RC1 install makes IDE drive

>I always keep a boot floppy for win 98 handy because you can always format
>a
> drive with that.
>
> Colin

> Vista beta2 was unstable on my computer, but at least I managed to get it
> installed and running (albeit only by removing all SATA drives and
> installing on a blank IDE drive).
>
>
>
> Tried the same thing with RC1 today and it went great right up to the
> initial logon prompt. I had chosen the high security setting (airport or
> whatever). After giving it my password for the first logon, it froze,
> eventually rebooted, and now the IDE drive I had installed it on can't get
> past my bios post screen!!
>
>
>
> Specifically -
>
>
>
> -If I power down the computer and power it back on, the bios sees the
> drive, and reports it as SMART capable and OK. However after that it
> says, there is an error on Primary IDE Master and no hard drive is
> available.
>
>
>
> -If I reboot without powering down, it skips the SMART message and goes
> straight to the no HD found error, and the HD light stays on all the time.
>
>
>
> This means I can't even load my disk tools and erase the whole drive to
> start over! Argh. I've never seen an install of an OS mess up a hard
> drive like this, and it rounds out what has been a terrible Vista
> experience for me so far.
>
>
>
> Anybody have any ideas what might have caused this problem. or more even
> more importantly, how I can just erase this drive and re-deploy it towards
> something else.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> J.
>
>
>
> My system is built on an Asus A8V deluxe MB with and AMD Athlon X2
> processor. I can give more specs if they might be relevant.
>
>

> Vista beta2 was unstable on my computer, but at least I managed to get it
> installed and running (albeit only by removing all SATA drives and
> installing on a blank IDE drive).
>
>
>
> Tried the same thing with RC1 today and it went great right up to the
> initial logon prompt. I had chosen the high security setting (airport or
> whatever). After giving it my password for the first logon, it froze,
> eventually rebooted, and now the IDE drive I had installed it on can't get
> past my bios post screen!!
>
>
>
> Specifically -
>
>
>
> -If I power down the computer and power it back on, the bios sees the
> drive, and reports it as SMART capable and OK. However after that it
> says, there is an error on Primary IDE Master and no hard drive is
> available.
>
>
>
> -If I reboot without powering down, it skips the SMART message and goes
> straight to the no HD found error, and the HD light stays on all the time.
>
>
>
> This means I can't even load my disk tools and erase the whole drive to
> start over! Argh. I've never seen an install of an OS mess up a hard
> drive like this, and it rounds out what has been a terrible Vista
> experience for me so far.
>
>
>
> Anybody have any ideas what might have caused this problem. or more even
> more importantly, how I can just erase this drive and re-deploy it towards
> something else.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> J.
>
>
>
> My system is built on an Asus A8V deluxe MB with and AMD Athlon X2
> processor. I can give more specs if they might be relevant.
>
>

>I thought I was dreaming (having a nightmare?) when something similar
>happened to me (TWICE) - primary IDE master not even being recognised by
>BIOS after playing with Vista.
> I have NO idea what Vista could be doing to cause this, but I fixed the
> situation by booting from a disk tool CD - I found that either Acronis
> Trueimage or Acronis Disk Director did the trick - others may work too.
> Note that I didn't actually have to perform any corrective action - just
> boot the CD, notice that all disk partitions are now recognised then
> reboot normally.
>
> Regards, Len
>
> "Jason" <cfjraz@cox.net> wrote in message
> news:%23dhQVKc2GHA.4808@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>> Vista beta2 was unstable on my computer, but at least I managed to get it
>> installed and running (albeit only by removing all SATA drives and
>> installing on a blank IDE drive).
>>
>>
>>
>> Tried the same thing with RC1 today and it went great right up to the
>> initial logon prompt. I had chosen the high security setting (airport or
>> whatever). After giving it my password for the first logon, it froze,
>> eventually rebooted, and now the IDE drive I had installed it on can't
>> get past my bios post screen!!
>>
>>
>>
>> Specifically -
>>
>>
>>
>> -If I power down the computer and power it back on, the bios sees the
>> drive, and reports it as SMART capable and OK. However after that it
>> says, there is an error on Primary IDE Master and no hard drive is
>> available.
>>
>>
>>
>> -If I reboot without powering down, it skips the SMART message and goes
>> straight to the no HD found error, and the HD light stays on all the
>> time.
>>
>>
>>
>> This means I can't even load my disk tools and erase the whole drive to
>> start over! Argh. I've never seen an install of an OS mess up a hard
>> drive like this, and it rounds out what has been a terrible Vista
>> experience for me so far.
>>
>>
>>
>> Anybody have any ideas what might have caused this problem. or more even
>> more importantly, how I can just erase this drive and re-deploy it
>> towards something else.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>
>>
>> J.
>>
>>
>>
>> My system is built on an Asus A8V deluxe MB with and AMD Athlon X2
>> processor. I can give more specs if they might be relevant.
>>
>>

