Hi all,

I know it's been a very long while since i've posted a message, but i've been keeping an eye on you, he, he. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Oke, here is the deal;

I recently bought an IBM harddrive, IC35L040AVVA07, and have been trying to do a WindowsXP clean install on it for 3 days now.
Every time after XP has loaded its crap http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/mad.gif it halts and basicly says it can not find a harddrive connected and i should contact the manufacturer (DUH!). I am able to boot the PC with a bootdisk which i downloaded from www.bootdisk.com (http://www.bootdisk.com) and fdisk and/or format the drive any which way i like. The HDD is set to be master on 16 head (shipping default) and is connected to my UDMA-66 motherboard. I have now put back my 20GB seagate HDD with Windows98SE on it. Its running fine as always. My motherboard is a ABIT I440BX-W977(BE6-II v1.1 /BF6 and my BIOS is an Award version 6.00PG

I am wondering is the problem my BIOS not supporting a 40GB HDD or is this just a damn compatibility issue???
Anyone with any good idea is welcome to respond. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif
I do not like to think i spent 97 euro's on nothing http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

Looking forward to your replies

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Life is like Windows, sometimes it's great. Most of the times it's a pain

Are you using an 80-wire IDE cable?

If not try one, if yes try another one.

Is the drive actually jumpered as a single or master?

Have you tried running the IBM diagnostics for the drive?

Your BIOS should be able to handle the 40gig drive, but maybe it is not XP-ready.

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mjc
Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.


Please Post Questions in the forums, not my email. Thanks

Piggybacking on MJ:

To get ata/66 and up must use 80 wire cable - must use cable select - Your intended master must be on end connector and your intended Slave on middle connector

Once Hard drive physically installed as above, must go to CMOS and auto detect drives to set up proper translation between harddrive and computer(LBA prefered choice) - Formatting without doing so could lead to unpredictable results.

Now I say "must" a lot cause them's the rules - I know there are a lot out there that bend 'em and don't have problems - me included - but this sounds like a good place to try them

Besides - XP can be more picky than previous versions of WIndows. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/cool.gif

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Good Judgement comes from Experience - Experience comes from Bad Judgement - but bad judgement is more fun!!

NO luck again. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/mad.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/mad.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/mad.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/mad.gif

First the answers to your questions:
- yes i'm using a 80-wire IDE cables. The black connector is connected to the intended masterdrive.
- The cable is oke because it works on every ATA drive i install.
- The drive is jumpered to be the master according to the specs.
- I have used IBM's Drive Fitness Test and all is oke!! (advanced test/Quick test). I even re-partitioned and reformatted the drive with this utillity.
- The CMOS is set to auto detect every drive both IDE and ATA or Primary master and secondary master. Block mode is set to enabled.

Troubleshooting:
Meanwhile i got a response from IBM support refering me to this page http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/compatibility.htm . They're not saying anything about compatibility with Windows XP so great help http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/mad.gif


But first:
- My ultra ata driver (HPT-370) sees the drive when i start up the system. It even shows the right size and model number.
- DOS sees the drive with the right specs
- If i install the drive as a slave under W98SE, it shows the right specs and can be accesed.
- Installing the drive as master and installing W98SE works fine. So W98SE has no problems with it.
- I've tried playing around with the pin settings (16 head, 15 head master) to install XP but same error "HDD not accesable contact manufacturer, etc.

Conclusion??
As i have been troubleshooting for a while now and W98SE has no problems whatsoever with the HDD i can only conclude that this HDD does not support XP.

Question
How do i fix this if i wan't to do a clean install on the 40GB HDD.
Or is there another way??

Ask me anything about W98SE and i'll give you or find you an answer.

Windows XP is new grounds for me and thats the reason why i want to install it (to get to know it better instead of reading about it).

Anyone with the answer?? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

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Life is like Windows, sometimes it's great. Most of the times it's a pain

[This message has been edited by Wannabee A+ (edited 06-27-2002).]

Ok...let me see if I have it straight.

The drive you are trying to install XP to is connected to an add in controller card and not the motherboard ide connectors?

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mjc
Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.


Please Post Questions in the forums, not my email. Thanks

No, the HDD is connected directly to my mainboard. My mainboard has 4 connectors. 1 primary IDE and 1 secondary IDE. Right next to those are 2 UDMA connectors (Primary and secondary). On each of these connector is connect a master and slave drive. This board is a great board. Read specs about it on http://www.flashingthenet.com/be6iifaq/

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Life is like Windows, sometimes it's great. Most of the times it's a pain

[This message has been edited by Wannabee A+ (edited 06-27-2002).]

Ok, not an add-in card but an onboard one...basically the same difference.

XP can sometimes have a problem installing to a drive on a controller card (onboard or add-in), try switching the drive over to the standard IDE channle and installing XP there, then after the install, switch the drive back to the UDMA channel. You will probably need to adjust the boot order in BIOS and maybe play around with the IDE settings.

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mjc
Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.


Please Post Questions in the forums, not my email. Thanks

Thanks for the quick respons MJC. It's 01:07 here right now and i'm at work. Will try your suggestion later in the evening and get back with you.

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Life is like Windows, sometimes it's great. Most of the times it's a pain

oke, here is the score:

After playing around with ide settings and following MJC's advise, i installed WinXP on the HDD.
The HDD is running on UDMA-33 on IDE-1, the HPT-366 controller is switched off in the BIOS (which seems to be causing the problems). XP installed without any problem whatsoever!!
But, as soon as i swapp over to UDMA-66 and active the HPT-366 XP hangs with the same old problems.
So the final conclusion is that my HPT-366 version 1.25 is causing the problem. I an run XP on UDMA-33 mode but thats not fast enough for me http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

I need to upgrade the HPT version and maybe even my BIOS, i have never done this before so does anyone have any advise.

oh, how's this for a first score. I finally maneged to connect to the internet after troubleshooting my network setting under XP for half an hour!!

Once again, thanks for the advise MJC. Now all we need is to get XP to work on my HighPoint Technologies UDMA controller.

Please help http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Cheerz,

Marlon

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Win 'em, loose 'em!!

heh MJC,

I just noticed you mentioned in an earlier reply the i must choose cable-select.

Is this right and why??

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[This message has been edited by Wannabee A+ (edited 06-28-2002).]