hard drive problem

[cLuELeSS]

Hi falks,

Would it be ok in this forum to ask hardware question? If so I have a problem configuring my computer hard drive. I am having difficutly with BOIS setup-sort of.

I have an old non brand name pentium 933 computer with Asus CUSL2-C jumper free pc133 AGP 4X Motherboard, and Intel 815EP Chipset and i think 300+ RAM with floppy drive, 2 cd roms (dvd rom and writer) and 2 hard drives.

Please be patient and read

Here is what happened.
I had a 40 GB hard drive when i bought my first computer about 5 years ago. After using it for 4 years, the hard drive started to make noises and i took it back where i bought it and the guy charged me 70 bucks to install a new 80GB hard drive last years. It was working fine until last week. i wanted to install my old hard drive back as a secondary hard drive as i have some valuble files in the old hard drive. I did not touch anything, just installed my old hard drive back beside the new one. but I forgot to plug the power cable for floppy drive. When i turned it on, it was unable to identify my floppy but when i clicked F4 as the screen suggested, it would bypass floppy drive, and it would start the computer. Then i was able to see both my old and new hard drive when i clicked my computer icon. Then i was able to access my all of file with my old hard drive and i was so proud of myself for a little while, but my proud moment was short lived when i attempted to plug the floppy drive in. I opened my computer, did not touch anything but plugged the power for floppy drive and closed it. All of a sudden, it would not find any of the hard drives and the 2 dvd rom and dvd writers. and kept looking for the floppy drive and asking me to put flopy disk-such as system disk or something like that. I did put the sytem disk, managed to start the window but still would not able to pick up the drives, still unbale to find the 2 hard drives. I tried to play around with BOIs by swiching to auto, then to cd rom, then individual chosen hard drive etc, with out success. Then i opened the computer again swithched the jumpers around the hard drive and the 2 cd roms i have. for instance, i put my dvd writer as master and dvd rom as slave and my new hard drive as master and my old hard drive as slave and vise versa for both cd roms and hard drives. i spent almost 3 days to figure it out without success. finally i gave up and tried to take it back to my computer guy where i bought the computer from in the first place, just to find out the guy closed his business for good. Now I am stuck-Please help.

Now the worst thing is, even when i put system start up flopy disk, i am unable to load the computer on at all. When starting the computer i tried to hit esc button, and from F1 to F10 buttons trun by turn access safe mode but all of my efforts were in vain.

I have window xp and window 2000 option to start my computer if i can manage to start .

Please help and i am so sorry, it is like a book. i tried to shorten my question but wanted to give u guys the full picture of what happened.

[mountain_rage]

Edit: Feather made a good point, always shut off your computer when working on the inside. If you can, leave the power supply connected so its grounded but turn your power supply off. Not all power supplies can be turned off so if you can't turn off the power supply then unplug it. Then to prevent frying your board with static discharge, touch something metal, not on your computer.

Alright lets start, place the jumpers for your 80 gig to master as this is the drive with windows installed to it.

Then place your old hard drive jumpers to slave mode.

To set up the cables just follow this I don't want to have to get all long winded. http://www.mikeshardware.com/howtos/...ct_ide_hd.html
I read some of it not all, anyway if it doesn't mention it in that article.
Always connect the red line on the data cable so it lies beside the red line in the power cable (red to red).

Make sure Pin one of the cable (marked line) matches pin one on your motherboard(it should be indicated on the board, most are).

Then in your bios, make sure your drives are all properly detected. To get into your Bios hit del on startup. Its usually under standard features.

Once thats set-up find the boot menu and make your master hd the primary boot. This is usually referred to as IDE 1.

Once all that is done it should work. The information is vague but should be sufficient if you need anything cleared up you can search google which has numerous resources or post back here. I'll give you advice when I have time, but theres no guarantee, google is probably faster.

[Mels_Smileys45]

Bye bye boot record. When you change a hard drive like that it go poof!

Time to set what drive you want to boot from, pop in a windows disc and format.

[mountain_rage]

Bye bye boot record. When you change a hard drive like that it go poof!

Time to set what drive you want to boot from, pop in a windows disc and format.

I fail to see what would change his MBR, the boot floppy disc? I'm just curious because I haven't used those for years, didn't know they caused problems.

[Mels_Smileys45]

I fail to see what would change his MBR, the boot floppy disc? I'm just curious because I haven't used those for years, didn't know they caused problems.

Two things: I was thinking, as Ive had this happen before, if he started up his PC with the floppy unhooked, then windows decided another drive should be the first boot device. IF he is trying to boot first from floppy this could have been trouble but it looks like he checked that.

As far as changing the config of his harddrives then its likely the boot rocord has changed and not able to run the way things are now. SO I thought that he should decide what device he needs to runs windows from upon boot up so he can re-instal windows on his screwed up system.


