Computers can't detect Maxtor DiamondMax 10

[simkeechai]

Hi there,
I bought quite 2 Maxtor DiamondMax 10 (250GB ATA 133, Model: 6L250R0) hard disks. I was quite happy when i received those harddisks, but it turned to nightmare when put them onto my computers and they couldn't detect anyone of the hard disk

I went into the system BIOS, i could see the new harddisk in there, but i just couldn't see the hard disk in my computer.

BTW, the computers i tried are running Windows XP Pro, specs as below:

Computer #1 & #2: HP D325, AMD Athlon XP 2800+, 1gb ram
Computer #3: P4 2ghz, 1gb ram, forgot the MB

Any suggestions to the changes i should make in BIOS or anything??

 

[dokk]

Hi there,
I bought quite 2 Maxtor DiamondMax 10 (250GB ATA 133, Model: 6L250R0) hard disks. I was quite happy when i received those harddisks, but it turned to nightmare when put them onto my computers and they couldn't detect anyone of the hard disk

I went into the system BIOS, i could see the new harddisk in there, but i just couldn't see the hard disk in my computer.

BTW, the computers i tried are running Windows XP Pro, specs as below:

Computer #1 & #2: HP D325, AMD Athlon XP 2800+, 1gb ram
Computer #3: P4 2ghz, 1gb ram, forgot the MB

Any suggestions to the changes i should make in BIOS or anything??

Did you set the jumpers for cable select,or master as needed..???
Did you fdisk and format??

 

[pkellmey]

Hi there,
BTW, the computers i tried are running Windows XP Pro, specs as below:

Computer #1 & #2: HP D325, AMD Athlon XP 2800+, 1gb ram
Computer #3: P4 2ghz, 1gb ram, forgot the MB

Any suggestions to the changes i should make in BIOS or anything??

I don't see the MB type. However, if you look out on the forums for the manufacturer you might see this as a known issue on some boards. I have an ASUS AM2 board and everyone with my board had to change out their Maxtor hard disks. ASUS said that a BIOS patch is pending some actions required from Maxtor to update drivers. What Maxtor is doing different, I have no idea.

 

[qwertycopter]

You likely have not correctly set the master/slave/cable select jumper. A diagram of the jumper settings should be found on the label of the hard drive.

Master/Slave
If you're going with this setup, your boot drive should have its jumper set to master. The secondary drive should be set for slave. Put the master on the end of the cable, and the slave on the connector in them middle.

Cable Select
With this setup both drives should have their jumpers set to cable select. The drive put on the end of the cable will be designated the master (this is where you put your boot drive) while the drive in the middle will be designated the slave.

A few other points..
It's generally not a good idea to put a hard drive and an optical drive on the same IDE channel (same cable, basically).

If you aren't running Service Pack 2, Windows XP will detect only the first 127GB of the drives. This isn't your problem, just thought you should know.

If all else fails, try a new cable (they are cheap). If possible, have your boot/slave setup on the primary IDE adapter.

 

[rcs2749]

Go into disk management and see if they show up. You will have to initialize and partition the drives before you format. They should then show up in windows explorer.

 

[Grapeape]

If you are installing these as secondary drives and they post in the bios then try this: 8)


Boot to Windows XP.
Open Computer Management (by right clicking My Computer and choosing Manage) and select Disk Management (from the Storage catagory) If the drives show up there and they are not initialized then initialize the drives.
Partition the drives if you need to.
Format the drives.
Assign the drive letters.
Apply changes.

 

[tseska69]

This might point you in the right direction, but thats about it. I had a similar issue, and it turns out there was a compatiblity issue between the nforce4 chipset and maxtor diamondmax harddrives. My solution, before I discovered this, was to get an external enclosure, but you should be able to flash the drives with a firmware upgrade.

The trick, obviously, is going to be getting the flash to a drive that isnt recognized by your pc...

 

[Codeweaver]

I've had similar problem with nForce4 chipset.
You'll have to set the Logical Block Addressing (LBA) for your HDD in BIOS to large instead of on Auto in order for XP to recognize it.
Or contact Maxtor tech support L2 and get a firmware update. Either way will works.

 

[Doughbuy]

Nah, I believe it's disk management, give it a shot.

 

[simkeechai]

The jumper setting is good. So i tried the disk management stuff to detect and format the hard disk. Anyway, the hard disks are good now. Thanks a bunch!

 

[echoplex]

Just letting everyone know that this topic helped me aswell...thanks guys! I don't know what I'd do without you! lol

I think there should be a sticky regarding this and the Disk Management tool. I guess a lot of people are unfamiliar with just popping in a new HDD and initializing.

Good show. Thanks again.