[cyberformer]

A friend gave me an old Gateway PC, which he said did not work.
I booted up, and receive the sinister message, evoked from the Dark realms of Dos-- "no disk recognized".
I take the HD out, and pop in an old HD that came from the very same kind of PC I found long ago---sure enough, no problems----all drivers and such found!
No thing wrong with the PC at all!

After popping the HD into three different PCs, from an early Dell Pentium I--
on up to a Dell Pentium III of 900 + MHz, and using the Linux based P. Magic (an excellent tool by the way for HD partitioning, Formatting, and diagnostics, etc,---the HD is not recognized in any of those computers.
After trying every possible jumper combination-- no bootable diagnostic CD, or floppy can find a Hard Drive installed!

I thought it might be some kind of virus that makes the HD invisible to the PC bios---so I booted Norton System Works bootable AV CD, and also the latest DR. Web anti virus bootable CD, to no avail, since they cannot scan an invisible HD.

The Insane Hard Drive, looks to be in brand new condition, and it is an 80Gb
Western Digital WD300 enhanced IDE Hard Drive!

What could the problem be?
Is it some new Hard Drive that can only be recognized in very new computers?
Given the time, I have always managed to solve my PC problems, even if it took a year to find out how to do something---but this leaves me with no foundation from which to start!

Any ideas as to what could be wrong? You can hear the Hard Drive working like any other HD works; no clicking or odd noises other than those made from an otherwise healthy HD.

I am posting this in the 9x section, as I was going to move my win 98se from its current 15 Gb Hard Drive to this much larger one.

[98Guy]

Are you sure that it isin't a WD800 model?

What is the manufacture date on the drive?

If you connect it as a slave and run fdisk, fdisk should at least give you the option to select the drive and to show any partitions on it. Even if it has no partitions, fdisk should at least recognize the presence of the drive. If it doesn't, then carefully observe the BIOS post screen and messages during a cold start of the machine. If the drive is not being detected during startup, then you have something messed up in the BIOS and need to fix that first.

But at least post the correct model number and date of manufacture of the drive. I'm thinking it's a 30 gb drive if it really says WD300. An 80 gb drive would be WD800.

[cyberformer]

Hi, 98Guy!

It says Western Digital WD300
WD Caviar Enhanced IDE Hard Drive
80.0 GB
MDL WD300AB-32CDB0
Date 08 Nov 2001

Thanks for the New Idea, I will try doing what you said and see what's wrong.
When you say the Bios, I am assuming the Hard Drive Bios, because no PC I've tried it in can see it. I have a similar WD800 HD, and it works in any of those computers!
This is all odd!

[cyberformer]

My mistake!

Yes, it says 30 GB.

I need spectacles! if I am not to make a spectacle of myself!

[Kelsenellenelvian]

Have you even stopped to think the drive may just be dead?

[technoid]

What is the history of this 30GB in the Gateway PC? Was it the original drive? Or did the guy put it in? Ok I could be way off, but maybe it could be a locked drive also, sort of like the drives inside XBox360's. With those drives, they need to be reflashed. I've only done that once. Just another alternative answer that you can look into.

[cyberformer]

The Hard drive is not original to the Gateway.
I do not see now it could be dead, as it sounds no different from the healthy hard drives I've got.
If it's locked, ( I do not know anything about locked hard drives---how its done) I guess its possible that one of the boot CDs given for free from WD, might have the option of flashing the HD bios--which I have never done.
How does one "lock" a hard drive? And if it were locked, would you hear it "doing stuff"?
Thanks everyone for the help so far! Tomorrow I will spend the whole day
tackling this perplexing and most puzzling problem.

[cannie]

cyberformer, on Dec 27 2008, 10:54 PM, said:

I booted up, and receive the sinister message, evoked from the Dark realms of Dos-- "no disk recognized".

Maybe the disk is unformatted or logically but not physically damaged.

A good partitioning of the HD and formatting is needed to use Windows 98, already before the installing procedure (it is not neeeded to install XP because format is included in the install process).

Partitioning and formatting may be made in different ways, but assuming you would rather know the easiest way I'll try to explain it to you.

First you must put the jumpers in main disk mode, install and connect the HD and then boot using a DOS boot floppy and type:

fdisk

Using the options that the program gives to you, create a primary partition and make it active. You may create also an extended partition and several logical units. After it you must close fdisk, re-boot your computer using the floppy again and type:

format c:

If you chose to create also other logical units in the extended partition you must format the same way all them.

