CD-rom and HDD wont coop

[Ralfgorm]

So here it is:

My pc gave me a notice a while ago wih some bad clusters on my harddisk, I didnt think much of it, bad clusters happens all the time. A few days later my windows xp (explorer) couldnt find either of me CD-rom drives.

So I checked the hardware figurations, here windows claims theres something off with the drivers. I try reinstall, same error. I download drivers from the producers, still error. I save the trouble for the weekend, dont use me cd-rom drives much anyways.

Im not entirely sure theres a connection between the missing CD-rom drives and the bad clusters, but mebbe..

So later more bad clusters happens and windows goes slow halfwit mode (no net, no USB, just a lousy desktop screen with no menu bar wich reacts real slow when u start programs (this computer). I try reinstall windows since I wanna save wot can be saved before I put on a new harddisk. and here the plot thickens

So I plug in me windows CD (ye its original, came with the pc) and reboot. I set pc to boot from the CD and windows starts the installin.I chose repair windows - it cant find me Harddisk (I have 1 harddisk, 80gb sata no partition) I go like woot - retry, this time I try reinstall from scratch, again the CD cant find me harddisk for installing.

I have since then tried with 2 other new harddisks, me windows CD cant find either. but me bios can. bios shows both the harddisk and both cd-rom drives and a test in the boot menu passes the 2 new harddisk while me old 1 comes up with rubbish.

so in short - while me Bios can find both harddisk and cd-rom drive, windows fails to do so. for windows it seems to be either cd or harddisk.

the pc is 18 months old and from dell. they suggested a new harddisk when I explained the problem to them. (8400 inspiron i think, cant remember, on me labtop (-: )

hope u guys can help me
Ralf

 

[Ballard]

So here it is:
My pc gave me a notice a while ago wih some bad clusters on my harddisk, I didnt think much of it, bad clusters happens all the time.

bad clusters happen all the time??? Seriously they certainly should NOT happen all the time. If they do either you bump your computer alot or have a faulty HD. Personally I dump a HD as soon as it starts developing any faults, I would prefer a small expense to lose all my precious data.

There are plenty of HD 'fitness' programs for testing hard drive conditions. Often they are maker specific so try google is probably your best friend.

 

[Ralfgorm]

know bad cluster dont happen all the time, just didnt think much of it at first - was all I ment

im gonna try find a program for testin me old harddisk tho, still doesnt explain that windows instalation program cant find me new harddisk when my bios can tho

 

[Boni]

Initially that sounds just like your hard drive has died.

But as you have had problems with several hard drives and your CD rom drive Im wondering if there isnt a problem with the IDE ports on your mobo. Is your CD Rom on a different IDE channel (connector) to your hard drive? Or are they chained? I guess being a laptop that could be hard to find out. Double check your connections, and make sure the jumpers on those new hard drives you tried out are set correctly.

 

[Neffneff]

i would be looking at the IDE lead myself, in-expensive and generally the cause of this type of shit, if both hdd and cd rom are on same IDE cable, i'd be looking at that.

 

[Boni]

i would be looking at the IDE lead myself, in-expensive and generally the cause of this type of shit, if both hdd and cd rom are on same IDE cable, i'd be looking at that.

yup

 

[Ralfgorm]

both my cd-roms run on same ide cable, but my hdd runs serial (SATA). could try switch cables tho - thats inexpensive true enuff..

oh and its me stationary pc thats buggin meh - writin this on me laptop

 

[Ralfgorm]

oh and im lead to believe that jumpers on sata harddisks shouldnt be any problem, since all sata hard drives are treated as masters or sumpthin like that (tried to put cable in all 4 slots on motherboard without succes, still me windows installation cd couldnt find any hard drives but me bios could)

 

[Ralfgorm]

arrgh still no good news - any thoughts apreciated

why does my bios see both harddisk and cd-rom drives when both windows and windows instalation program doesnt?

ralf

 

[razeredge]

Reason behind windows cd not picking up ur hdd, could be it doesn't have the drivers, can sometimes happen with sata/scsi drives, check hdd manufacturers website, u can add them by using a floppy disk, and pressing f6 during install when prompted

 

[Saggy]

why does my bios see both harddisk and cd-rom drives when both windows and windows instalation program doesnt?

Press F6 when Windows intallation asks do you want to install SCSI drivers -> load the drivers from floppy (you can get this from motherboard manufactorer).

(edit: I'm slow edit2: Single SATA drives should be ok and the above guide is mainly for RAID configuration )

 

[Darzil]

Reason behind windows cd not picking up ur hdd, could be it doesn't have the drivers, can sometimes happen with sata/scsi drives, check hdd manufacturers website, u can add them by using a floppy disk, and pressing f6 during install when prompted

Sounds quite possible. I know my new motherboard came with 9 SATA connectors, one IDE connector, and three different controllers, all three of which needed their install disks in order to function with Windows XP (which was a bit of a pain, as I wasn't planning to have a floppy drive on my system, but had to put one in for setup).

Darzil

 

[razeredge]

sorry, saggy is correct, it is the drivers from the motherboard manufacturer, for the controller not the drive that are needed

 

[Ralfgorm]

thar she blows

turned out a lousy bios settin did the trick. I just had to Change the SATA Operation setting in the BIOS from RAID Autodetect / AHCI, the factory default setting, to RAID Autodetect / ATA.

thx Dell

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?docid=E81426A4BCE5D9DFE030030ABD623905&c=dk&l=da&s=gen

edit: wonder if this turns out to be a suck setting and if I would have been better off gettin the sata setting to work..