>
>

> Well... glad to hear somebody has heard of this. However, sounds like you
> were luckier than me. The Acronis tools were actually the first ones I
> tried. They couldn't see the drive after the bios choked on it. After
> reading your post, I took the desperate step of connecting power to the
> drive after the bios posted (at the boot selector menu). Sounds stupid, I
> know... but I was out of ideas. This actually did let me into the drive
> with Acronis, but deleting the VISTA partition with Disk Director (and even
> doing a 1X wipe) failed to fix the problem when posting. Amazingly, I then
> found even the Seagate Disc Tools (which can find the drive even without the
> radical late power-up) fail when trying to write zeros to the drive. I gave
> up at that point... at least for now. Ironically SMART status still seems
> ok. Never seen a software program screw a drive up this bad, and would love
> to have more of an idea what's going on.
>
> While I'm normally something of a glutton for punishment on these things, I
> think unless I figure out how to fix this, I'll declare this computer a
> VISTA free zone. Between this and the amount of effort it took to get beta
> 2 running, I wonder if I could compete with others for worst Vista
> experience on a relatively high end computer. Hopefully so!
>
> Thanks,
>
> J...
>
>
> "Len Norton" <norton_len_nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:OtPFMmf2GHA.4588@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>> I thought I was dreaming (having a nightmare?) when something similar
>> happened to me (TWICE) - primary IDE master not even being recognised by
>> BIOS after playing with Vista.
>> I have NO idea what Vista could be doing to cause this, but I fixed the
>> situation by booting from a disk tool CD - I found that either Acronis
>> Trueimage or Acronis Disk Director did the trick - others may work too.
>> Note that I didn't actually have to perform any corrective action - just
>> boot the CD, notice that all disk partitions are now recognised then
>> reboot normally.
>>
>> Regards, Len
>>
>> "Jason" <cfjraz@cox.net> wrote in message
>> news:%23dhQVKc2GHA.4808@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>> Vista beta2 was unstable on my computer, but at least I managed to get it
>>> installed and running (albeit only by removing all SATA drives and
>>> installing on a blank IDE drive).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Tried the same thing with RC1 today and it went great right up to the
>>> initial logon prompt. I had chosen the high security setting (airport or
>>> whatever). After giving it my password for the first logon, it froze,
>>> eventually rebooted, and now the IDE drive I had installed it on can't
>>> get past my bios post screen!!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Specifically -
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -If I power down the computer and power it back on, the bios sees the
>>> drive, and reports it as SMART capable and OK. However after that it
>>> says, there is an error on Primary IDE Master and no hard drive is
>>> available.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -If I reboot without powering down, it skips the SMART message and goes
>>> straight to the no HD found error, and the HD light stays on all the
>>> time.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> This means I can't even load my disk tools and erase the whole drive to
>>> start over! Argh. I've never seen an install of an OS mess up a hard
>>> drive like this, and it rounds out what has been a terrible Vista
>>> experience for me so far.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Anybody have any ideas what might have caused this problem. or more even
>>> more importantly, how I can just erase this drive and re-deploy it
>>> towards something else.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> J.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> My system is built on an Asus A8V deluxe MB with and AMD Athlon X2
>>> processor. I can give more specs if they might be relevant.
>>>
>>>

