Computer hangs at POST when SATA drive is connected, but was working fine before =[

[flood]

This is on a Shuttle SB61G2 I was using as a freeNAS server. It was working fine with one SATA drive attached. I powered it down to connect a second one and copy the data over. Ever since then, it will detect the SATA drives present but hang at this point:

I can boot fine to an IDE drive with the SATA drives disconnected. I've tried known good cables and also tried a different power supply. I was thinking the SATA controller on the motherboard may be toast, but it detects the drives just fine. It will hang here with any of my SATA drives that work fine in other computers. Halp? :awe:

 

[Athadeus]

Have you tried resetting the cmos? Have the drives connected when you do that and on first power on after. It looks like if that doesn't work you might have trouble.

 

[flood]

Yep, tried that. Going to try a bios update tonight.

 

[Termie]

Yep, tried that. Going to try a bios update tonight.

What is your hard drive configuration in the bios? AHCI or IDE? Did you previously have one of the drives installed in a computer that was configured differently?

 

[Arsynic]

I'm thinking AHCI as well, but that shouldn't affect anything until you boot into the OS. What SATA version is the motherboard?

 

[kiriakos]

Read the manual , if it supports all the SATA ports in use , with the IDE ones enabled.

Some motherboards have limitations.

 

[flood]

What is your hard drive configuration in the bios? AHCI or IDE? Did you previously have one of the drives installed in a computer that was configured differently?

IDE. Yes, one drive was from an AHCI enabled computer, but I don't think that would effect boot. I went back to the original configuration, but it will not get past the POST screen with the SATA drive connected. I think the SATA controller may be messed up :|

I'm thinking AHCI as well, but that shouldn't affect anything until you boot into the OS. What SATA version is the motherboard?

SATA 150

Read the manual , if it supports all the SATA ports in use , with the IDE ones enabled.

Some motherboards have limitations.

It was working fine before with one IDE boot device and one SATA device. I've tried going back to this original configuration, but no luck.

 

[Termie]

IDE. Yes, one drive was from an AHCI enabled computer, but I don't think that would effect boot. I went back to the original configuration, but it will not get past the POST screen with the SATA drive connected. I think the SATA controller may be messed up :|


SATA 150


It was working fine before with one IDE boot device and one SATA device. I've tried going back to this original configuration, but no luck.

Let me say from personal experience that you cannot boot a computer with two drives with boot partitions, one having AHCI drivers and one having IDE drivers, even where you've selected the correct hard drive configuration for the boot drive.

If this doesn't make sense, I'll say it another way. I'm typing on a computer that had a Samsung F3 as the Vista boot drive loaded with IDE drivers. I installed W7 on my Agility 2 SSD, booted in AHCI mode, and everything worked well. I reconnected the Samsung F3 (still containing a Vista boot partition and IDE drivers), and intended to use it as my data drive. Result: FAIL. The computer would not boot in AHCI mode despite having selected my AHCI drive as the boot drive. I eventually gave up and formatted my Samsung, losing the data (which I had backed up separately anyway, so no big loss).

I think the OP has the exact same situation, except he's trying to boot an IDE configuration with an IDE boot drive, but with a separate AHCI drive with a boot partition present in the computer.

My suggestion: boot off your AHCI drive, copy the data you want onto a backup, and wipe the boot partition.

 

[Athadeus]

It really matters what drivers that you had loaded in Windows for the drive controller before POST is done? I guess POST is smart enough to look at that kind of thing.

It sounds like a reasonable idea, following one other suggestion. Some SATA 3 Gbps drives have a jumper for backwards compatibility, and you should check if yours has that before wiping your drive to see if it helps.

 

[flood]

I just got 2x 2tb Samsung F4 drives in today. I'll try them out.

Just to clarify, I'm booting freeNAS (linux) from a compact flash and then mounting the SATA drive.