WD Trouble

[Tatoruso]

Hello ppl!
I have a WD 100AA HDD (10Gb) and have some trubles with it, no matter how i conect it (single drive, master, slave) it gets recognized in the BIOS (but it just lists it as WD100AA, when it should be WD100AA - 34AAA4) but i can´t see it in Windows and the Device Manager lists a problem in the IDE Controller i install it in.......
In DOS, I enter FDisk and attempt to create or delete any partition and it tells me that there´s not enough space it the HDD when the program tries to ckeck the integrity of it........
What can i do about this? have I lost my HDD (and all the info in it)?
Thanx a lot, PLEASE HELP ME!

[bigjackusa]

If you do any changes to the drive partitions with fdisk, I guarantee you that you will lose your data. I take it that this is a second hard drive as you say you've looked at it in Windows. How is it hooked up in your machine, i.e. one of 2 drives on the ide channel, on the primary or secondary channel(raid channel?), how is it partitioned and formatted? Is your bios set to auto-detect it?
The more info, the better the help.

[Tatoruso]

I have´t seen the HDD inWindows, it just causes troubles in the IDE channel i connect it to; i.e.: I set it to be a Secondary Master, and a CD-ROM as a Secondary Slave, and the Hard Disk controllers in My Computer/properties/device manager shows me a warning sign on the 2nd IDE channel controller; also i can´t see he cdrom drive in My computer folder, and I know it works perfectly (the CDROM drive).
The BIOS is set to auto recognize it and it does, and sets the correct parameters indeed, but that´s it, i can`t do nothing more with the disk......
other example. If I put it as a Primary Slave (being my other HDD my primary master) it´s all okay in the BIOS (except for the problem that it lists it as WD100AA alone, when it should be WD100AA - 34AAA4) but Windows cannot initialize ("Windows protection Error. You must reboot your machine" it´s not exactly the message, but it´s something like that) so I´m thinking the HDD is actually corrupting the IDE channel somehow... if it can be possible.
whad do ya suggest? (i´m extremely sorry for my bad english)

[Wiggo]

Sounds like you have lost the drive if it's upsetting the IDE controller. :(
<center>:cheers:</center>

[bigjackusa]

I agree with Wiggo, the drive may be bad. There are a couple of other things you can try.

Reload the VIA 4 in 1 drivers in case the ide drivers are corrupted.

If you got a utilities floppy with the drive, W.D. includes a diagnostic program that you can run that may help you diagnose what's wrong (I think you can download it at W.D.'s site too.)

Even though it is pretty light duty, you can run scandisk from a boot floppy (this keeps windows out of the way) and see if it has a clue. The last couple of versions of Norton Utilities will boot from the cd so you can run Diskdoctor.

Try swapping the jumpers on the drives and see if the problem moves. It's really rare, but I have run into bad jumpers. Usually the conductor falls out or one side of it beaks off.

You can try booting from a floppy and use the command: format d:(or whatever the drive letter is) /mbr and see whether it works or what error message it generates.

If all else fails, I hope it is under warranty.

[Tatoruso]

Well, i´ve reloaded the VIA 4in1´s but no effect. I downloaded ldgchk.exe from WD webpage and it says there´s an error reading some tracks..........
So i guess that´s all for this little one... too bad it is not in warranty anymore.......

Thanx everyone for your assistance!!

:cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

[Wiggo]

Sorry dude but it does happen. :(