No partition data when ATA-100 cable used.
 

"envoy" wrote in message
. 178...
Here is a strange development. I am building a system from scavanged
parts with some new stuff thrown in, but that is not the strange
part.

I am using a an ASUS A7S-VM mobo with an WD400BB (40 gig) hard drive.
I did not have a nice ATA100 IDE cable so I popped in an old ATA33
ribbon cable. The bios not only recognized the HD but also detected
the cable correctly and reported that it could not use UDMA mode 3, 4
and 5, so it would used it as a ATA 33 drive. Cool.

After getting it partitiond and formatted and the os installed, I
bought a ATA-100/133 cable.

Okay now here is the strange part.

When I replace the old ribbon cable with the ATA-100 cable (blue plug
to the mobo, black plug to the hd) it can no longer see the master
boot record even though the bios still detects the drive correctly
except this time it says the UDMA modes 3-5 are can be used.

So with the new cable installed it thinks the HD is a virgin,
unpartitioned drive. I tried this with the jumpers on the drive set
for single master and cable select. No change.

Then when I reinstalled the old ribbon cable the MBR and partition
info reappeared and the system boots without problems.

Does anybody know what is going on here? It looks like when the
ATA100 cable is used it is looking for the master boot record in a
different location than with the ATA 33 ribbon cable.

Things checked:
- correct ide plugs used.
- plugs are keyed (cannot be plugged in the wrong way)
- jumper setting - tried both :"single master" and "cable select"

Of course, my knee-jerk response was "Bad Cable!" but I want to make
sure I am not tripping over my own shoe-laces before a take the cable
back for an exchange.

Ideas?

--
mark


Remove the jumper completely and try
again............................................. .....

Okay now here is the strange part.

When I replace the old ribbon cable with the ATA-100 cable (blue plug
to the mobo, black plug to the hd) it can no longer see the master
boot record even though the bios still detects the drive correctly
except this time it says the UDMA modes 3-5 are can be used.

So with the new cable installed it thinks the HD is a virgin,
unpartitioned drive. I tried this with the jumpers on the drive set
for single master and cable select. No change.

Then when I reinstalled the old ribbon cable the MBR and partition
info reappeared and the system boots without problems.

Does anybody know what is going on here? It looks like when the
ATA100 cable is used it is looking for the master boot record in a
different location than with the ATA 33 ribbon cable.


While it is not suspose to make any differance, is the Master drive on the
very end of the cable ? I have seen sometimes that unless the master is on
the end you can get odd results.

You mentioned some parts are scavenged, does that include the hard
drive? If so, did you try clearing the master boot record?

envoy wrote:

tomcas wrote in
alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt at Mon, 07 Jul 2003 03:15:57 GMT:


Are you sure you haven't inadvertently jumpered as master with
slave? It seems like you have it covered and you did specify
"single master" but it can't hurt to double check.



Yep. Checked and rechecked. Also, made sure I wasnt looking at the
jumper diagram upside down, etc....

"Ed Light" wrote in
alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt at Tue, 08 Jul 2003 00:59:19 GMT:

I have a Maxtor whose data sheet gives the wrong jumper settings.
The right ones are on the drive.

Good point, but the settings are right on the drive so I beleive they
are correct.

--
mark

tomcas wrote in alt.comp.hardware.pc-
homebuilt at Tue, 08 Jul 2003 02:11:37 GMT:

You mentioned some parts are scavenged, does that include the hard
drive? If so, did you try clearing the master boot record?


Both the drive and ata-100 cable are new. Oddly enough the cable that
works (ata-33) is scavanged. Since Im reluctant to reinstall the OS,
service packs, apps, etc. I'm trying to avoid anyting that messes up
the MBR, which is the reason I haven't tried to do anything except read
the drive so far.

I'll get a replacement ata100 cable tomorrow and if that doesn't work
I'll try ghosting my partition to another drive with the slow cable
then try creating and formatting partitions with the new cable. If I
can't write to the drive then I will strongly suspect the motherboard,
which _is_ scavanged (pulled from a system where the power supply blew
so it could have taken some kind of damage) but it has worked
faithfully for a week now except with the ata 100 cable. If that is the
case I will just live with the ATA-33 cable: I have 512MB of memory in
order to avoid a lot of swapping to disk anyway.

--
mark

"Ralph Mowery" wrote in
alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt at Tue, 08 Jul 2003 01:16:22 GMT:

While it is not suspose to make any differance, is the Master
drive on the very end of the cable ? I have seen sometimes that
unless the master is on the end you can get odd results.


The master plug is on the end, but thanks anyway. I will look for this
when I go to replace it.

--
mark