Setup problems, advice required please!

The B.A. · 31 Mar 2006 at 22:44

put 2gether new rig, setup w2k on my Samsung Spinpoint 120 gig IDE connected to IDE1 on my new Abit mobo. everything went fine all up & running, then I tried 2 connect my Maxtor sataII (which has all my music on) and windows will no longer load. Tried it on different sata connetors but no joy, the drive is recognised in the bios. I have read about issues with Maxtors & Nforce 4 chipsets but would it stop the PC dead?

Excuse the spelling & stuff but this is being posted on my MDA Vario via WIFI.

(Edit: I've got my laptop now) In case you were wondering I have the IDE as the OS drive because I only brought the SATA a month or two ago to store all my music on - and I didn't want to make the Maxtor my new OS drive as it is a bit noisy...

(Edit 1: OK jusr seen the post where it says to disable NCQ in device manager - will do that first thing in the morning...)

The B.A. · 1 Apr 2006 at 10:41

Wow, I'm drowning in silence here... OK tried to get windows into safe mode this morning with the maxtor SATA attached - no way will it go. Boots normaly when the drive is disconnected. Tried all 4 SATA ports on the MOBO - all the same, no joy.
Tried a KNoppix live CD, it boots OK but don't see the drive at all. Is this a MAxtor thing or an abit MOBO thing - any thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers,

B.A.

The B.A. · 1 Apr 2006 at 11:54

Update... OK I have removed the NVIDIA Sata driver and it has booted and sees the drive :cool:

Going to download the latest version from the Abit site to see what happens with that...

I will keep you posted.

UPDATE -- Correction it booted first time - and now will not boot again - any suggestions - PLEASE?

smids · 1 Apr 2006 at 12:45

Ensure you have the 5.52 drivers installed - they are the best drivers.

One thing it could be though is that there are some boot files on the maxtor causing conflict.

Another thing, check to see if you can force 150MB/s transfer rate through the use of jumpers.

Possible suggestion - possibly risky though. Boot into windows without the drive attached and load up windows. Then when in windows, VERY CAREFULLY connect the SATA. The nF4 controller supports hot-plugging so connect the drive up. Easiest way: leave the SATA cable connected to the mobo, and disconnect at the drive and connect the drive up in windows. It should be recognised straight away and install itself.

Dunky · 1 Apr 2006 at 12:47

The Maxtor / NF4 problem is a funny one. A few people have reported like you that the drive will be read once and then not again. It does sound like the firmware bug and it can halt a machine as BIOS may hang when trying to detect the drive. If the Linux live CD didn't see it then it does seem to point to a HDD problem.

I'd either try and get ahold of the firmware fix or RMA the drive (as far I know it only affected certain drives so I don't know if you'll get a fixed one).

smids · 1 Apr 2006 at 12:49

I have to say it does sound like that, but when not set as a boot drive, does the motherboard experience the symptoms outlined? If so, then I would be very inclined to think it was this.

The B.A. · 1 Apr 2006 at 15:58

Dunky said:
The Maxtor / NF4 problem is a funny one. A few people have reported like you that the drive will be read once and then not again. It does sound like the firmware bug and it can halt a machine as BIOS may hang when trying to detect the drive. If the Linux live CD didn't see it then it does seem to point to a HDD problem.

I'd either try and get ahold of the firmware fix or RMA the drive (as far I know it only affected certain drives so I don't know if you'll get a fixed one).

The same issue with XP as 2000 (dual booting), it works once then next time doesn't. I have gone through the Maxtor support pages and requested a firmware update as my drive is one of the model numbers and code numbers affected - guess it will be a few days before I get it.

I think the problem with the Knoppix CD was that it was ver 3.3 and prob dont support SATA. The drive reads fine when its detected and I can pull off my music collection, thank goodness. Still a bit cheesed off that I have a brand new mobo and a drive thats 3 months old that won't talk to each other.

The B.A. · 1 Apr 2006 at 16:03

smids said:
Ensure you have the 5.52 drivers installed - they are the best drivers.

One thing it could be though is that there are some boot files on the maxtor causing conflict.

Another thing, check to see if you can force 150MB/s transfer rate through the use of jumpers.

Possible suggestion - possibly risky though. Boot into windows without the drive attached and load up windows. Then when in windows, VERY CAREFULLY connect the SATA. The nF4 controller supports hot-plugging so connect the drive up. Easiest way: leave the SATA cable connected to the mobo, and disconnect at the drive and connect the drive up in windows. It should be recognised straight away and install itself.

Tried the drivers that came with the disc, and the updated ones on ABIT site and the updated ones on Nvidia but none worked full stop. Gone back to the Microsoft ones for now - is this going to give me a performance hit?

There are no boot files on the drive its only ever been used as a second drive for music / video storage - never had an os on it.

I will have a look at cutting the transfer rate in a bit as it is supposed to be an issue with SATA II, let you know what happens - thanks for the suggestion.