Originally posted in the usenet comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
From: "Matthew Reyes" <midni...@uberground.com.net> Subject: Random IBM drive Boot Failure Date: 1999/06/05 Message-ID: <7jaim7$nkb$1@nntp3.atl.mindspring.net>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 485950441 X-Server-Date: 5 Jun 1999 07:13:11 GMT X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2106.4 Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Reply-To: "Matthew Reyes" <defia...@mindspring.com> Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Ugh. I recently purchased an IBM DTTA-371010 10.1 Gig HD. I am having quasi-random boot problems. But first things first... My running system is an AMDK6-2 3d @350Mhz on a DFI p5vb3+ mobo w/ Award Bios (with the latest flash upgrade). My original harddrive is a WD Caviar 32500. I have been dualbooting 95 and NT for three years now with no problems, and my purchase of the new harddrive was only to satisfy my increasing space needs. My CMOS settings for the WD was detected and entered (Not set to auto detect on Boot). My jumper settings remain the same as the factory settings: 16 heads, Device 0(Master). So far, I have only hadone drive connected at once. The problem is as follows. I install the harddrive, using the same cables that were running the WD drive. I successfully manage to partition and set active the drive using FDISK, and when the system goes to reset, during the subsequent boot sequence, I have a DISK BOOT FAILURE. . I hit reset, same problem. Here's the weird part. I turn off the power and cold boot the computer, and amazingly, the IBM drive boots right up. Taking advantage of the booted computer, I go ahead and install Win98. Things go smoothly. The setup goes to reboot, and wham, failure. I cold boot, and the Win98 setup continues. In an attempt to find a specific cause, I detect the harddrive in the CMOS, and I also set it to Auto detect on boot. This has no effect, except when on auto, I notice that there is no drive detected at those times it's going to fail. Also, when I have detected the drive myself in the CMOS, I notice that the of the times the drive works, it randomly reports UDMA or Mode 3. Strangly, of the times it does boot up properly, the AUTO detect takes a long time to identify the IBM drive, but does my old WD drive in the blink of an eye. Lastly, I have scanned that disk countless times now with Scandisk and Norton, and there are no reported problems. The data is reliable, it's just that it doesn't boot consistantly, and my bios is new. Please HELP if you can. Matt Reyes defia...@mindspring.com