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General discussion

Problem with a new Maxtor HD installation

Feb 1, 2005 1:29AM PST

I've had a problem with my new Maxtor HD.


My computer is:

Processor: Pentium IV 1.7 Ghz
Motherboard: ECS P4VMM2
Operating system: Win XP
RAM: 224 Mb


My hard disk configuration is now the following:


New HD: (unit G) Maxtor 40 Gb (NTFS), IDE-0, set as Master

Old HD: (unit C) Western Digital 20 Gb (FAT32), IDE-1, set as Slave


My system was previously running Win XP on the old HD set alone.

After connecting it, I formatted the new Maxtor HD without any problems and installed Win XP on it, everything was Ok.

However, the computer never seems to recognize it as a boot disk, and it automatically switches to the old Western Digital HD for the startup.

When I remove the old Western Digital HD and set the Maxtor to CS Enabled or Master, the system never boots, as if it did not recognize it.


In the 'disk management' utility of Win XP, the Maxtor displays 'boot', and the WD shows 'system'.


How to get the system to boot from my Maxtor alone?

I have seen information about the BIOS not recognizing some hard drives, could it be the case?

Thank you,


ecolicnf@hotmail.com

Discussion is locked

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Just wondering..
Feb 1, 2005 1:44AM PST

What happens if you used standard IDE drive jumper settings? That is, for 80 conductor cables, set to CS and connect the master to the master connector?

Good luck with this.

Bob

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HD starup problem
Feb 1, 2005 4:19AM PST

Thanks Bob for your fast answering.

I tried all the jumper positions possible, without success.

Actually, the Maxtor HD is effectively recognized as the master by the BIOS:

Auto detecting Pri Master .. IDE Hard Disk

(...)


Primary Master: NAR61EA0 Maxtor 6E040L0


However, it never can find the boot record on that drive for starting up Win XP. It can only find it on my old HD, but from which I removed WinXP. Later on when I start WinXP (using boot from old HD, and WinXP from the new Maxtor), the Maxtor HD is properly recognized by the OS.


Is there a way to install a boot record on the new HD?


Anyone, please help.


S

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Odd.
Feb 1, 2005 5:20AM PST
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Solved issue
Feb 2, 2005 11:04PM PST

Thanks for your answer.

Apparently, my problem was not the Maxtor HD itself, but rather the incapacity of my WinXP CD-Rom to boot from BIOS. As a result, I could only install WinXP on my Maxtor by using my older HD, and it kept the files for booting on the old HD, while having installed WinXP on the Maxtor. I solved the problem using WinXP boot diskettes and now it works fine.

Thanks nevertheless,

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I have the same pb
Feb 14, 2005 8:31PM PST

I'm a new owner of a Maxtor 6E040L0 (40Go ATA133 IDE Master, firmware NAR61EA0).
I try to install Win XP (from SP1 CDROM).
After the first step of Win XP installation (copy of files from the CD to the HDD), the boot from the HDD is impossible (no operating system).

How do you solve the problem ? with win XP boot diskettes ? how to fix the pb ?

Franck from France(email : bouffety@free.fr)

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The solution to the pb
Feb 15, 2005 2:46AM PST

A low level format is enough to solve the pb (it takes almost 4 to 5 hours (for an only 40GB).
The utility is powermax.exe found on the maxtor website (make the diskette and boot from)

After that, I format and make the partition (CHappy on the disk with XP SP1 installation utility.


Now, everithing is OK