Thread: New HD Help

Originally Posted by smidsy

Hei Folks,
Got a new WD 500gig internal Sata drive as part of a PC rebuild (Asus P5
QPRO Mainboard) and I cannot suss the thing.
Before I shut the pc down for the rebuild I installed the drive and partitioned it as 100/200/200.
No matter what I tried Win2k would not recognise drive, I got an external case used WD's software to reformat the drive and then partition magic to partition the drive down to 100/200/200 again.

Win2k still refuses to recognise the drive in the partitioned formats, (shows several odd ball sections but states every one is damaged and unable to install) I even borrowed an XP disk and tried installing that but get the same problems.

Have I got a dud HD?
Cheers

Lot of missing info here such as

Does it show up in the BIOS

Did you install the new HDD as master on the mother board setup in the BIOS

Check cables, switch settings etc

It shows in the Bios, I've got it set as the second boot device - the first being the CD drive to load Windows - the board has 6 Sata slots, the CD's in 1 and the HD in 2.
Originally I had a second Sata drive plugged into Sata 3 (I unplugged that HD to guard against accidentally loading Win to it and losing the data on it) which Win recognised fine. I tried swapping place and cables with that drive but no difference.
Cables have been checked, there is no jumper on the drive (the pins are there but the gizmo to join them is not) which according to WD is normal.
I thought it was an issue with Win not detecting the drive because it's Sata, but the CD is Sata too and that works fine.
Board is a brand new Asus P5QPRO.
Cheers

Make sure you have the latest version of BIOS, also Win2K might have a limitation around 137gb (I think) due to 48bit addressing schemes.

If this is the issue you should be able to format as 120/120/120/120 and make it work.

Look up 48bit LBA if this fixes it.

Check here too.

My hunch is that win2k isn't able to deal with such a large drive or the SATA standard. Do you have another computer to can check it against.

Originally Posted by smidsy

Hei Folks,
Got a new WD 500gig internal Sata drive as part of a PC rebuild (Asus P5
QPRO Mainboard) and I cannot suss the thing.
Before I shut the pc down for the rebuild I installed the drive and partitioned it as 100/200/200.
No matter what I tried Win2k would not recognise drive, I got an external case used WD's software to reformat the drive and then partition magic to partition the drive down to 100/200/200 again.

Win2k still refuses to recognise the drive in the partitioned formats, (shows several odd ball sections but states every one is damaged and unable to install) I even borrowed an XP disk and tried installing that but get the same problems.

Have I got a dud HD?
Cheers

What I would be doing would be to use the windows install program to setup your drive... not sure about win2k but with xp you have the opportunity during the install process to set what size you want the partition. Once it is installed, disk manager should allow you to partion and format the remainder of the drive as you like. If XP still can not install then you have a bios or hardware problem.


Hope this helps,

Chipman

Ok guys,much appreciated for the advice - here is the latest.
Went in to the BIOS and disabled LBA, also changed SATA configuration from "ehanced" to "compatible" and set configure SATA as "IDE".

The Win install went as far as formating the disk (the only partition it would install on was about 120gig) copying the install files and then it hangs on the restart.
There is one IDE slot on the board in to which I plugged my old HD and the PC booted fine so it seems the actual box is ok.

I could just revert to that disk, but the Win install is 2 years old and among other issues Win Explorer crashes after opening two files.

When I was formatting the HD this morning (had it set up in an external case hooked up to a laptop) I noticed that Partition Magic (8) has an option to create a partition for installing another OS - could I use that to install the OS in the new HD and then put the HD in the case?
Cheers
Paul

Smidsy have you used the ASUS CD yet

Hei Guys,
Tried the Asus CD but without an OS you need to copy files to a floppy and I haven't had a floppy drive in my pc's for about 5 years now.
Tried downloading the file from Asus but it won't autorun.

For the sake of getting it going I have reverted back to the old hard drive because I was losing too much time and I shall just use the 500gig drive for storage.
Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys.
Cheers
Paul