Hard drive absent

Aloud · 04-19-2003, 01:00 PM

Hi first post here, I have 2 maxtor hard drives marked c and d respectivelly. When I rebooted my system , first message that appeared was something about smart media card detecting a failure.The drive c which is a primary drive with 60 GB space became unavailable while the drive d was and still is working fine. I did a little search on the internet and found this diagnostical utility from maxtor called powermax and I copied it on the floppy and went to work with it and here is what I found. I think the problem is with my controler and interface cable so I am just going to copy the diagnostics that were written at the end.
-------------------------------------------------------

Drive Absent within system. If you are sure that the drive is not spinning while connected to the current system.

Ifterface cable The interface cable(the gray one( have a colorful stripe along one side (usually red, but sometimes black).Ensure that it is firmly seated in the connector and that pin one (The edge of the cable with the line) is closest to the power connector.

On a two drive cable J50 must have a jumper shunt installed. Slave drive on a two drive cable. J50 must have the jumper shunt removed.If you have confirmed the physical settings are correct and you continue to see these errors contact customer service at maxtor.com and report the following error code. Instalation Confirmation code:004
------------------------------------------------------------
I contacted maxtor by email but I am waiting still so clearly I understand the problem as far as the connectors but I am not that technically apt unfortunatelly so I do not know what to do about it. I kindly seek your guidance. thank you very much

Sinkalip · 04-19-2003, 02:54 PM

A little background, please?

Did this just occur out of the blue or where you doing something in there?

If you've added either drive, make sure the pin1 is connected to the red cable on the ribbon. It is sometimes numbered on the back of the drive (the circuit board, or PCB) where the IDE connector is located. If not, look for the "square" pin on the IDE connector of the pcb.

/EDIT The 'shunt' (? Must be the real word for it) is to set one drive as the Master, and one as slave. Most drives even have a diagram of how to set them up on the top of the drive. When you have only one drive, it's really not a problem. If you add a HD and don't set the drives, it could cause problems, I imagine

Sorry, It's been a long time since I needed two HD's.

Aloud · 04-19-2003, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sinkalip
A little background, please?

Did this just occur out of the blue or where you doing something in there? ]

Well I was installing a new windows server on the drive that's now unavailable but nothing as far as hardware is involved

Quote:

If you've added either drive, make sure the pin1 is connected to the red cable on the ribbon. It is sometimes numbered on the back of the drive (the circuit board, or PCB) where the IDE connector is located. If not, look for the "square" pin on the IDE connector of the pcb. ]

Well judging from the final diagnostics I posted this there is a problem of an interface cable not being connected to the connector. The problem for me is that I am not that familiar with the hardware sort of things so I would be gratefull for the link for the visual represantation of what is involved.

Quote:

/EDIT The 'shunt' (? Must be the real word for it) is to set one drive as the Master, and one as slave. Most drives even have a diagram of how to set them up on the top of the drive. When you have only one drive, it's really not a problem. If you add a HD and don't set the drives, it could cause problems, I imagine

Sorry, It's been a long time since I needed two HD's.

I am going to study this.

TrueInsanity · 04-19-2003, 05:21 PM

By diagnostic softwar you mean powermax?, did it give you any codes

Aloud · 04-19-2003, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by TrueInsanity
By diagnostic softwar you mean powermax?, did it give you any codes

Yes I think I wrote in the initial post, the code was 004.

LPDad · 04-19-2003, 09:06 PM

Question: (it was not clear to me)
When you ran the POWERMAX utility, did BOTH of your harddrives show up??? Was the utility able to see both of your hardrives??
If your C drive does not even show up then I would suggest SWAPPING the 2 drives (making sure you set the jumpers correctly--if your mobo allows it just set both drives to CSEL..makes swapping drives easier)
If, after swapping the 2 drives around, you still cannot see the problematic drive then your next option is to connect that particular drive to another computer to see if it can be seen.

Need to narrow things down a bit. What MOBO are you using (or brand of Puter)?? How old is it?? How old are the Drives??

Does the recalcitant drive SPIN UP when you apply power??? (you should be able to feel it).
Need to narrow things down a bit to actually find the problem... The first step is to actually get the software to SEE the problem drive.

Aloud · 04-19-2003, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LPDad
Question: (it was not clear to me)
When you ran the POWERMAX utility, did BOTH of your harddrives show up??? Was the utility able to see both of your hardrives??
If your C drive does not even show up then I would suggest SWAPPING the 2 drives (making sure you set the jumpers correctly--if your mobo allows it just set both drives to CSEL..makes swapping drives easier)
If, after swapping the 2 drives around, you still cannot see the problematic drive then your next option is to connect that particular drive to another computer to see if it can be seen.

Need to narrow things down a bit. What MOBO are you using (or brand of Puter)?? How old is it?? How old are the Drives??

Does the recalcitant drive SPIN UP when you apply power??? (you should be able to feel it).
Need to narrow things down a bit to actually find the problem... The first step is to actually get the software to SEE the problem drive.

well during the runnigh of powermax both hard drives are visible but c drive is unavailable as I think the problem is with the interface cables and connectors. If i could find a good link that explains well how it's fixed. Both drives are maxtor the problematic one is 60 gb and the other is 15 gb. Luckily my OS was installed on the smaller drive so the computer is still functioning.

