Sata drive help

Help
I already have one WD 160GB Sata1 drive and wanted to add another hard drive.
My Intel desktop motherboard D875PBZ has two sata connectors.
I installed the Sata drivers when setting up my first hard drive
I purchased a new Caviar 250GB 16MB 7200 Sata11
Installed drive ok, fired up PC with winxp pro ok, went through all of the setup sequence, quick format.
It went through the first sequence, PC rebooted, then stopped saying corrupt install.
Rebooted but could not get into my bios, now back to my original drive.
Restarted PC umpteen times no luck.
What have I done wrong? or has the drive fried!! unfortunately I haven't got another PC to try the drive.

#1

I wouldn't expect a quick format to work on a new drive.

Does the motherboard support SATA II, if not does teh drive have a jumper or switch to switch it to SATA1 (SATA150)?

Have you checked the WD site for diagnostic utils? Not much use if the system won't boot with the new drive.

Are you trying to add the drive or replace it?

Replace
I set the jumpers to 150mb but nothing happened.
What I can't understand is when I first installed the hard drive my bios recognized it.
Now,, no go.
Tried it on a friend's pc who had sata11 onboard and it worked,
So I cant really send it back, so will have to wait until I upgrade next year.
Thanks for your help.

Have you updated the BIOS as there seems to have been an issue with SATA drives not being detected?

obvious question and makes a difference - I did this

Make sure the drive with windows on is in sata port 1, if its in sata port 2, the computer will try to boot from a blank drive and go screwy

Latest BIOS update, no new ones for my Intel Desktop Board D875PBZ .
Have tried drive on a friends PC with sata11 works OK.
Also jumper on 150 no luck.
sata port 1, with windows port 2 new drive. this setup will not let me into bios.
Have now given up, will be updating PC in the new year, so at least I will have a new hard drive!
Thanks for all your help.

Does the machine still behave this way when you unplug the power from the new drive? It could possibly be that the PSU in the PC itself does not have enough headroom for running a second drive - this can be the situation in built-as-cheaply-as-possible equipment.

I would also like to see a more complete description of the behaviour you describe as "will not let me into bios"...

If I unplug the new drive the pc will boot into windows ok, plug it back in, no go.
PSU is a new 700W, so I don't think that is the problem.
Like I said previously when I first put the new sata drive in and fired up bios recognized second drive.
It was only when I tried to load a fresh copy of winxp pro it stalled on the first reboot and said error unable to continue loading windows.
Pressing Delete or f2 key it just hangs
Nothing wrong with my winxp pro disk, I have just re/installed it on my sata1 drive successfully.
I have also got a IDE drive on board which is ok, unplugged that as well before trying the sata11.
Have come to conclusion that my motherboard is like me, getting old.

Edited by deleted (Sun 26-Nov-06 10:24:00)

hang on have you got 2 windows installs on your system. That can send some motherboards on a hissy fit

No just the one, the sata1 drive with windows on was unplugged when trying to install winxp on the new sata11 drive

Edited by deleted (Sun 26-Nov-06 11:11:22)

On some motherboards you have to specify which SATA drive is the boot drive, if more than one is fitted. Maybe yours is one like this ?

Thanks everybody, have tried everything but no luck.
Will call Novatech Monday and see if they can suggest anything.

Sata11 drive update.
Spoke to T/S Novatech today, the man said send it back, suspected boot sector fault.