Question:
I've installed a new (second hand) 40GB IDE hard drive on my brothers
computer but the Start-up procedure stops at 'Detecting IDE Primary
Master...'.
I am using a 40 pin 80-conductor cable and the jumper is set as Master
with no other hard drive installed.
I then installed the hard drive in my computer and installed Windows
XP Home on it and this went OK so the drive is not faulty.
Answer:
OK, you should be able to run the bios flash from inside windows, sad
enough, though...you do not have windows....
When you boot from a floppy with a boot image for the BIOS it actually
uses part of the floppy and sometimes the HDD as a memory space, since
your CD was burned with Nero it does not have any specific software
written to do this. I would recommend finding a BIOS flash that works
with a floppy disk. As far as your BIOS you have now....look at the
HDD, usually they have how many heads, clys, etc on the top, write
these numbers down and manually enter them into your BIOS. This
should detect either the correct size, or the maximum size, even if it
is the maximum size and still works, well, you can still install
windows and get to your BIOS update and start over again.
DigitalBlade: flash73.exe and QQ418.bin were downloaded from First
International Computer, Inc. website but they suggested using a floppy
disc.
Using drdos.img was used following the instructions of
http://www.biosflash.com/e/bios-boot-cd.htm
I uninstalled the 40GB drive and installed the old 20GB (about to die)
drive. I then flashed the BIOS using a Boot Floppy Disk hoping that
the update would enable the BIOS to detect the 40GB hard drive but now
Windows XP Home will not startup. After the usual startup checks I
arrive at a page that states:
We apoligize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start
successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused
this.
If your computer stopped responding, restarted unexpectedly orwas
automatically shut down to protect your files and folders, choose Last
Known Good Configuration to revert to the most recent settings that
worked.
If a previous startup attempt was interupted due to a power failure or
because the Power or Reset button was pressed, or if you aren't sure
what caused the problem, choose Start Windows Normally.
