UPGRADING REPAIRING PCs

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Chapter 4—SCSI and IDE Hard Drives and Optical Drives
easy to get. Drives working with the “wrong” geometry
should not be “corrected” because this would require a complete
backup of the drive and resetting the geometry in the
BIOS, FDISK, FORMAT, and restore. Just label the drive with
the actual head, cylinder, and sectors per track it uses now.
Troubleshooting IDE Installation
In addition to the BIOS capacity and PIO/UDMA mode configuration
issues, you might run into other problems during an IDE drive
installation. Use Table 4.14 to determine problems, causes, and
solutions.
Table 4.14 Other IDE Drive Installation Problems and Solutions
Problem Causes Solution
Drive is not Drive cabling Make sure pin 1 on IDE interface
recognized by installed and IDE drive are connected to pin
BIOS, but system incorrectly. 1 (colored edge) of IDE cable;
will boot from some cables are keyed with a
floppy (drive plugged hole at pin 20 or with a
is spinning). “bump” over the middle of the
cable that corresponds with a
cutout in the plastic skirt that surrounds
the cable.
On non-skirted motherboard IDE
connectors, make sure pins are
connected to both rows of the
cable, without any offsets.
System display Drive cabling Many systems cannot initialize the
remains blank reversed; pin 1 video card until the IDE hard drive
after power on. is connected to is successfully initialized.
No boot or other pin 39 at either
activity. drive or interface Use of keyed cables will help to
connector. eliminate this problem (see previous
tip).
Drive not Drive power If a Y-splitter or power extender is
recognized by cable is not in use, check it for damage or
BIOS, but system connected or remove it and plug drive directly
will boot from defective. to power supply; make sure Molex
floppy (drive power connector is tightly inserted
is not spinning). into drive; use a Digital Multimeter
(DMM) to check power leads;
drive might be defective if power
checks out okay.
One or both IDE Drives might Jumper boot drive as master,
drives on a be jumpered second drive.
single cable are incorrectly:
not recognized both
by system (drives as master or
are spinning). both as slave.