Maxtor SATA II won't Initialize

Darren555 · 8 May 2006 at 22:46

I got myself a Maxtor 250Gb 6V250F0 SATA II hard drive to use as storage space. I already have a Striped 0 SATA RAID array as my main drive on the SATA number 3 & 4 (nVidia RAID) connectors and it has worked faultlessly.
I installed the new drive, setting the jumper to limit it to SATA I operation and connected it to the SATA No.1 (Marvell) controller.
It is recognised in the BIOS and in Windows XP Pro it was detected as new hardware. In system properties it is there under the disk drive tab and I can run the speed test on it under the IDE controllers tab.
It isn't there under My Computer though so I went to set it up in the Disk Management admin tool. The wizard starts & I run it but the drive refuses to initialize and comes up with an system error. I know these mobos have had problems using SATA 1 & 2 when overclocked but mine is at stock speeds.
I also understand that there are issues with the nForce 4 boards and Maxtor SATA II HDs as well.
Maxtor PowerMax & MaxBlast aren't any use either.
Anyone got any ideas?

RichieUK · 8 May 2006 at 23:08

I have the updated firmware for this drive (i have the exact model as you). I got it from Maxtor customer services after several weeks. It made my drive run perfectly. If you want it i could send it to you, just PM me email address

Darren555 · 9 May 2006 at 11:22

Is that the VA111670 firmware?
If so, thanks but someone sent me that already. I will give it a go. Have you got an nF3 mobo then?

james32 · 9 May 2006 at 12:04

you problay need a motherboard bios update to support that drive
thats how it wont start

RichieUK · 9 May 2006 at 14:05

Darren555 said:
Is that the VA111670 firmware?
If so, thanks but someone sent me that already. I will give it a go. Have you got an nF3 mobo then?

The one i have is the VA111630-00 firmware. I have an NF4 motherboard though

james32 · 9 May 2006 at 16:16

asus only manged to fix Maxtor SATA II problem with latest bios
on their CSM 6150 boards and thats a Nforce 4 board

guy on the asus forums had the excact same problem as your describing
so its defently a bios update you need, because he updated to newest bios and it sorted it out.

Darren555 · 12 May 2006 at 15:48

I have updated the Hard disc firmware to the VA111670 version and it hasn't made any difference.
I already have the latest BIOS version for my board

Darren555 · 15 May 2006 at 12:07

Maxtor's advice is to get a PCI SATA controller card.
Great. More expense :mad:

james32 · 15 May 2006 at 14:33

the reason is you hard discs are NCQ wich dont work old chipsets
i had same problem on a intel board with seagate NCQ

you need Intel ICH6 or Nvida 4 board + latest bios to get newer drives to work

you have 3 choices
1. newer motherboard
2. sata 1 hard discs without NCQ
3. PCI raid card

Darren555 · 15 May 2006 at 15:05

james32 said:
3. PCI raid card

Can anyone with an nF3 mobo suggest a PCI card that works?

Darren555 · 15 May 2006 at 17:22

Maxtor have offered to exchange it for a 6L300R0 300Gb SATA I 16Mb cache hard drive. According to the specs, this still has NCQ.
Would this hard drive work in my system?

james32 · 15 May 2006 at 20:19

i would just get a pci card, 2 port cards are reasonably priced.

Darren555 · 17 May 2006 at 14:20

james32 said:
i would just get a pci card, 2 port cards are reasonably priced.

Yeah I went this route and it is working just fine now. No noticable impact on start up time or performance.