After that you may install Windows 98 in the normal way.

Alternatively, if you already have Windows 98 installed in another HD and you want to use the new HD as main you must change the jumpers to slave mode and put this HD as slave of the other and copy the old installation.

Don't forget that for using the recovered HD as master you must first change the jumpers again to master mode before moving it into the master place, and then boot using the DOS floppy and type:

fdisk/mbr
sys a: c:

Now you withdraw the floppy and start in the normal way, and everything must work OK.

HTH

This post has been edited by cannie: 28 December 2008 - 01:45 AM

[jaclaz]

Let's start from the beginning, OK?

Any ATA drive has some built-in features.

Among them there is the "Locking" feature.

A drive is either "locked" or is it not.

A "not recognized" drive is not a symptom of it being "locked".

http://www.rockbox.org/lock.html
http://www.hddunlock.com/

If the drive is NOT recognized:
1) inspect ATTENTIVELY pins and connections, it happens remarkably often that a soldering has "cracked"
2) try accessing it with diagnostics software:
http://hddguru.com/

jaclaz

[98Guy]

If a drive has been password protected, then isin't the motherboard BIOS supposed to prompt the user for the password during system boot-up?

I've never worked with a hard drive that's been password protected, so I don't know at what point in the startup cycle the user is supposed to enter the password, or if this password-asking business is a standard feature on motherboards, or if it's only supported by proprietary motherboards like laptops or desktops from Dell, gateway, xbox, etc.

Might want to look at this (post #5):

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?sho...p;#entry3226701

They're talking about a WD 300 (might be referring to a 300 gb WD drive, not specifically a WD300 model).

[jaclaz]

98Guy, on Dec 28 2008, 03:12 PM, said:

If a drive has been password protected, then isin't the motherboard BIOS supposed to prompt the user for the password during system boot-up?

There may be motherboards that use passwords, as some laptops do, usually using a so-called "security chip", but a drive can be "locked" ONLY by the in-drive password feature, in which case the BIOS should prompt for password when booting, but this is NOT always true.
Some details about the two (three including "standard" BIOS password protection) different protections is here:
http://www.pwcrack.com/bios.shtml

A locked drive will usually prompt for something like the ones reported here:
http://www.hdd.profe...lnie.pl/hpr.php

As said, a HDD utility like mhdd will tell you whether a drive is locked or not:
http://www.real-worl..._en_manual.html

peeps, don't do this at home if you are not absolutely positive about having thoroughfully read and understood the ATA/ATAPI standards and manual/faq's of mhdd.

Think twice and thrice before issuing a command with pseudo-low-level utilities!

jaclaz

[cyberformer]

Thanks to everyone for providing me with a wealth of info, and "starting points" from which to try and solve this problem

Remember, that when I use any of these computers as a "testing host" for this HD, by just booting up in the normal way, without any diagnostic CD or floppy,
the following occurs:

The PC bios will start to unfold in the usual way, starting with the Bios maker, such as Star bios, Award, or whatever, and the video card ( or is it the other way round?)--then more of the usual and typical Bios talk---
then it stops sometimes for a moment, and finds the CD ROM drives--such as Lite on, or whatnot---and then kicks in to the "drive not found".

It finds the CD ROM drives, but not the HD, no matter what jumper setting I put it on.
When I put the original HD back into these test computers (what they came with), or even some small
test Hard drives (formatted, or unformatted)---or just pulled from another PC,
the bios always finds (even if it stalls to search a bit) that original/or test HD--and names it,
saying in the usual way--primary master, etc--etc found---!

This one though, is never named or found---by any one of these computers,
which find only the CDs---but not the "insane" hard drive.

I once found a PC that someone tossed out that asked for a password, and I removed the PC battery for a couple of minutes, then put it back in and the PC booted up in the normal way!

I am going to start all over again, using all the information you gave me, and see what I can do.
I will begin with the easiest methods--and work on up.
So I will commence to spend some hours (keeping a record of what I am doing in a notebook) and see if I am successful.
If it comes to having to flash the HD with one of those free WD CDs I've
downloaded and made---I will have come to the point of last resort, and
tell you I am about to do it. Seems like a person could really screw a HD up if they did something wrong in that sort of undertaking! I would be interested in knowing the entire process.

I have about four hard drives that do not work at all, that have died, and make endless clicking sounds when you boot up--and the bios has at least recognized that they were there. Even the Linux based diagnostic programs I've burned to boot CDs---find them!