>>

>
>

> Only my guess: Don't discard hardware failure. First, try by entering the
> BIOS to see if the drive is recognized there. You can try to put it on
> auto detect again and save the changes. If it doesn't work, clear cmos
> data and configure and save the BIOS data again. If none of these work,
> change your IDE data wire and check if the master/slave/CS jumper is set
> the right way.
>
> It seems a hardware hard disk failure to me :-((
>
> Jason escribió:

>> Well... glad to hear somebody has heard of this. However, sounds like
>> you were luckier than me. The Acronis tools were actually the first ones
>> I tried. They couldn't see the drive after the bios choked on it. After
>> reading your post, I took the desperate step of connecting power to the
>> drive after the bios posted (at the boot selector menu). Sounds stupid,
>> I know... but I was out of ideas. This actually did let me into the
>> drive with Acronis, but deleting the VISTA partition with Disk Director
>> (and even doing a 1X wipe) failed to fix the problem when posting.
>> Amazingly, I then found even the Seagate Disc Tools (which can find the
>> drive even without the radical late power-up) fail when trying to write
>> zeros to the drive. I gave up at that point... at least for now.
>> Ironically SMART status still seems ok. Never seen a software program
>> screw a drive up this bad, and would love to have more of an idea what's
>> going on.
>>
>> While I'm normally something of a glutton for punishment on these things,
>> I think unless I figure out how to fix this, I'll declare this computer a
>> VISTA free zone. Between this and the amount of effort it took to get
>> beta 2 running, I wonder if I could compete with others for worst Vista
>> experience on a relatively high end computer. Hopefully so!
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> J...
>>
>>
>> "Len Norton" <norton_len_nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:OtPFMmf2GHA.4588@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>>> I thought I was dreaming (having a nightmare?) when something similar
>>> happened to me (TWICE) - primary IDE master not even being recognised by
>>> BIOS after playing with Vista.
>>> I have NO idea what Vista could be doing to cause this, but I fixed the
>>> situation by booting from a disk tool CD - I found that either Acronis
>>> Trueimage or Acronis Disk Director did the trick - others may work too.
>>> Note that I didn't actually have to perform any corrective action - just
>>> boot the CD, notice that all disk partitions are now recognised then
>>> reboot normally.
>>>
>>> Regards, Len
>>>
>>> "Jason" <cfjraz@cox.net> wrote in message
>>> news:%23dhQVKc2GHA.4808@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>>> Vista beta2 was unstable on my computer, but at least I managed to get
>>>> it installed and running (albeit only by removing all SATA drives and
>>>> installing on a blank IDE drive).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Tried the same thing with RC1 today and it went great right up to the
>>>> initial logon prompt. I had chosen the high security setting (airport
>>>> or whatever). After giving it my password for the first logon, it
>>>> froze, eventually rebooted, and now the IDE drive I had installed it on
>>>> can't get past my bios post screen!!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Specifically -
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -If I power down the computer and power it back on, the bios sees the
>>>> drive, and reports it as SMART capable and OK. However after that it
>>>> says, there is an error on Primary IDE Master and no hard drive is
>>>> available.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -If I reboot without powering down, it skips the SMART message and goes
>>>> straight to the no HD found error, and the HD light stays on all the
>>>> time.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> This means I can't even load my disk tools and erase the whole drive to
>>>> start over! Argh. I've never seen an install of an OS mess up a hard
>>>> drive like this, and it rounds out what has been a terrible Vista
>>>> experience for me so far.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Anybody have any ideas what might have caused this problem. or more
>>>> even more importantly, how I can just erase this drive and re-deploy it
>>>> towards something else.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> J.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> My system is built on an Asus A8V deluxe MB with and AMD Athlon X2
>>>> processor. I can give more specs if they might be relevant.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>

>>

> Well... ok... Fenando was right. Looks like it was amazingly bad
> timing for an actual hardware failure, but a hardware failure
> nontheless. It probalby had nothing to do with the fact that I was
> installing RC1 at the time.
>
> A nearly identical RC1 install on same computerwith an identical Segate
> drive worked fine. Of course, original drive sitll won't post.
>
> This is still the first time I've had a hard drive failure that looks
> like this (no click of death, no posting, ok SMART status), but I guess
> there's a first time for everything.
>
> Thanks for the input.
>
> J...
>
> "Fernando" <fpcwilde@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:OmWhxGM3GHA.324@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

