Mobo BIOS won't recognise HD as Primary IDE Master

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Motherboard: Asus P4S800D-X

On the regular startup screen it shows that ST3120026AS is my Primary IDE Master, which is my HD I believe, yet when I enter setup it shows that my DVD/CD drive is my Primary IDE Master. I have the controller set on Auto.

The problem is that when I try to reformat Windows XP it will not recognize the hard drive which then will not let me delete my current partition.

This motherboard was installed by a computer guy that does my Dad's business computers.

I think the problem is that I was not given the support CD that originally comes with the Motherboard itself.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Josh
 
The ST3120026AS is a 7200rpm 120GB IDE hard drive. Is this what you have? You have to have your CD/DVD as the secondary master. You have the IDE flat cables in the wrong slots on the motherboard. Hard drives go in IDE 1. CD drives go in IDE 2. No support CD is needed at this point... or ever.

You can get the latest motherboard drivers from Asus support website. Just point to the P4S800D-X motherboard
 
Yes that is what I have, I have two CD/DVD and one is set to the Primary and the other is set to the Secondary. How would I go about changing the slots that the HD and CD/DVDs are in?
 
Follow the cables down to where they plug into the motherboard. Gently pull the cables out of the motherboard and swap their positions.

If you look closely, you should be able to see "IDE 1 and IDE 2 or IDE Primary and IDE secondary" printed near each connector
 
Yes Fragrant Coit,
on my Gigabyte both are yellow... But there are clear markings on the board. Another way to tell Primary IDE is that it is closest to the edge of the motherboard, but not always :confused: The motherboard manual picture is the best
 
116t72w.jpg


This came from the PDF file of my Mobo's manual, Which should my HD connect to and which should my two CD/DVDs connect to?

Thanks,
Josh
 
remember that there are 2 IDE connector... the image says wich one is the primary... put The HD there where it says PRI-IDE1. also make sure that the HD jumper is set to master.

tell me if it worked! if not i got more just reply

regards
 
Alright so I just checked and my HD is hooked into SATA 1 and the CD/DVD is in Primary IDE.

Should my HD be hooked into SATA 1 or the Primary IDE like you say? It doesn't look like my HD connection to the Mobo would even fit into the Primary IDE connector.
Should I move my CD/DVD connection to Secondary IDE and leave the Primary slot blank?

Thanks,
Josh
 
if it's SATA, it won't show up in IDE devices because it isn't IDE !!!!


You need to go back to the ASUS website and get the RAID driver, put it on a floppy, and when Windows Setup starts, press F6 to install Raid Driver when prompted.

Then it'll find the HDD!

EDIT I couldn't find the driver easily on the ASUS site - it'll be on the CD though {you do have to make a floppy for ir to work, though}
 
I don't have a floppy disk to put it on, I have the RAID driver and that was my previous thought to why this entire situation wasn't working. Can I burn it onto a CD or does it HAVE to be on a floppy disk?

Thanks,
Josh
 
Unfortunately it does need to be a floppy.

If you can borrrow one or something, you'll be cooking.

I always keep a few FDD's from dead PC's just for that purpose!
 
Great.

On the CD there may be a tool for creating the floppy, if not, browse for the correct one - it's not the one you install IN Windows, and it'll be relatively small -- small enough to fit in a 1.4Mb Floppy anyway.
 
I got the raid driver on the floppy, the program to make the floppy was present as you said it might be. It allowed me to have windows find my HD unlike before, and let me reformat my HD. Luckily I have a second computer and another blank floppy because after the drive was formatted it said the floppy was broken. So I made another copy of the same exact thing on a different floppy and it worked!

Thanks so much for your help guys, I had been wanting to reformat this thing for almost 5 months now.

And DisturbedFan, I don't understand what you mean at all, but I am not asking for anything other then what I have, just wanted to reformat my HD.

Thanks again,
Josh
 
You have a choice on witch drives you use. 2 SATA devices, or 4 IDE devices. 2 hard dives, or 2 CD ROMs or R/Ws. It all depends on the bios settings
 
Mr Disturbed: you DO need to load RAID drivers on older controllers to get XP to "see" the Hard Drive, especially on SiS and Via chipsets.

Well done Nerdinator!
 
I have heard of this Fragrant Coit but I have not run into it as of this date... What is a COIT, fragrant or not?
 
It's an Australian slang term for ****!

i.e, "you can stick that right up your coit". LOL

Did you ever see that send up show about "Russell Coit", the hopeless bushman?

EDIT it wont let me write a_r_s_e !
 
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