Hey all, I have a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 ATA 160GB to use as a master in this new computer I'm building. The BIOS recognized it name and all, so I figured I had no problems...Well, I went to install XP, and before the partitioning/formatting tool came up in setup, I received an error about no hard drive being found. I ran Maxtor's MaxBlast to try to set it up from there, and the program found a 160GB device, but gave the same sort of Windows error when it tried to actually start partitioning it. Sooooo, I ran Maxtor's PowerMax to see once and for all what the deal was. Again, it recognizes there's a device there, but doesn't know what (PowerMax didn't even see the 160GB, just the presence of a device in general). I selected the "non-existant-but-still-there" drive to run tests on, and PowerMax immediately exits itself and goes to the floppy drive prompt. I just checked back in the BIOS...everything's still there. You guys seem like you know your stuff...can anyone help me? I'm about ready to try out my copy of SuSE Linux 9.1 if all else fails. Thanks, Michael
Try a different cable and try a different channel. For the power, try using a cable that has nothing on it and only connect your hdd to it. Check if the jumper is placed correctly.
Try a known-working hdd in your system and try your new hdd in a system that you know works to see if the channels on your new board are working or if the hdd is in fact the problem.
I put a working drive in there just to make sure, but with the working HDD and the one in question, I have a new problem. (This sucks). Now Windows Setup goes through all the drivers, and once it gets to the "Starting Windows" dialogue just before the real installation, the machine reboots itself. I don't think it's recognizing the working drive either. I F6ed it.
I mean when the appropriate time came while Windows Setup was loading all the drivers, it asks you if you want to install 3rd party stuff by hitting F6. Doing so lets you load drivers from a floppy, and it'll tell you if the device is there. It found the stuff from the floppy drive, but did not recognize the hard drive, as describe before. I have a feeling my problem doesn't lie in Windows Setup...
One thing that *might* be the problem is if you have an XP version w/o Service Pack 1 or later. That could be causing some hard drive size detection issues...but that's a bit of a long shot. Okay, there's a few things to try: 1st: Make sure you have the 3/10 BIOS (or later). The first two had problems...lotsa problems. 2nd: I don't have the link off-hand, but I do remember seeing something about Maxtor drives not playing nicely with the NF4 chipsets. I'd seen it over @ DFI Street. 3rd: The DFI's tend to be picky about the Power Supply and Memory used. The power supply should have at least 25A on the 12V rail (more for SLI and/or overclocking)---or through the combination of the 12V rails. Most people seem to be using OCZ RAM with these boards, but you'll also find some, like myself, running the Patriot/PDP PC3200+XBL DDR here.
Yeah, the BIOS had been updated, and I was already tending to believe what you said about Maxtor and nF4 chipsets. Even though I had checked all the cables beforehand, it ended up being a bad ribbon cable that had been shipped with the motherboard. I switched it out, and installed XP . My only problem now is working on getting rid of a reoccurring BSOD :x: (I think it's from the ATI video driver). I'm trying a repair installation of the OS as we speak. Thanks for all the responses!
