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Error Auto-sensing Hard Disk Drive 2

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by stephanie873 2 views

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Hello. I have this Dell 5133 system that has been acting up. I am getting an error which reads "Error auto-sensing hard disk drive 2" but I can choose to F1 past the message and it boots up fine. This system was getting software errors dealing with MMSYSTEM affecting the Krnl32. (Someone brought this in and I haven't seen all the strange things it was doing for her)

Any advice about whether this auto-sensing error is something that can be turned off or if it means the end of this hard drive's existence? I have tried to search Dell for this info but to no avail and the system is out of warranty.

Thanks,
Stephanie

9 replies

by it_instructor

Stephanie,

I would run diagnostics on the hard drive to be sure it is not starting to fail.

You can go into BIOS and change the AUTO DETECT to the hard drives geometry (heads/clyinders/sectors). You should be able to get that information from the label on the hard drive.

Time is money, is it cheaper to clone the hard drive to a new one or to troubleshoot the old one?

Good Luck!

by macgyver.hicks

Hi Stephanie,
The BIOS on the 5133(especialy if it is an Optiplex)is limited to an 8GB HDD and there is NOT a BIOS upgrade that will fix it. If the 2 drives together are greater than that, the BIOS can't auto sense it. If they are <8GB, then usually there is a problem with the HDD jumpers or the BIOS. The 5133 was originally shipped with a HDD (Caviar1100) that was set to be used by itself. I've had to replace a lot of those drives over the past year or so. I've had a hard time getting drives that are < 8GB. If you are going to run the system with one large drive, there is a software work-around that can be downloaded from most HDD mfr's sites. This fools the BIOS during the POST and allows the computer to fully use the larger HDD.
I wish you well.

by mphoffar

Chances are that this is a hardware fault on the drive. There may be a firmware update cure this, that'll cure this, bu I just manually set the drive geometry in the bios and be done with it. If you want to truely fix the problem...you're lookingat contacting the manufacturer and telling them the same thing you told us.

Myself...I'd be with the school of if it's not broke, don't fix it. if it's running fine....leave it alone.

Good luck to you

Mark

by davemurgatroyd

This could also be down to an ageing hard disk (where possibly the grease on the bearings or the bearings themselves are failing and the drive is slow to spin up to speed) Is the drive recognised quickly in BIOS in the "Autodetect HD" from a cold boot? If it is slow to recognise the HD, I'm afraid the HD is on its last legs.
I am assuming the HD is a recent one (within the 8 years or so) as this was a fault found on some vintage drives that could only be found after a delay to spin them up to speed.

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