>> Only my guess: Don't discard hardware failure. First, try by entering
>> the BIOS to see if the drive is recognized there. You can try to put
>> it on auto detect again and save the changes. If it doesn't work,
>> clear cmos data and configure and save the BIOS data again. If none of
>> these work, change your IDE data wire and check if the master/slave/CS
>> jumper is set the right way.
>>
>> It seems a hardware hard disk failure to me :-((
>>
>> Jason escribió:

>>> Well... glad to hear somebody has heard of this. However, sounds
>>> like you were luckier than me. The Acronis tools were actually the
>>> first ones I tried. They couldn't see the drive after the bios
>>> choked on it. After reading your post, I took the desperate step of
>>> connecting power to the drive after the bios posted (at the boot
>>> selector menu). Sounds stupid, I know... but I was out of ideas.
>>> This actually did let me into the drive with Acronis, but deleting
>>> the VISTA partition with Disk Director (and even doing a 1X wipe)
>>> failed to fix the problem when posting. Amazingly, I then found even
>>> the Seagate Disc Tools (which can find the drive even without the
>>> radical late power-up) fail when trying to write zeros to the drive.
>>> I gave up at that point... at least for now. Ironically SMART status
>>> still seems ok. Never seen a software program screw a drive up this
>>> bad, and would love to have more of an idea what's going on.
>>>
>>> While I'm normally something of a glutton for punishment on these
>>> things, I think unless I figure out how to fix this, I'll declare
>>> this computer a VISTA free zone. Between this and the amount of
>>> effort it took to get beta 2 running, I wonder if I could compete
>>> with others for worst Vista experience on a relatively high end
>>> computer. Hopefully so!
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> J...
>>>
>>>
>>> "Len Norton" <norton_len_nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:OtPFMmf2GHA.4588@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>> I thought I was dreaming (having a nightmare?) when something
>>>> similar happened to me (TWICE) - primary IDE master not even being
>>>> recognised by BIOS after playing with Vista.
>>>> I have NO idea what Vista could be doing to cause this, but I fixed
>>>> the situation by booting from a disk tool CD - I found that either
>>>> Acronis Trueimage or Acronis Disk Director did the trick - others
>>>> may work too.
>>>> Note that I didn't actually have to perform any corrective action -
>>>> just boot the CD, notice that all disk partitions are now recognised
>>>> then reboot normally.
>>>>
>>>> Regards, Len
>>>>
>>>> "Jason" <cfjraz@cox.net> wrote in message
>>>> news:%23dhQVKc2GHA.4808@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>>>> Vista beta2 was unstable on my computer, but at least I managed to
>>>>> get it installed and running (albeit only by removing all SATA
>>>>> drives and installing on a blank IDE drive).
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Tried the same thing with RC1 today and it went great right up to
>>>>> the initial logon prompt. I had chosen the high security setting
>>>>> (airport or whatever). After giving it my password for the first
>>>>> logon, it froze, eventually rebooted, and now the IDE drive I had
>>>>> installed it on can't get past my bios post screen!!
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Specifically -
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -If I power down the computer and power it back on, the bios sees
>>>>> the drive, and reports it as SMART capable and OK. However after
>>>>> that it says, there is an error on Primary IDE Master and no hard
>>>>> drive is available.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -If I reboot without powering down, it skips the SMART message and
>>>>> goes straight to the no HD found error, and the HD light stays on
>>>>> all the time.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> This means I can't even load my disk tools and erase the whole
>>>>> drive to start over! Argh. I've never seen an install of an OS
>>>>> mess up a hard drive like this, and it rounds out what has been a
>>>>> terrible Vista experience for me so far.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Anybody have any ideas what might have caused this problem. or more
>>>>> even more importantly, how I can just erase this drive and
>>>>> re-deploy it towards something else.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> J.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> My system is built on an Asus A8V deluxe MB with and AMD Athlon X2
>>>>> processor. I can give more specs if they might be relevant.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>