ATA Drive Troubleshooter

Hard Disk Not Detected:

Does the drive spin up? If it does not spin, check the IDE, and power supply cables to make sure they are securely attached. .

Verify the drive is enabled in system BIOS.

Check to make sure the jumper settings are set correctly:

Cable Select. The drive is configured at the factory for a cable select setting. This allows the drive to assume the proper role of master or slave based on the connector used on the cable. For the cable select setting to work properly, the cables you are using must support the cable select feature. Current UltraATA cables with the 3 colored connectors do support this feature.

Master. If installing the hard drive as the only drive in the system or if it will be the primary boot drive for the system, the jumper should be set to master.

Slave. If you are installing the drive as an additional drive in your system, the drive should be set as slave.

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Maxtor ATA Jumper Setting

Seagate ATA Jumper Setting

Cable Select. The drive is configured at the factory for a cable select setting. This allows the drive to assume the proper role of master or slave based on the connector used on the cable (see the UltraATA cable figure below). For the cable select setting to work properly, the cables you are using must support the cable select feature. Current UltraATA cables with the 3 colored connectors do support this feature.

Master or single drive. If you are installing your Seagate hard drive as the only drive in the system or if it will be the primary boot drive for the system, the jumper should be set on pins 7 and 8.

Drive as slave. If you are installing the drive as an additional drive in your system, the drive should be set as slave by removing all jumpers. Remember to confirm that the original drive is set to a master position (If the limit capacity jumper is required for your installation it will need to remain in place).

Drive as master with a non-ATA-compatible slave (Seagate® drives only). Set a jumper on pins 5 and 6 and a jumper on pins 7 and 8. Use this jumper setting only if the drive does not work as a master.

Limit drive capacity. Use this when either you start up your computer and see the message, "Hard disc drive controller failure", your computer does not recognize your newly installed hard drive, or your system stops responding during the boot process after installing this new drive. If this jumper is required, your system cannot support a drive this large and can be updated with a PCI controller card.

Operating System Detection Issue:

Verify if the drive can be detected by Windows 2000/XP:

Device Manager:

Start Device Manager by clicking:

1. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel.
2. Double-click the System icon.
3. Click the Hardware tab.
4. Click the Device Manager button.

or

1. Right-click on the My Computer icon from your Windows Desktop.
2. Select Properties.
3. Click the Hardware tab.
4. Click the Device Manager button.

Once you are in the Device Manager window make sure the "view devices by type" option is selected and then left-click on + key next to Disk Drives which should display your installed ATA hard drive(s).

If you can see the drive listed here, then windows recognizes it.

Disk Management

To verify your ATA hard disk was properly detected by your Operating System using Windows 2000/ XP's Disk Management Utility:

1. Right-click on the My Computer icon from your Windows Desktop.
2. Select Manage.
3. Double-click on Storage.
4. Double-click on Disk Management.

This example shows Disk 0 (hard disk as a boot or system device) recognized:

Windows Error Messages:

Bad Sectors

A bad sector is a small area on the disc drive that is reporting errors and cannot be accessed properly. New bad sectors, sometimes called grown defects, are often caused by some kind of physical damage. If a file or folder uses this sector, then the file is incomplete or corrupt because the bytes are not readable.

Bad sectors can also be reported if the signal between your drive and host adapter is being misinterpreted. Bad cables can cause this. If you are using an ATA drive made in the last few years you should use an 80-conductor cable. Any ATA product that operates above UltraATA 33 requires an 80-conductor cable for proper signal integrity. ATA cables should also be less than 18 inches in length.

Correcting Bad Sectors:

Disk Error Checking Utility built into Windows 2000 and Windows XP:

1. Double-click My Computer, and right-click the hard disk.
2. On the shortcut menu, click Properties, and on the Tools tab in the Properties dialogue box, click Check Now in the Error-Checking Status area.
3. In the Check Disk dialogue box, select the Automatically Fix File System Errors tick box, select the Scan For And Attempt Recovery Of Bad Sectors tick box, and then click Start.