From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Oct 13 21:03:50 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A37BC1065690 for ; Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:03:50 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dkelly@Grumpy.DynDNS.org) Received: from smtp.knology.net (smtp.knology.net [24.214.63.101]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 576EE8FC24 for ; Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:03:50 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dkelly@Grumpy.DynDNS.org) Received: (qmail 31533 invoked by uid 0); 13 Oct 2008 21:03:48 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO Grumpy.DynDNS.org) (216.186.148.249) by smtp8.knology.net with SMTP; 13 Oct 2008 21:03:48 -0000 Received: by Grumpy.DynDNS.org (Postfix, from userid 928) id 7B0FD28422; Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:03:48 -0500 (CDT) Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:03:48 -0500 From: David Kelly To: Doug Hardie Message-ID: <20081013210348.GA76138@Grumpy.DynDNS.org> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: New PATA Drive X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: FreeBSD-Questions@FreeBSD.org List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:03:50 -0000 On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 01:56:40PM -0700, Doug Hardie wrote: > I am encountering an issue with a new 160 GB PATA drive. Its being > installed on an old system (Pentium II). The boot process never > really starts. It gets in the BIOS to where it checks for drives and > hangs with the message searching for the primary drive on the > channel. Normally I have that disabled because the boot drive is SCSI > but in that situation it just hangs and there are no messages. This > drive is the only device on the channel and it is jumpered for Master. > > I am suspecting that the issue is the drive ATA/100 is not falling > back to ATA/66/33 such that the motherboard can properly detect it. > Seagate does provide a utility to reset the drive back down from ATA/ > 100 but it requires that the boot get through to run the utility. The > drive works fine in a Mac but the utility won't run there. I can > continue to search for hardware that can boot with the drive attached > to run the utility or am I chasing my tail here? > > Drive: Seagate ST3160815A > > Motherboard: ASUS P2L97 - Manual says ATA/33 only. I have had exactly that sort of problem with a 160G Seagate drive on old hardware. And even if it did work it would have only recognized 128G due to hardware or BIOS limitations. In the end I swapped an old HD out of another machine that was happy with the new drive. A CPU and motherboard that does recognize your ATA100 drive costs less than the HD. Perhaps its time to upgrade the MB? -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@HiWAAY.net ======================================================================== Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad.