nForce2 and Western Digital EIDE drive

[Zak33]

Lo dudes.

Sair's parents have a fine and dandy Soltek Cubic with an nForce 2 mobo. It's on a "so far" fine Maxtor drive.

I got them a WD Caviar SE 160gb drive new, and intended to Drive Image7 it across.

Except, after replicating the drive, and using all the spare space, it wouldn't boot as a boot drive. I'm not bad with Drive Image7, so after 3 attempts with different settings, including partitioning and formating first with CP disk and then trying to Image it with no luck, I tried something else.

I tried just installing XP on it. Fresh. And while it formats and copies the files...it won't reboot on that drive. As though there is no boot sector.

If I just partition it, and then boot from the original maxtor drive, with this as a slave, it's a perfectly readable and useable D drive, and moreover, all the XP files are on there from my attempted XP install. But it wont boot from that drive, even with a fresh XP install (quite new XP with SP2, oem)

So....does anyone know of any nForce2 and WD drive issues? Or am I missing something important with WD drives. Jumper settings, so far, are Cable Select and also with no jumper (as it's on its own channel)

The only other drives in the maxchine are either the optical drive (for XP install) of the Maxtor (for imaging) and in both cases, they're on different EIDE channels.

Thanks for any help you guys can suggest

[joshwa]

I'm not familiar with drive image, but have you tried Ghost? are you doing DISK to DISK image?
Are you imaging and then putting the WD in on it's own? (with just the optical drive)
When you did the XP install was the WD in the machine on it's own? (with the Maxtor miles away, not even connected?)

[malfunction]

Hmm... I had this happen to me ages ago - can't remember exactly how I fixed it but try nuking the partitions and create some new ones. Also make sure you have the large lba thing enabled (for drives > 137GB)

[Zak33]

but have you tried Ghost? are you doing DISK to DISK image?

not got ghost, and yes, Hard drive to Hard drive

Are you imaging and then putting the WD in on it's own? (with just the optical drive)

yup

When you did the XP install was the WD in the machine on it's own? (with the Maxtor miles away, not even connected?)

yup

[Zak33]

Hmm... I had this happen to me ages ago - can't remember exactly how I fixed it but try nuking the partitions and create some new ones. Also make sure you have the large lba thing enabled (for drives > 137GB)

tried binning and remamaking the partitions already.

I actualy wondered if the BIOS won't support the drive....but then it shows fine as a seperate HDD running XP on the other drive, and this drive as an empty one(just partitioned)

[BUFF]

some WDs have a unique jumper setting iirc for Master with no slave (or some such)?

[Zak33]

some WDs have a unique jumper setting iirc for Master with no slave (or some such)?

yeah, it's with no jumper at all. It's for either master or slave, with nowt else on that channel. tried that too

[Zak33]

I'm gonna try it in an old P4 rig. See if Intel mobo prefers it.

[Zak33]

Failed to Drive Image, but a fresh install of XP (after a FULL format, not a quick one) has worked.

Will wipe that and try Drive Image 7 again.

[Zak33]

Drive Image failed again. XP loads to the scrolling blue bar, makes it to the small Windows Logo but doesnt get any further, ie never makes it to the Welcome Screen or to desktop. Just sits there.

Very weird. Anyone else ever had this with a WD drive (or any other drive)?

[Zak33]

I can't suss this at all.

I've used DriveImage with this very Intel PC before. It started with a 60gig drive and I used Drive Image7 to increase it to a 120gig, which is what it's got right now. Having used it to move from that tothe new WD 160 gig drive, it always reports as successful but it just won't boot XP.

Maddening, just maddening.

[Zak33]

Works fine as a fresh install and works fine as an additional disk on this Intel rig.Neither are quite what I need.

Shall get Acronis I think and try that.

[malfunction]

Tried zero-ing the drive?

[Zak33]

zero-ing?

[malfunction]

There's a util you can get from WD that will totally erase the drive - might help (long shot)

[s_kinton]

I've found that zeroing the drive has fixed some issues in the past. It takes an absolute age to do though. Most major HDD manufacturers have utilities for this