Topic: Seagate Barracuda Installation

[WhiteDevil]

Hiya,
Ive just installed as Seagate 80GB into my PC, but when i try to use it i only get to the first stage of the BIOS screen (memory check + detect CD drives). Ive downloaded the Seagate Wizard and tried to install it, but i still cant get any furthur. The disk is spinning (stopped the system fan so i could check), so if there anything else i can do?

Ive got Linux installed on my second 10GB hard drive (yay), so if there something (MBR maybe?) i need to edit to allow my 80GB to be detected?

[Sandra]

Make sure that your BIOS is set to auto detect hard drives WD  

[Dack]

Depending on the age of the motherboard it may simply be that it doesn't like the size of the disk

Other causes:

1. Cable in the wrong way - usual sign is striped cable should  connect to end of connector nearest the power supply on the drive.

2. Drive too big to be recognised by machine. Sometimes they have a jumper on them that can limit the drive to 32G, try that and see if it's detected. Only solution here is bios upgrade (if available).

3. DMA speed incorrectly set - shouldn't usually be a problem but some bioses had a problem with not correctly switching into the DMA mode of the drive - try disabling the DMA mode on the drive in the bios.

[WhiteDevil]

Entered by BIOS and did the following:

Entered Standard CMOS setup

Primary Master = LBA
Primary Slave = LBA
Secondary Master = LBA
Secondary Slave = LBA

During the boot sequence, after memory test i get:

Detecting IDE Primary Slave = none
Detecting IDE Secondary Master = D:\ drive (CDROM)
Detecting IDE Secondary Slave = E:\ drive (CDROM)

Im going to try the Seagate Wizard now, see if it makes a difference...

Ive set the jumper to Master, no slave (which it is...)

[Sandra]

Did it detect the drive correctly in BIOS WD ?
If it didnt then as Dack said its possible that your BIOS wont accept an 80 gig drive, mine did that with my 40 gig until I flashed the BIOS to enable it to accept a 65 gig drive  

[WhiteDevil]

I dont think it detected it at all Sandra  :-[

I even tried to boot the Seagate Wizard, but it gave me an odd error message that flashed so quickly i didnt get time to read it...

As you and Dack say, the BIOS wont accept my 80GB drive...

How can i flash it/upgrade it to accept my 80gig? My BIOS is Award Modular BIOS 4.51 PGM -

[Sandra]

You will have to remind me of your motherboard again WD, make and model number and the revision number if you can find it.
As Dack said there should be a jumper setting on the 80 gig drive that will limit it to 32 gig then it will be able to see at least 32 gig so that you can set it up temporarily until you sort out your BIOS  

[WhiteDevil]

Good thing ive got my case off then  

Where will i find the make and model number and the revision number? Printed on it, or through the BIOS settings? Ill go and have a look now.. Will modify this post if i find them  

[Sandra]

They should be printed on the board itself WD.
The make should be quite easy to see but the model number and the revision will probably be along one edge often near the last PCI or ISA slot  

[Dack]

From the manual I just got with an 80G maxtor (Pricematched at Staples again = £50.10 )

Power off system and disconnect cable from hard drive.
Enter the bios on restart
Set the drive specs to User definable, 1024 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors
Set LBA to normal or standard
Ignore Write pre-comp and Landing Zone (they can be set to zero)
Save the settings and exit
Power off and reconnect hard drive cable.
Boot up and use the disk manager software.

Also worth checking that you've set the jumper on master/slave as appropriate as the default is cable select these days.

[Dack]

Just noticed you are running Bios 4.51PG - thats got a known limitation in that the max size of a drive is 32G. You can either set the jumper to limit size or use the trick in the previous post I made (where you tell the bios its a lower spec drive and use disk manager software).

[WhiteDevil]

Just tried that, but my BIOS wouldnt let me change the no. of cylinders..

When i set LBA to normal i got: 13410 cylinders, 15 heads, 63 sectors...

I set it to that, just to see, and got a "Master Hard Disk Fail" message...

EDITED:

Its working now, i set BIOS to auto-detect hard drive and set LBA, The jumper is set to 32GB. I get the same message the other hard drive gave me when it was blank.. YAY  

[WhiteDevil]

New problem...

Detected the HD without a problem, so i put in the DiscWizard disk and the BIOS wouldnt go past "Verifying DMI Pool Data"...

[Sandra]

Is your PC set to boot from Floppy WD ?
It needs to be set for that in BIOS for the Diskwizard to be able to boot your PC  

[WhiteDevil]

OK, have just run the DiskWizard - its told the BIOS that the drive is 33.8GB... So, now, do i just move the jumper and run DiskWizard again and tell it that its an 80GB drive?

The message in getting is NTLDR is missing, sounds to me like its calling out for an OS