Ok, wth is going on with my hard drive?

[cherrytwist]

Quick synopsis.

Purchased a 120gb Maxtor HDD from a trader in the FS/FT forums. Installed XP with no problems on the drive, but screwed up a restore attempt (had multiple drives in the machine, put files on the wrong drive). I figured it was no problem, I'd just format and re-install XP. Only problem is, my Dell 4550 will no longer detect the hard drive as master. If I use another hard drive as a master, it shows up as a slave. Otherwise, my machine won't detect the drive at all.

I'm 100% certain the hard drive is not faulty. It detects as a master on another (home built) machine.

So wth is going on with the hard drive? I formatted it using MaxBlast 3 software. I ran the error checking utility under XP (with the drive as a slave).

I also used the Maxblast 3 software to do a quick zero write (first 63 sectors or whatever). Would a full zero re-write (a low level format as I understand it) fix my problem?

Also wanted to add that I replaced the IDE cable, that is not the issue.

 

[Anubis]

hows the jumper set on it?? also try setting it manually in the bios instead of autodetect which it usially is

 

[cherrytwist]

I have tried every jumper setting possible and it just won't auto detect. Also, the bios will now allow me to set it manually. It shows up as "other device".

bump for other ideas.

 

[MichaelD]

Double check the jumper settings for your drive against Maxtor's database online. I have some Maxtors that require NO JUMPER at all to be configured as Master.

Also, clear you CMOS and start fresh.

 

[cherrytwist]

Worked after clearing the CMOS. Apparently whenever I try to restore my XP installation to this drive, the Dell machine doesn't like it and the CMOS gets corrupt, so I have to clear it. Looks like I'll be reinstalling everything manually *sigh*.

Anyway, thanks for mentioning the CMOS. Clearing it did solve the problem I was having.