Hard Drive BIOS Detection Problem

[zarzenz]

I have 2 identical hard drives in my machine... both Barracuda 20GB model ST320011A.

They are both working fine but for some reason when the computer boots, the BIOS is saying that the primary is correctly detected as 20021MB and the secondary is incorrectly detected as 4228MB.

It makes no difference if I jump them as master/slave... or cable select.

But this is the strange part. If I enter the BIOS setup and do a hard drive detect and save... both drives are then correctly detected and saved into the hard drive settings in the Standard CMOS Setup... they are both identically shown in there as 20GB drives etc.

But as soon as I do the next boot, the slave then goes back to show 4228MB again.

It has no affect on the operation of the computer at all... Windows ME shows both drives as 20GB's but I'm just a bit mytsified as to why this happens.

Any BIOS experts had this one and knows the answer... would love to know.

[dober]

in the bios setup use "Auto" for HD detection

[zarzenz]

Ah... in fact I have tried that as well.

Doing auto detect also produces the same incorrect detection... and yet doing the detect and then save... which becomes user in the setup... does initially detect both correctly.

It's really weird.

I also tried a third drive of the same type in the slave position... and the same result was obtained... and yet... if I put the good master in the slave position and vice versa... the detects then show up incorrectly the other way around.

So either this is a problem with these drives and you just gotta be lucky if you get a good one that detects correctly or it's a BIOS bug or it's a combination of both.

[dober]

Then try to update your BIOS. be careful

[nadirah]

Update your BIOS to the latest version. Your problem could be happening because your BIOS is old or outdated. Contact your computer manufacturer for assistance.

[JimIT]

-{ Quote: "I have 2 identical hard drives in my machine... both Barracuda 20GB model ST320011A.

They are both working fine but for some reason when the computer boots, the BIOS is saying that the primary is correctly detected as 20021MB and the secondary is incorrectly detected as 4228MB.

It makes no difference if I jump them as master/slave... or cable select.

But this is the strange part. If I enter the BIOS setup and do a hard drive detect and save... both drives are then correctly detected and saved into the hard drive settings in the Standard CMOS Setup... they are both identically shown in there as 20GB drives etc.

But as soon as I do the next boot, the slave then goes back to show 4228MB again.

It has no affect on the operation of the computer at all... Windows ME shows both drives as 20GB's but I'm just a bit mytsified as to why this happens.

Any BIOS experts had this one and knows the answer... would love to know." }-


How old is your CMOS battery?

[zarzenz]

Thanks guys,

Yes, it may well be that I need a BIOS update... as I'm using a P6BAT-A+ motherboard which is a few years old now and so I'll have to look up the various updates for my BIOS to see if there is a flash available... but I think I need first to identify which version software the board is using etc.

As regards the battery... I did try another one just a few weeks ago so I know that is fine.

I'll do some searching later for some more info on the updates available.

[nod32_9]

Don't tweak the BIOS for such a minor bug, expecially one that does not affect the performance of the PC. You could turn the PC into a big ornament.

[zarzenz]

Nod32_9... yeah... I was kinda wondering about this myself.

It's true that as far as the system is concerned, there is no problem at all.

What I may do is research the situation fully... get all the motherboard/bios versions etc. and any other info I need to complete the job, but then... I'll probably not do the upgrade for this reason as it's too dangerous... but I would like to have the facility at hand in case something else happens in future.

[Notok]

Just to be on the safe side, you might want to run the trial of something like ActiveSMART (http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/) to make sure the drives are still ok.

[zarzenz]

Thanks for that link Notok.

I just had a look at it and may well give this a try. Looks like quite a handy utility there and should be very useful to check the drives condition.