Wish me luck!

[jaclaz]

The ones you have not working (and clicking) are malfunctioning drives where the mechanical part failed. (more common)

The one at hand may be one of the rare cases where the electronic part failed. (less common)

Though "transplants" in some cases are possible, I don't think it is worth the hassle, unless yu have to recover data on the drive.

jaclaz

[cyberformer]

Jaclaz!
Funny thing, that one I've got that really, really sounds like a cricket:
I got it to work an entire year longer by taking it out of the PC and slamming it on the ground a couple of times, then putting it back in.
It was from an old 95 PC someone gave me that I used to play that Elf bowling game on! Now there is only that free 1 level version available.

I did not know anything back then about Hard Drive migration, or have knowledge of things like "Partition magic"!!!
I am still, obviously---learning stuff---especially about so called "outdated" operating systems.


I also hate to see a 30 GB go to waste!
I need to find a place that sells cheap 2-6 Gb hard drives to experiment on.
I have a couple of old PCs that I could install **** Small Linux, and Puppy Linux on! It's not enough for me, to just run them from a live CD!

But right now, I've to tackle this problem and solve it if at all possible!

[98Guy]

Look at the jumper settings here:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/ph...php?p_faqid=719

To test the drive, the simplest way is to connect it the primary IDE channel and don't connect any other drives (hard drives or CD drives) to the mother board. I have a WD400 and WD200 from the same time-frame as your drive (Oct 2001) so you probably have the 10-pin connector (see the diagram on that page). If it's the only drive connected to the system (as I recommend) then there should be no jumpers.

When your system boots, press del or f2 and get into the BIOS menu and see if there's an option to auto-detect (or just detect) the hard drive while you watch. If not, then make sure you have all your IDE channels enabled and set to auto.

If the bios or fdisk is still not seeing the drive, but they do when you connect any other hard drive, then either your WD300 is dead, or it's locked.

If you feel like playing around, there are 2 other jumper settings (pins 7-8 and 9-10). Pins 9-10 are labelled PM2 on the PC board and (from what I've read) relate to "Power Management" and allows the drive to be spun-up from sleep mode. I'm thinking that there might be some combination of jumper settings that might reset this password locked mode.

A locked drive (full-sized 3.5" drive) is really rare. Most likely it did come from an X-box because I've never seen an option in any motherboard bios to enter a password to lock or unlock a hard drive.

Here are a couple of other web-pages:

http://www.codingfor...ead.php?t=82689

http://www.xbox100.c...wsofthacks.HTML

[jaclaz]

98Guy, on Dec 28 2008, 11:20 PM, said:

I'm thinking that there might be some combination of jumper settings that might reset this password locked mode.

NO.

jaclaz

[cyberformer]

98Guy!

"When your system boots, press del or f2 and get into the BIOS menu and see if there's an option to auto-detect (or just detect) the hard drive while you watch. If not, then make sure you have all your IDE channels enabled and set to auto."


Well, right now I am working with it in the Dell 900 + MHz PC, which is the most modern one I can easily test it on at the moment.
Even though I know this PC is already set up that way "to auto detect the HD"
I decided to do what you said above anyway.
I am going to have to replicate these conditions, as the result, whilst not great,
are interesting nevertheless.

Upon going into the bios from the delete key as you said upon the PC booting up, and upon bringing up any HD auto setting activation from the bios, it would seem that the bios gave the message HD not detected, or drive not detected,
then upon exiting the bios--for a split micro second---right before, or after booting up ( this all happened in the wink of an eye) the black screen had some words at the upper left that I did not catch (since this was a flash in the pan, so to say) but I distinctly saw in white letters (in the middle section of the screen)
WDC---and then a series of numbers/and or letters that seemed to be a lot more or lengthy than just WD300.
Then after this fleeting recognition of the HD --(By the bios?) the words,
"Incorrect boot disk"--Insert boot disk (or insert proper boot disk) appeared followed with the A prompt at the bottom!

Of course, I tried an Me, and a 98se boot disk---and the same message continued to appear.
But, this shows that whatever happened in my fooling with the bios settings
(and not just accepting the fact that they were already set to auto detect)
seems to have triggered that split second recognition.

Quite puzzling!
I will continue to work on this (trying to replicate the conditions I described above, among other methods suggested.

[starcraftmaster]

i dont know if any one ready said this but have you tried putting it in a computer with a hd thats on master that has a os and puting the dead hd in slave and seeing if the os sees it