Dead Men Walking

dMw Chit Chat => The Beer Bar => Technology Section => Topic started by: Barley on October 27, 2004, 06:20:43 PM

Title: 2.5" to 3.5" hard drive conversion problems
Post by: Barley on October 27, 2004, 06:20:43 PM
Hi guys, quick question, really hoping someone can help me out.

Ok, I'm building an ITX system based around an Epia M9000 motherboard.

The board comes with 2 IDE connectors, like most, and because this is an ITX board I'm trying to build a very small PC.  To this affect I've got a 10GB 2.5" laptop hard drive and a 2.5" > 3.5" adaptor to allow me to use the laptop drive on the ITX board.

I've connected everything together and switched the system on and it won't detect the hard drive, it will detect normal 3.5" drives fine though.

Does anyone have an idea as to what I can do?  But stumped on this one.  Hoping someone has some experience that may come in handy?    :huh:

Cheers guys.
Title: 2.5" to 3.5" hard drive conversion problems
Post by: TeaLeaf on October 27, 2004, 06:44:25 PM
This is not an uncommon proble m according to the Viaarena forums (http://forums.viaarena.com).  The most common answer is that you may have a RAM problem but that doesn't seem to me to be one that holds true for your scenario or indeed all the scenarios that are quoted on the forums.  The other option is a BIOS problem as it appears that nobody had the problem with 2.5" drives prior to the later/latest BIOS releases.  A common problem appears to be that you can boot from CD and browse the HDD but that the HDDs won't be the boot device!

Try running Memtest and an older BIOS - that will throw those out as issues.

Also, if you have a CD/DVD connected on the same cable then try booting without the CD/DVD connected.  There have been cable problems on those mobos where UDMA did not run properly when the HDD shared an IDE channel.

Other than that I hav eno suggestions.  I'll think a bit more.  Sorry :(

TL.
Title: 2.5" to 3.5" hard drive conversion problems
Post by: Barley on October 27, 2004, 07:38:20 PM
Cheers TF.  I tried disconnecting the CD ROM drive earlier but the problem persisted.  So then I swapped the IDE cable for an older 40 something cable, in case that could be the problem, still with no luck.

Does seem a very parculiar problem.  I'm going to try the hard drive in my primary PC later to determine whether the drive could be broken, although I don't think it is.

Again cheers, any more info let me know :)