Sinkalip · 04-22-2003, 10:22 AM

Sorry, I looked for a "graphic representation" for you and came up empty

How about:
1
00000000000000000000 <--- That's supposed to be IDE
00000000000000000000 40 connector

x00000000000000000 <--- that could be the ribbon cable.
x00000000000000000 the x's = the red striped part
x00000000000000000
/edit stupid formatting lol
You would simply have to match the 1's. (the red stripe to pin 1)

This would apply to the HD itself as well as the IDE connectors on the Mobo/IDE card/ etc.

However, the IDE cables might be the "one way" kind. They can only fit on the drive one way, as they have a notch on top and the IDE connector on the drive would have a corresponding slot.

LPDad · 04-22-2003, 10:43 PM

Aloud, I do not know if this will be helpful or not... but I am attaching a nifty little proggy that will monitor your harddrives at windows startup and give you all sorts of feedback on the status of your harddrives.
As long as your computer can see the drive it might just work, and it will tell you if your drive is about to fail.

Hope this helps you out.

04-19-2003, 01:00 PM	#1 (permalink)
Aloud Registered User Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 4	Hard drive absent Hi first post here, I have 2 maxtor hard drives marked c and d respectivelly. When I rebooted my system , first message that appeared was something about smart media card detecting a failure.The drive c which is a primary drive with 60 GB space became unavailable while the drive d was and still is working fine. I did a little search on the internet and found this diagnostical utility from maxtor called powermax and I copied it on the floppy and went to work with it and here is what I found. I think the problem is with my controler and interface cable so I am just going to copy the diagnostics that were written at the end. ------------------------------------------------------- Drive Absent within system. If you are sure that the drive is not spinning while connected to the current system. Ifterface cable The interface cable(the gray one( have a colorful stripe along one side (usually red, but sometimes black).Ensure that it is firmly seated in the connector and that pin one (The edge of the cable with the line) is closest to the power connector. On a two drive cable J50 must have a jumper shunt installed. Slave drive on a two drive cable. J50 must have the jumper shunt removed.If you have confirmed the physical settings are correct and you continue to see these errors contact customer service at maxtor.com and report the following error code. Instalation Confirmation code:004 ------------------------------------------------------------ I contacted maxtor by email but I am waiting still so clearly I understand the problem as far as the connectors but I am not that technically apt unfortunatelly so I do not know what to do about it. I kindly seek your guidance. thank you very much

04-19-2003, 02:54 PM	#2 (permalink)
Sinkalip Registered User Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Under the bed Posts: 62	A little background, please? Did this just occur out of the blue or where you doing something in there? If you've added either drive, make sure the pin1 is connected to the red cable on the ribbon. It is sometimes numbered on the back of the drive (the circuit board, or PCB) where the IDE connector is located. If not, look for the "square" pin on the IDE connector of the pcb. /EDIT The 'shunt' (? Must be the real word for it) is to set one drive as the Master, and one as slave. Most drives even have a diagram of how to set them up on the top of the drive. When you have only one drive, it's really not a problem. If you add a HD and don't set the drives, it could cause problems, I imagine Sorry, It's been a long time since I needed two HD's. Last edited by Sinkalip; 04-19-2003 at 03:06 PM.

04-19-2003, 05:21 PM	#4 (permalink)
TrueInsanity Registered User Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: UK Posts: 43	By diagnostic softwar you mean powermax?, did it give you any codes __________________

04-19-2003, 09:06 PM	#6 (permalink)
LPDad Admin & "Fixer" Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Costa Mesa, CA Posts: 2,293	Question: (it was not clear to me) When you ran the POWERMAX utility, did BOTH of your harddrives show up??? Was the utility able to see both of your hardrives?? If your C drive does not even show up then I would suggest SWAPPING the 2 drives (making sure you set the jumpers correctly--if your mobo allows it just set both drives to CSEL..makes swapping drives easier) If, after swapping the 2 drives around, you still cannot see the problematic drive then your next option is to connect that particular drive to another computer to see if it can be seen. Need to narrow things down a bit. What MOBO are you using (or brand of Puter)?? How old is it?? How old are the Drives?? Does the recalcitant drive SPIN UP when you apply power??? (you should be able to feel it). Need to narrow things down a bit to actually find the problem... The first step is to actually get the software to SEE the problem drive. __________________ We don't need no stink'n TechSupport We ARE TechSupport. *LPDad* Administrator

04-22-2003, 10:43 PM	#9 (permalink)
LPDad Admin & "Fixer" Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Costa Mesa, CA Posts: 2,293	Aloud, I do not know if this will be helpful or not... but I am attaching a nifty little proggy that will monitor your harddrives at windows startup and give you all sorts of feedback on the status of your harddrives. As long as your computer can see the drive it might just work, and it will tell you if your drive is about to fail. Hope this helps you out. __________________ We don't need no stink'n TechSupport We ARE TechSupport. *LPDad* Administrator

04-22-2003, 10:22 AM	#8 (permalink)
Sinkalip Registered User Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Under the bed Posts: 62	Sorry, I looked for a "graphic representation" for you and came up empty How about: 1 00000000000000000000 <--- That's supposed to be IDE 00000000000000000000 40 connector x00000000000000000 <--- that could be the ribbon cable. x00000000000000000 the x's = the red striped part x00000000000000000 /edit stupid formatting lol You would simply have to match the 1's. (the red stripe to pin 1) This would apply to the HD itself as well as the IDE connectors on the Mobo/IDE card/ etc. However, the IDE cables might be the "one way" kind. They can only fit on the drive one way, as they have a notch on top and the IDE connector on the drive would have a corresponding slot.

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