

It is worse than that though. It seems whenever the drive is connected to the computer, it makes the computer hang.

I can't even boot into dos programs when it is connected. It will give me the "starting of dos", but that is it....won't go further than that...can't get a dos prompt or command line.

I can however boot into a windows installation. And when I do that, it finds the drive. I can delete and create partitions, and it will start the install of the OS, but when it comes time to reboot....same problem...I just get a black screen.

Odd eh....thoughts?

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: waldo
So, here is the scoop. I have a seagate 7200.7 160gb drive. It was running fine. I decided to switch machines, and bam....nothing....can't access the drive.

It is worse than that though. It seems whenever the drive is connected to the computer, it makes the computer hang.

I can't even boot into dos programs when it is connected. It will give me the "starting of dos", but that is it....won't go further than that...can't get a dos prompt or command line.

I can however boot into a windows installation. And when I do that, it finds the drive. I can delete and create partitions, and it will start the install of the OS, but when it comes time to reboot....same problem...I just get a black screen.

Odd eh....thoughts?

What do you mean switch machines? And are you putting the Seagate on the same channel (cable) as a CD-ROM or another hard drive in the second computer? I'm guessing CS / master / slave jumper settings.
Tas.

 

[imported_waldo]

By switch machines, I built a new one and switched over to that one. (THe seagate was not the master, but was a slave drive...no OS installed on it, just files.

It doesn't matter if the seagate is on its own cable or a shared cable with another drive CD or Hard Drive. I have tried it all ways...nothing. I have it set to slave, but have tried master, and CS jumper settings. Same response in all situations. The odd part is the BIOS recognizes it fine as well.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Is the Seagate getting hooked up to a different controller than the other drive? Maybe bad drivers or something for that controller. Maybe try removing whatever device the Seagate is connected to (in control panel -> system -> hardware) and rebooting, and see if you get any changes.
Tas.

 

[mooglekit]

Just to see if the drive works, connect just a single CD drive and the HDD (on separate cables) with the drive jumpered to master. Set BIOS to boot from a CD and then boot from the Windows install CD and run the typical Windows install. You should be able to do this if the drive and controller are working correctly.

EDIT: It's just easier to trouble shoot by eliminating other devices that may cause problems, so by only having the basics attached you can find the problem child quicker! 😉

 

[imported_waldo]

Nope, it is the Seagate itself. not a Windows problem. I can't boot up into DOS or Windows.

 

[imported_waldo]

Originally posted by: mooglekit
Just to see if the drive works, connect just a single CD drive and the HDD (on separate cables) with the drive jumpered to master. Set BIOS to boot from a CD and then boot from the Windows install CD and run the typical Windows install. You should be able to do this if the drive and controller are working correctly.

EDIT: It's just easier to trouble shoot by eliminating other devices that may cause problems, so by only having the basics attached you can find the problem child quicker! 😉

I did that, and as stated, can delete the partitions and create them, it says it is even writing the files, and then reboots, and back to the same problem

 

[mooglekit]

Boot up into Windows on another drive with the bad drive as Slave and run SeaTools from Seagate troubleshooting if you haven't done that already:

SeaTools

Also, their tech support basically starts from this point...have you dug through their troubleshooting guides at all?

 

[imported_waldo]

Originally posted by: mooglekit
Boot up into Windows on another drive with the bad drive as Slave and run SeaTools from Seagate troubleshooting if you haven't done that already:

SeaTools

Also, their tech support basically starts from this point...have you dug through their troubleshooting guides at all?

Let me clarify, when I attach this drive "I can't boot into windows!!", nor Can I boot into DOS.

The boot into windows stated earlier, is only for installation, not booting into the OS. Even as slave, this thing hangs my system.

 

[mooglekit]

Originally posted by: waldo

Originally posted by: mooglekit
Boot up into Windows on another drive with the bad drive as Slave and run SeaTools from Seagate troubleshooting if you haven't done that already:

SeaTools

Also, their tech support basically starts from this point...have you dug through their troubleshooting guides at all?

Let me clarify, when I attach this drive "I can't boot into windows!!", nor Can I boot into DOS.

The boot into windows stated earlier, is only for installation, not booting into the OS. Even as slave, this thing hangs my system.

To Quote the Seagate Site...

The software you are about to download runs in Windows and creates a bootable diagnostic floppy diskette. You only run the program in Windows once.

So use a good HDD (You do have another drive, yes?) to boot into Windows, create the bootable diskette/CD, boot from said diskette/CD....if that doesn't work, then your drive must be totally FUBAR..which just means you get to hope you're under warranty! 🙂