Am I going nuts?

[tmodel37]

I have what looks to be 2 bad maxtor drives. Is this possible? Both are brand new just out of the box. Windows will load ok and reboots just fine, but when I load the drivers from the Asus disk, or the SP2 upgrade, it won't boot. Gives me various corruted file errors. After loading WinXP Pro numerous times on both drives I've concluded the drives have a definite problem.

Anyone have any input ? Opinions?

PS- This is the first time I've ever had a problem with Mator drives, used them for years!

 

[orion23]

IDE or SATA?

If they are SATA, did you press F6 during the windows installation to provide the necessary drivers?

 

[wanderer27]

Are these the only drives you have in your System (mix of SATA & IDE) ?

Are they SATA or IDE ?

I've used Maxtor drives without problems for years too. I've even got a Maxtor that's about 10yrs old still running great in one of the kids Systems.

 

[grooge]

Apart from the fact that you have maxtor HDD and one of the many Asus board they did over the years, we don't know a lot about your system...

 

[Zap]

Download and run the Maxtor Diagnostics utility to find out if it is a hardware or software problem. Also, double check jumpers and perhaps try a different set of cables (if available).

Could also be a problem with the CD you are loading from or the optical drive. Couple of weeks ago a friend of mine was having problems with a fresh install of Windows - install would always die or BSOD partway through. I sold him the parts (mobo, CPU, HSF, RAM, HDD and I gave him the PSU) so I knew the stuff was good. He then grabbed the WinXP CD for his other system and it installed fine on the second CD and he's had no problems since.

 

[tmodel37]

Geez, Im sorry guys, I neglected to mention that the drives are 200 GB SATA drives . System is as follows.(if I can remember)

My system as of now!

Case- Antec SLK2650-BQE(A bit tight)
PSU- Antec 550W True Power 2.0
MB- A8N32 SLI Deluxe
CPU- AMD 64X2 4800 W/stock cooler
RAM- 2 GB Corsair TwinX2048-3500LLPro
HD- 2 Maxtor SATA 200 GB and 1- 74 GB WD Rapter
Floppy
DVD- Sony
CDRom

Also I might add that I have since started the system up on the Rapter drive with no problems at all. And no, I did not press F6 on any of the installs. I now think that the Nvidia 4 drivers are the problem, they don't seem to like the Maxtors

 

[pkrush]

Don't install the nVidia IDE drivers after installing windows, you don't need them and they cause problems.

 

[Sparky19692]

2 things first you must kit F6 second the driver wording is tricky with ASUS I had the same issue with my A8V even after I hit F6 until I got the right driver.

 

[Jorakal]

So now that your system is running with the one drive, have you tried anything else with the SATA drives? Were you trying to run them in a RAID or not? Which SATA ports did you have them plugged in to?

As to the Nvidia drivers... I've been using v6.70 and they work great.

 

[tmodel37]

OK Jorakal, heres the scoop. Somewhere on one of the forums I remember seeing something about Maxtor drives giving errors running under Nvidia nForce 4 drivers. I just dont remember the details, I only read it in passing. After I had problems, I went to the Maxtor Knowledge base and saw a blurb about certain drives needing a firmware up grade. My drives were not on that list.
All my drives, the Maxtor 200's and the Western Digital 74 were installed using the sata 1 port with the exact same procedure being used on all. One at a time. The Western Digital loaded and ran windows perfectly. Loaded the ASUS cd drivers, SP2, and a number of CPU stress tests. Ran BurnMax for several hours. Not one problem! What makes the WD Rapter different than the Maxtors? Therein lies my delima. I'm running the Maxtor Diags on one of the Maxtors as I type this, and I just know it will pass with flying colors. Tech Support is going to tell me that there is nothing wrong with my drives. BooHoo, sob.

 

[tmodel37]

Orian and Sparky, If I press F6, how would I find the drivers? What drivers would I look for, are they on the Asus CD? Under what name? At this point I dont want to do raid, I just want to make those 2 drives work properly.

 

[programmer]

This may be helpful ... if you can read German. But apparently Maxtor has issued a firmware fix (in the form of an .ISO you can burn to a bootable CD) for this particular issue -- and it specifically mentions the problem with the Asus A8N, SATA, and Maxtor drives.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29570

 

[Nirach]

Try checking your mobo bios/southbridge/northbridge .inf files. There might be compatability issues listed in those. If there's nothing like that, try bios updates and the like, to the mobo, and if that failss, get onto the store you bought them from and ask for a refund and try something else. Perhaps even explain the problem, if they have tech support they might have a few ideas.

 

[Zap]

Maxtor Knowledge Base

The following issues have been identified with Maxtor SATA II drives and the nVidia nForce4 controller.

* No detection

* Anomalous behavior such as data corruption

Note: This solution is only to be applied to the listed products and only when used with the nForce4 chipset. If you are unsure as to which chipset you have, contact your motherboard manufacturer or visit your motherboard manufacturer's website for clarification.

The drives affected are those with model numbers starting with:


6V- (DiamondMax 10)

6H- (DiamondMax 11)

7V- (Maxline III)

7H- (MaxLine Pro 500)

A firmware upgrade to resolve these issues for Maxtor SATA II drives is available by contacting Maxtor Support. Please have the drive serial number and the Code number available, which will be listed on the top label of the drive itself.