SATA Hard drive/motherboard problem!

[petery83]

I purchased a 250GB Western Digital SATA hard drive. Needless to say, I was very excited to have it in my hands today considering I ordered it yesterday! Unfortunately, there are some minor problems with it...

-When it is connected to my computer (Asus A8N-E motherboard), it is not recognized by BIOS. (it's blank where there should be a number such as WD2500XXXX, and BIOS lists "S.M.A.R.T.: None" rather than "S.M.A.R.T. Enabled" for my other drive).

-Also, Windows XP doesn't successfully load when the drive is connected to the computer. If my boot drive is connected, it will BSOD shortly after the WinXP splash screen. If the new drive is the only drive hooked up and I boot with the WinXP installation disc, the installation will BSOD sometime during the loading of drivers (before the agreement comes on/before asking me if I want to format the drive, etc.).

-Lastly, when I installed WD's Data Lifeguard with only my boot drive installed, it mentioned that drives over 137GB were not supported, and whether I wanted them supported (I clicked Yes). Strange, since my current drive is a 300GB drive that I've been using without problems, plus one would think that WinXP SP2 + a fairly new motherboard would handle the 137GB problem...

Are there any ways to fix the problems above?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[petery83]

bump

 

[acole1]

Windows 137gb problem...
You blow out SP2? Or maybe some drivers?

For the 250GB not being detected...
is it plugged in? both SATA and power?
is it knocking? (making any noise other than spinning)

 

[Oyeve]

Sata 3.0 or 1.5? If 3.0 try changing to 1.5.

 

[petery83]

Clicking on System Properties shows SP2 installed, and my 300GB drive is still working without a problem (as far as I can tell...hopefully I didn't curse myself by saying that! ).

The 250GB drive was plugged in using the following combinations:
-WD Secure Connect Cable + Legacy 4-pin power molex
-Regular SATA cable + Legacy 4-pin power molex

At first I was a bit concerned after trying the first combination, since that's when I noticed the warning about the drive being potentially damaged if both (SATA and Legacy) power connectors were plugged in, but luckily I found out that the Secure Connect Cable doesn't supply power. Big sigh of relief there!

Edit: No sounds of knocking were coming from the drive.

I also tried 2 different SATA ports (#3 and #4) on the motherboard.

 

[petery83]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
Sata 3.0 or 1.5? If 3.0 try changing to 1.5.

Let me check...it's a WD2500JD, so it's 1.5

 

[acole1]

you didnt deactivate the sata port did you?

i dont know much about the mobo but maybe "SMART None" means that it is turned off/disabled. can you force it to "SMART Enabled"?

 

[petery83]

SATA ports were enabled when I was trying to get the drive working (I disable them when I need to use the computer so I don't need to plug them and unplug the drive)...Let me restart and enable them and check to see if there's a SMART option.

Thanks for the help so far acole1 and Oyeve!

 

[petery83]

There was an option for SMART, but it was already enabled (it applied to all drives; there wasn't one specifically for SATA drives). I tried disabling it just to see what would happen, and the it BSOD'ed right about when the WinXP loading progress bar got halfway (same time as with the SMART option enabled)

 

[acole1]

That is odd... I don't know what else to tell you. It could possibly be your motherboard, or maybe the Windows install you have making it crash. It's hard to tell.

Do you have any other hard drives you can test on that computer? Or another computer you could try the both HD's on?

 

[petery83]

I tried using another computer with an Abit NF7-S with no other drive (I had removed the 160GB hard drive from that computer a week ago and moved it to my current computer as additional storage, but shelved it when I found out that the 160GB hard drive had developed problems such as getting bad sectors and not being formattable). I didn't see anything on the screen (including the BIOS splash screen), even using 2 different monitors and readjusting the connection multiple times.

I'll definitely have to give it another shot when I get back home. Maybe I'll borrow the AGP card from my sister's computer, switch it up with the one currently in the NF7-S computer, then try out the SATA drive again. Luckily they're both ATI video cards, so I won't have to uninstall and install drivers .

The 160GB IDE drive was working on my current A8N-E computer using a PATA to SATA adapter though, when I plugged it into SATA port #4 (I think there were problems with port#1).