HDD not recognized - Help needed urgently!

[hogmahub]

Have a Gigabyte GA7VAXP Ultra with 3 HDDs attached. Boots off a Quantum Fireball AS 60Gb on slave setting on IDE 1 (the only way it would be recognised when I upgraded to this MB!).

Just tried to add an IDE DVD writer to the machine and it stopped recognizing the Quantum HDD (fireball AS 60GB). Took everything out and it saw the HDD again and booted fine. Put the DVD writer back in and it stopped recognizing the drive. I've tried it on all IDE channels with all jumper settings and it just won't work. The green diode flashes when you boot and also when it is checking for IDE drives - it just doesn't seem to spin.

Tried using 'fail safe' bios settings, used back up bios, taken the battery out to wipe the CMOS.

Is there any Jumper setting to 'reset' the drive?

The disk has a lot of important work stuff on and I'm getting desparate...


Thanks in advance

Ian

 

[AllanMc]

What are the settings for each of the drives on
IDE 1 (boot drive and DVD drive)
IDE 2 (2 other drives)
U've said
stopped recognizing the Quantum HDD (fireball AS 60GB)
Does it recognise it at all?

 

[hogmahub]

The original config was Quantum of IDE1 as slave with CD as master. Two other slaves on IDE 3 and IDE 4.

When I put the DVD on IDE 2 as master and kept the Quantum on IDE1 as slave it stopped responding - not spinning.

When I removed the DVD and all other drives it was OK again.

Now it doesn't recognise it or spin up - just the green light flashes

Thanks

Ian

 

[AllanMc]

take all the drives out, set the DVD as master and turn it on see if the post detects it

 

[hogmahub]

Allan,

its the HDD that is not being recognized!

Ian

 

[AllanMc]

Aye good point. But it works fine without the DVD drive, which would suggest a problem with the DVD drive as it worked fine before it arrived on the Scene. I take it the DVD drive is recognised ok then with the drives attached or not?

 

[hogmahub]

The DVD is fine, have installed XP on another HDD using it!

Ian

 

[ClareSnyder]

Is this DVD by chance a comination DVD player/CD Rewriter?
Is it made by A-Open?
I had a similar situation. I could not install the A-Open DVD Combo drive with 1 HDD and 1 CD Rom. I tried with the CD and HDD on one channel, HDD Master, and CD Slave, with the Combo on Channel 2 - no good. Switched Channel 1 HDD to slave and CD to master, no good. Switched CD and Combo, no good. Put CD and Combo on Channel 2, no good.
I finally removed the CD, and put the HDD on Channel 1 as master, and the Combo on Chennel 2 as Master, and the computer worked.
This was on an AcerPower Computer - running XP Pro.

 

[hogmahub]

Clare,

it is a combo from Liteon and works fine with another HDD. But the issue is that something has affected the original boot HDD - with lots of important data on it!

The HDD even when it is the only thing connected doesn't seem to spin up now. Anyone know if HDDs can get confused into staying in sleep mode? If so how can you reset them?

Thanks

Ian

 

[AllanMc]

Oh the original HD isnt starting at all now?

 

[hogmahub]

Yep - that's the issue here!

Its got power as the diodes flash, but it refuses to spin. It did this initially, but I removed the DVD and it started up again. After adding the DVD again it has stopped altogether.

Ian

 

[AllanMc]

You said you have installed XP onto another hard drive now. Can you set that harddrive up as master and slave the original harddrive to it, boot up and see if it's detected. Could be bad news if it isnt.

 

[hogmahub]

Yes tried all combinations of drives / channels / slave / master / cable select....

Just isn't detected.

Ian

 

[AllanMc]

Last thing i'd do is stick it in another machine as a slave and see if it's detected, if not contact the manufacturer of the HD and DVD drive and moan like hell, u may have to get a data recovery specialist to get the data back if you cant get the drive detected at all

 

[attrofy]

One thing that I want to cover, just to keep the simple things in perspective, after changing the configuration around, you did go into BIOS and "Autodetect" each of the IDE's each time correct?

Also, it is interesting that your boot HD is set on the slave channel of IDE 1. Apprently this is working, but have you tried the HDD by itself as Master on IDE 1?

I have had a Mobo failure where the IDE channel allowed Master only - it would never detect the slave device, no matter what was plugged in there - the second channel was fine on both Slave and Master.

A final option is to buy a PCI IDE controller from Promise (or similar) and run all your Drives off of that card.

 

[hogmahub]

I do have an old motherboard so I will try it in this.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Ian