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Western Digital Hard Drive

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by mindcrazy 2 views

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I have a 6g Wd hard drive that was installed on an old P166. It was installed with EZ-Bios for compatibitly with that system. I am now trying to install that drive in a PII 300. The Bios finds the hard drive 3 out of 5 times when booting, but I get a primary hard disk fail error. I have used WDs newest lifeguard tools, it states that EZ-Bios is not installed on the drive. It also states that the BIOS is not controlling the HD properly. I have tried to enter user settings in the BIOS with the original settings that the drive had when functioning and also the settings that WD states are the proper settings niether makes a difference. I ran diagnostics and it states that the drive is good and I never had any difficulty before moving the drive. Fdisk states no fixed disks present even when the BIOS finds it. WD lifeguard gives me an error when trying to reformat the drive. The error is backing up of new boot track failed, and error initializing drive parameters. I tried using a low level formatter that I have used on many drives before and gives a divide error. When using WD lifeguard it states that the current sectors are 0 when they should be 125..... I am almost positive that it is unable to initialize due to the previous mode (CHS) of the drive. I slaved the drive and booted into a working system, the BIOS found the drive, but Windows did not display it. I have been working on this for three days and I am out of optins and help will be greatly rewarded.

21 replies

by djent

Given the price of new drives why would you waste three days on an old drive? Get a new drive and move on.

by mindcrazy

I am a tech and like the challenge of fixing the problem not just putting a bandaide on the wound. By the way I did get as far as Win XP reconizing the drive now it is just a matter of initialing it.

by thechas

Start with Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q186057
To see if a drive overlay program is still active.

Next, I recommend backing up any important files and settings, then;

run the WD tools, and un-installing the drive overlay software.

Setthe BIOS to auto-detect the drive.

Boot from a floppy, and run fdisk /mbr to rebuild the master boot record.

Then, use Fdisk to delete ALL partitions and logical drives.

Re-boot, and partition from fdisk as desired.

Format the drive, andinstall your OS and software.

A apin, yes, but I have seen and had problems trying to use a drive that had had EZ BIOS installed.
The best way to reliably use the drive is to wipe the drive, and start over again.

Chas

by mindcrazy

I am sorry chas I know you are a big help in the q&a and I was looking forward to your responce. The problem is I stated that WD tools says EZ-Bios is not installed therefore it will not remove it. I also stated that the BIOS does detect the drive, but Fdisk states no fixed disk present. So FDISK, Format is not an option. I am assuming that the MBR is not correct and can not read the Fat table. I will be trying Disk commander today to see if that helps repair the MBR and partition table. If you have any other suggestions that may help I will keep the question opne and reward points as applicable. I am doing this because I am a tech and I want to know the answer in the event I run across this issue again, I will not give up, I knowthe drive is good.

by otl

Answer # 2 unload EZ-Bios (compatibility for bios that do not support greater than 2G HD's). Fdisk, reformat and load whatever system you want. (directions are in the setup for EZ Bios to remove it) Also get rid of lifeguard.

BTW - EZ - does not work correctly on Win ME & above, system does not like it. (Not sure about Win 98)

by mindcrazy

In my original post I stated that EZ-Bios says it is not loaded so it can not be removed. I have tried an older version of WD tools and the newest version with the same result. I also stated that the BIOS detects the drive, but Fdisk statesthere are no fixed disks present so FDISK is not an option at this point.

by opatzg9

If you put the drive back in the p166 can you uninstall the EZ-bios software there for the drive? Then install in the pII 300 and do the fdisk format route?

by techkid

try Norton Disk Dr.

Are you sure the drive is spinning? It can be detected but have a dead motor

CHS is determined by jumpers on that particular drive correct? Why would that have any impact if you set the jumpers to a different setting? It wouldn't is my point

If yer really fricken obsessed with fixing it... try and find an IDENTICAL drive and swap controller boards on the drive. The controller board is what communicates to the bios, the bios is what selects the MBR... in my crazy logic, you may be able to 'revive' the f'ed up drive. Though if it's a dead motor like I think it is, yer poofin.

by thechas

Hi,

It still sounds like a incomplete uninstall of Easy BIOS.

At a minimum, you have a corrupt partition or file allocation table.

My next suggestion would be to try running Western Digital's drive diagnostic program.

http://support.wdc.com/download/

To fully recover the drive, you may need to run a low level format on it. Unfortunattely, this will erase all data on the drive.

Chas

by rcom

I agree with you on trying to figure things out instead of swapping parts. Yes there comes a time when there's no choice but the way to learn is by eventually solving the problems.

Do you have more info on the divide error durring the low level format.

You said the WD diagnostics tools didn't see EZBIOS on it but does the disk show up when you run EZDRIVE? You might try reinstalling EZBIOS on it if it shows up then remove it after.

Have you let the BIOS auto-detect the drive?
Also check the settings in the BIOS to see if the block addressing is correct, the IDE mode settings like UDMA etc. are correct.

You mentioned that when slaved Windows couldn't see the drive. Are you talking about booting all the way into Windows or just to the command prompt. What error(s) do you get in DOS if you try to switch to it. Did you try to fdisk and format in the other PC? If the BIOS consistantly recognizes the drive in the other PC, I'd use that system to troubleshoot. Also as mentioned have you tried it back in the original PC?

Again I would like to know more about what errors you are getting.
Just some more things to try, good luck

by dcosgrove

I have found G-Disk to be usefull in these situations. I try to avoid ez-bios ands it's partners for just this reason. Most of the time G-Disk can wipe all partition information. I recommend repartitioning with F-Disk though to avoid similar problems in the future.

by wlbowers

Use the fdisk command to replace the mbr. I
believe it is from a c prompt with the target
drive installed as c: fdisk /mbr

It sounds like the mbr has gotten corrupted.
There is a program called drivepro that will
erase the first ten tracks of a drive. I think it is
still avaible on the web.

I would use drivepro to erase the first ten then
replace the mbr with the fdisk command. If it
can be brought back that will do it.

EZ drive is great for what it will do. But it canbe a pain in the neck if it gets frazzled.

Good Luck Lee

I love a good challange to.

by djent

If you are truly determined to recover this drive get the IDE_INIT.exe utility or use Nortons wipedisk. This will write zeros to every sector on the drive leaving it blank. Then start over without drive utilities like EZBIOS. If you want IDE_INIT contact me, I will forward it.

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