HDD puzzle

Hi everyone

Got a puzzler on an old machine I wanted to asemble for someone. I put
2x HDDs on one channel and 2x CDs on the other, but whatever I set in
Bios it wont autodetect any drives, sets itself to no hdds, and thus
tries to boot from flop only.

I'm tempted to say its fried, but am I missing something? Under 'user'
setting, which I tried, bios has more optins than I'm familiar with,
ie a choice of lba/ptl/chs under the heading 'lba mode' iirc.

Checked cable headers, checked power lines, not tested the ram in it
yet.

Any clues welcome!

P2 300, 14G & 4G hdds, dvdrom & cd writer. The drives are known good
and fat32 formatted.


cheers, NT

meow2222@care2.com wrote:
>
> Hi everyone
>
> Got a puzzler on an old machine I wanted to asemble for someone. I put
> 2x HDDs on one channel and 2x CDs on the other, but whatever I set in
> Bios it wont autodetect any drives, sets itself to no hdds, and thus
> tries to boot from flop only.

Try connecting one drive at a time (jumpered for master, or single drive) to see if it can autodetect anything.

> I'm tempted to say its fried, but am I missing something? Under 'user'
> setting, which I tried, bios has more optins than I'm familiar with,
> ie a choice of lba/ptl/chs under the heading 'lba mode' iirc.

You won't be able to use manual configuration unless you know the configuration of the drive. Older drives have the configuration printed on the label on the drive. Newer drive do not.

> Checked cable headers, checked power lines, not tested the ram in it
> yet.
>
> Any clues welcome!

In the BIOS select Reset Configuration Data, or anything similar if it is present.

> P2 300, 14G & 4G hdds, dvdrom & cd writer. The drives are known good
> and fat32 formatted.
>
> cheers, NT

--
Mike Walsh

Mike Walsh wrote:
> meow2222@care2.com wrote:

> > Hi everyone
> >
> > Got a puzzler on an old machine I wanted to asemble for someone. I put
> > 2x HDDs on one channel and 2x CDs on the other, but whatever I set in
> > Bios it wont autodetect any drives, sets itself to no hdds, and thus
> > tries to boot from flop only.
>
> Try connecting one drive at a time (jumpered for master, or single drive) to see if it can autodetect anything.

good point, will try that

> > I'm tempted to say its fried, but am I missing something? Under 'user'
> > setting, which I tried, bios has more optins than I'm familiar with,
> > ie a choice of lba/ptl/chs under the heading 'lba mode' iirc.
>
> You won't be able to use manual configuration unless you know the configuration of the drive. Older drives have the configuration printed on the label on the drive. Newer drive do not.

Yeah - the 4G has the CHS printed on it but not the 14, but then
that would be LBA so there is no CHS emulation iirc

Will try single drives, then see if it will handle a 2nd one. It
needs
to run 4 drives or its bin time. Thanks.


> > Checked cable headers, checked power lines, not tested the ram in it
> > yet.
> >
> > Any clues welcome!
>
> In the BIOS select Reset Configuration Data, or anything similar if it is present.
>
> > P2 300, 14G & 4G hdds, dvdrom & cd writer. The drives are known good
> > and fat32 formatted.
> >
> > cheers, NT
>
> --
> Mike Walsh