I dunno though, im rambling

[Feather]

He does not say weather he turned power off before opening case to put connector for floppy on. If he did not then he probably toasted his ide controller

[mountain_rage]

As far as changing the config of his harddrives then its likely the boot rocord has changed and not able to run the way things are now. SO I thought that he should decide what device he needs to runs windows from upon boot up so he can re-instal windows on his screwed up system.


I dunno though, im rambling

Ya, I don't think changing the slave, master settings does anything to the MBR. Its only when you install new operating systems that it can mess it up, at least as far as I know. I've often switched master slave drives and went back with no issues. Anyway, I'm waiting to see if hooking it up like I told him fixes it. If not then their could be some underlying hardware issues.

[RACKnRAIL]

You already have some good advice here. If you're still having trouble, I would go back to basics. Try no floppy, with only one HD (80 gig master) and be sure cables and jumpers are correct. By doing the very basics of connections you can use a process of elimination. Add on one thing at a time.

A good boot disk like MiniPE is a good tool for this type of problem. It's great for data recovery.

[pandoraenima1]

You already have some good advice here. If you're still having trouble, I would go back to basics. Try no floppy, with only one HD (80 gig master) and be sure cables and jumpers are correct. By doing the very basics of connections you can use a process of elimination. Add on one thing at a time.

A good boot disk like MiniPE is a good tool for this type of problem. It's great for data recovery.

yeah i'd recommend taking your system apart and reconnecting it one device at a time master disc, slave, cd etc and checking to see how far it goes...

[w31n3r]

You already have some good advice here. If you're still having trouble, I would go back to basics. Try no floppy, with only one HD (80 gig master) and be sure cables and jumpers are correct. By doing the very basics of connections you can use a process of elimination. Add on one thing at a time.

A good boot disk like MiniPE is a good tool for this type of problem. It's great for data recovery.

that is an excellent suggestion. from your post i'd say it's worth to look at your power supply unit. since it's five years old, it may be rated at 200watts or so, possibly not enough to provide juice to all your devices. following racks advice would prolly isolate this as your main pain.

good luck :icon_thum

[Krell]

1) unplug the power from the PSU
2) remove the old HD completely
3) obtain and RTFM (if you skip this step, just go kill yourself now)
4) replace the CMOS battery . . CR2032 etc
5) if there is a jumper to reset the BIOS, use it.
6) check that the HD with the OS is the MASTER on the PRIMARY, or that it is set to CABLE SELECT, check all physical connections
7) Plug the cord in to the PSU
8) When you see the intial POST, hit DELETE or F2, F10 and enter the BIOS
9) View the HD field and see if the drive is listed, and if the DVD drives are also there, if so exit without saving changes and attempt to boot in to OS
10) make sure the floppy and DVD roms are completely empty!


These are the 10 steps you need to do, you do not need to rub balloons on your head, sing hymns or do the hokey pokey.

If you can't accomplish this simple process without skipping steps, take the PC back to the place where you bought the HD and give them a blank check, ask them to weld the cover on for you.


.

[w31n3r]

These are the 10 steps you need to do, you do not need to rub balloons on your head, sing hymns or do the hokey pokey.

If you can't accomplish this simple process without skipping steps, take the PC back to the place where you bought the HD and give them a blank check, ask them to weld the cover on for you.


.

oh happy days! i knew if i bungled long enough in the general computing section you'd show up to take over again :icon_comp .

[Feather]

1) unplug the power from the PSU
2) remove the old HD completely
3) obtain and RTFM (if you skip this step, just go kill yourself now)
4) replace the CMOS battery . . CR2032 etc
5) if there is a jumper to reset the BIOS, use it.
6) check that the HD with the OS is the MASTER on the PRIMARY, or that it is set to CABLE SELECT, check all physical connections
7) Plug the cord in to the PSU
8) When you see the intial POST, hit DELETE or F2, F10 and enter the BIOS
9) View the HD field and see if the drive is listed, and if the DVD drives are also there, if so exit without saving changes and attempt to boot in to OS
10) make sure the floppy and DVD roms are completely empty!


These are the 10 steps you need to do, you do not need to rub balloons on your head, sing hymns or do the hokey pokey.

If you can't accomplish this simple process without skipping steps, take the PC back to the place where you bought the HD and give them a blank check, ask them to weld the cover on for you.


.

Where the hell you been hiding old man? Bout time you got back to work here. Did you bring me anything back from your vacation?

[mfgbypooter]

1)take the PC back to the place where you bought the HD and give them a blank check, ask them to weld the cover on for you.


.

lmao!

I like this advice damn near as much as the one about cleaning your pc down at the carwash.

*

[infoseeker]

Where the hell you been hiding old man? Bout time you got back to work here. Did you bring me anything back from your vacation?

inculde me some of that...