GA-965P-DS3 and WD 1TB SATA drive

[jave200372]

I was wondering if I could get some help/advice here. I've modified my old system to include a GA-965P-DS3 m/b (Rev1.33) and have two SATA drives installed - a Samsung 250GB drive and a WD 1TB drive. Now I'm having some troubles getting the 1TB drive recognised under XP Pro. I've updated the BIOS (Revision F12 from the Gigabyte website) and have installed all the latest drivers. From an initial cold boot, the 1TB drive isn't recognised by XP. Subsequent boots seem to fix the problem and the 1TB drive is available in XP. Any ideas as to what's going on? Am I missing something? The BIOS recognises the 1TB drive okay. Any help/advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[vegie]

if the drive is new.. u need to format it

 

[outlw6669]

I've modified my old system to include a GA-965P-DS3 m/b (Rev1.33) and have two SATA drives installed... Now I'm having some troubles getting the 1TB drive recognised under XP Pro...

Am I correct in the understanding that you did not reinstall XP when you updated your hardware?

If that is the case, I would recommend for formatting and reinstalling XP as your first step.
From what I am reading, your BIOS locates the Hd just fine so it is likely a corruption with your OS.

 

[jave200372]

Okay, I need to add some more info here. I installed XP first on a partition on the 250GB drive. That went fine. Then formatted the other partition on that drive. Okay as well. Then I formatted the 1TB drive. I knew this would take some time(!!!), so I let it run overnight. Problem was I didn't get to see it finish, as XP also downloaded some updates, and I discovered in the morning that XP rebooted the machine. There may be a problem here - would XP reboot itself while another system task is running such as a drive format? I can easily reformat if I have to. Chkdsk okayed the drive, but how do you tell if a format is truly okay?

outlw6669 - Your answer made me think of another cause. I later upgraded my initial install of XP Home to XP Pro, so there may be a problem there. Oh well, looks like a clean install for me....

 

[outlw6669]

Okay, I need to add some more info here. I installed XP first on a partition on the 250GB drive. That went fine. Then formatted the other partition on that drive. Okay as well. Then I formatted the 1TB drive. I knew this would take some time(!!!), so I let it run overnight. Problem was I didn't get to see it finish, as XP also downloaded some updates, and I discovered in the morning that XP rebooted the machine. There may be a problem here - would XP reboot itself while another system task is running such as a drive format?

Good question.
I am not 100% sure if it would reboot during formatting or not but it is possible.

First thing I would try then is a quick format of the drive.
That should rebuild your partition tables properly and hopefully return the drive to service.

If that dose not work, download The Ultimate Boot CD and run your Hd through the gambit of tests.

If it passes all the tests and still dose not work then it is time to format all and start over.

 

[outlw6669]

Okay, I need to add some more info here. I installed XP first on a partition on the 250GB drive. That went fine. Then formatted the other partition on that drive. Okay as well. Then I formatted the 1TB drive. I knew this would take some time(!!!), so I let it run overnight. Problem was I didn't get to see it finish, as XP also downloaded some updates, and I discovered in the morning that XP rebooted the machine. There may be a problem here - would XP reboot itself while another system task is running such as a drive format?

Good question.
I am not 100% sure if it would reboot during formatting or not but it is possible.

First thing I would try then is a quick format of the drive.
That should rebuild your partition tables properly and hopefully return the drive to service.

If that dose not work, download The Ultimate Boot CD and run your Hd through the gambit of tests.

If it passes all the tests and still dose not work then it is time to format all and start over.

 

[jave200372]

First thing I would try then is a quick format of the drive.

Didn't do this. I don't think it would have solved my problem. I'll explain why later.

If that dose not work, download The Ultimate Boot CD and run your Hd through the gambit of tests.

I did do this, and the drive and it's partitions came up just fine.

The model number of the drive is WD10EACS. It's one of Western Digital's "Green Power" drives, and according to WD (link here), the drive speed can change from 5400rpm to 7200rpm, depending upon load/demand, or use "IntelliPower" as WD label it. So I'm thinking that this "IntelliPower" setup is causing me a minor hassle during bootup. I've sent a email/question to WD, and I'll wait for their response. Also, take a look at the last review on NewEgg.com. I think that this guy is having the same problem as me. When I get a response from WD, and if it doesn't solve my problem, I'll do a clean format then. Here's hoping all goes well....

BTW - thanks outlw6669 for your help. Much appreciated. Also, our avatars are opposites...

 

[jave200372]

Update (to those who are interested): I've decided to return the drive to the seller for a refund, and have purchased a 1TB Seagate drive as a replacement. I don't like this "Green Power" thing. It's a sale gimmick as far as I'm concerned. WD's response to my problem was basically to partition and formatted the drive again. I did this several times, and even used WD's "Data Lifeguard Tool" to do so. But it was all in vain, as the drive still wasn't being recognised properly during a cold boot. WD advised me to return the drive to my seller for exchange or repair, which is what I have decided to do.

To all potential purchasers of Western Digital's "Green Power" hard drives - beware.

 

[jave200372]

Second update (to those who are interested): I've installed the 1TB Seagate OEM drive and all is well. I formatted the drive without incident and the drive is recognised on a cold boot every time. Mind you, I had to connect it to one of the "other" SATA ports on the board, the ones controlled by the JMicron chip. I also changed the SATA ports to AHCI control in the BIOS and added the necessary ICH8 drivers to Windows. The drive is fast and responsive - as it should be.