Computer build problem

[Broncho]

This problem is confusing me to no end.

My girlfriends father decided he wanted to put a new computer together and I told him I would help with advise on components and help walk him through the assembly. Now, not totally unexpected, the assembly has been all mine to do, which isn't that big of a deal. The parts went together no problem. About 6 or 8 months ago I installed a new hard drive in their old computer as a get by. They have been using this Western Digital 60 GB as their primary drive the entire time and wanted to take it over to the new build, which makes sense. So I move the hard drive over today and try to reinstall Windows 98SE (he's still trying to decide what OS to upgrade to and doesn't really want to spend any more right now), which shouldn't be a big problem because I used the same copy of Win98SE to install on the same hard drive back when I put it in the old computer.

I boot into the command line startup with a bootdisk and it says that Win98SE doesn't recognize the FAT for the drive. Fdisk /status recognizes the drive and says it is all free yet fdisk has an error reading the disc and since it wasn't recognized on the boot up the install won't work. The BIOS identifies the drive correctly and if I move it back into the other computer it boots into 98 no problem (which it won't do in the new case). I've tried switching cables, IDE channels, and power connectors. Right now the power connection that is hooked up to the hard drive isn't hooked up to anything else. I think both IDE channels are ok because every time I would try to boot with the boot disc and the CD-ROM it would read the CD-ROM fine, no matter which channel or cable I used.

The motherboard is a Soyo KT-400 Dragon Ultra-B and the case is a Raidmax case with a 350 W Raidmax power supply. I can't even tell if the other components on the board are ok or not since I can't get into an OS. Formatting the hard drive is an option, but it is one of the last ones. I'm heading back over there tomorrow and would like any advice I can get from anyone before I head over there. I'm taking my computer and spare power supply with me so I can completely eliminate the power supply and see if the drive is recognizable in another computer or not. I'm also going to try to pull their other hard drive (6 GB) out of the old computer and try sticking it in the new case and see if it works or not. Anyone have any ideas?



Edited for Ionizer86

 

[Ionizer86]

Hey, you gotta use paragraphs, otherwise it's really hard to read. (Don't clump more than 5 lines together).

Try setting your jumper to cable select. Have it on the master part of the cable and see what happens.

 

[Broncho]

Thanks for the tip but I was always taught that you made a new paragraph when you were switching subjects or making a different point. To me that was all the same subject and leading to the same point, but I can definitely see where it is difficult to read.

As far as the jumpers go, it is jumpered to master and is the master on the cable. Actually it is the only thing on the cable. I'll give that a try tomorrow. Thanks for the help.

Any other ideas? I'm looking for as many as I can get in case some of them don't work.

 

[MasterFlash]

Bite the bullet. Copy the important stuff off the HDD, or to a separate partition, and reformat... All the drivers are installed for use with a completely different set of hardware. Windows doesn't like big hardware changes like what you're trying to do.

 

[Broncho]

I know Windows doesn't like big hardware changes which is why I'm trying to get a fresh install of Windows on the drive, without having to format. No way in the world would I try to just change all the hardware and think Windows would play nice with the new stuff. That does bring up an interesting question though, would I be able to format since I can't make a partition? Sorry for the stupid question but it has been a while since I've done this and everything is foggy. I was thinking the process was partition then format not format then partition and since fdisk won't read the disk I can't make a partition to format the drive unless you are talking about some sort of low level format with a program from the manufacturer. Can you clarify MasterFlash?

Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[Matthias99]

Is it possible you have a bad IDE cable? They'll give some weird errors. Try swapping cables with the CD-ROM and see if it still works. Are you trying to put both the HDD and CDROM on the same cable, or one on each channel? Did you try it with *just* the HD (no CD at all?) -- it should at least *see* the disk in the BIOS. Make sure you try manually setting the jumpers for master/slave -- Cable Select doesn't always work properly, especially if you're doubting the cable. Some HDDs don't like being a slave on primary if the master isn't another HDD, but I doubt a recent WD would have a problem with it...

Or, if you have another HDD available, try coming up with that (wasn't clear if you had tried that already). If Fdisk and/or the BIOS can't see it, you're having a low-level hardware problem.

Also, you're right -- you partition the disk into as many virtual drives as you need, then format each one individually (you can mix FAT/NTFS, or multiple OSes, by doing this). It's possible to repartition without destroying all their data if you get something like PartitionMagic (though you'd need to do it on a functioning computer, of course, as the program runs in Windows). If you did that, you could (assuming the drive isn't totally full) create a new, blank "C" drive and have all their old data on what would now be the "D" drive. Then you could install a clean copy of Windows on C without having to backup, etc. anything.

Good luck!

I had another thought, which is that the IDE controller on the motherboard might be bad (although I doubt it if the CD drive works, but it might be broken just enough that it won't work for HDDs). You'd have to try swapping motherboards to test that, though.

 

[Broncho]

Matthias99, I guess I didn't make it clear in my first post but I have tried everything you mentioned in your first paragraph, with the exception of powering up with just the hard drive and floppy. I have tried switching the cables with the CD-ROM cables, I've tried switching which IDE channel the hard drive plugs into, I've got everything on its own cable and everything jumpered to master and the hard drive and CD-ROM have always been visible and identified by the BIOS.

As far as trying another hard drive in the new box, I haven't done that yet but it is one of the things I'm going to try today. And I have thought that it might be the IDE controller. That is why I am taking my computer over there today to try the hard drive in it and see if it works. I have a feeling it will since it works fine in their old computer.

Thanks for the help.

Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[wacki]

I had a problem similar to this in the past, but not with windows 98. I was switching over from an old compaq to a mobo with a Via KT266A. I tried a fresh hard drive, and everything worked fine. The drive then worked fine as a slave, but not as a master untill I reinstalled with WindowsXP. I guess the difference between the two hard drive controllers on the motherboards caused major problems and I couldn't boot. I'm saying this because the only possible difference between the two installs would of been which drivers XP decided to install. Hard to say, have heard much stranger things. A backup of info, and reinstall would be my suggestion.
I doubt the powersupply is the problem tho. It seriously sounds like hard drive controller/southbridge/driver problem to me. As far as telling if the other components are ok on the computer, if it POSTS, then they should be ok. Also, if you go into the BIOS and the mobo detects everything properly, then all the hardware should be ok.

 

[redhatlinux]

I'm a bit confused !! Is the new mobo the Soyo ?? What type is the old mobo ?? Additionally, did you by any chance use any software proggy to support the 60 gig drive on the 'old' mobo ?? Maybe you need a newer version of FDISK ??

 

[Broncho]

I appreciate the responses guys. To make a long story short, Ionizer86 was right. I tried jumpering it to cable select after many hours of trying other things and it worked perfect. About five or ten minutes after that my girlfriends father stumbled across a support question on page 184 out of 186 in the manual saying that all Western Digital hard drives needed to be jumpered to cable select to work with Soyo motherboards. I had never heard of that before even though that is in the manual for my Dragon+. Oh well.