Abit BF-6 and Seagate ST38641A

[Raptor^]

I just replaced my old mobo with an Abit BF-6 (not a UDMA/66 controller causing nastiness here).

I flashed the mobo to the latest BIOS, but the problem was present with the shipped BIOS too.

I have a load of data I need to get off my old Seagate hdd (ST38641A, 8.6gig UDMA 33 5400RPM), but connecting that HDD as a master or a slave on either IDE controller causes the machine to hang just after IDE auto-detection.

This was because the number of cylinders was being misdetected (I can't understand this ever happening on a modern mobo, but it did).

This HDD was being used in LBA mode in my previous system and the Abit BIOS will not let me set the LBA parameters manually. Setting the normal block mode params and then setting the drive to LBA mode appears to translate my settings to the correct LBA values, but when I save and exit from the BIOS the mobo just autodetects the disk again.

I can make the machine POST by setting the drive up in normal mode, but this means I cannot access my data.

I know the IDE controller is not faulty as it works just fine with my other HDDs, my CD-writer and my DVD drive.

I was trying to put this HDD in while building the system, so all I had in my box was the Seagate HDD and my G400 MAX.

Have I missed something really obvious, or is there some incompatability between my mobo and this HDD?

(The HDD still works, I put it in another comp and it was fine. I could just snag all my data across the network, but I want to use it as a backup drive too)

[This message has been edited by Raptor^ (edited 01 August 2000).]

[Brian R.]

I had a similar incompatibility when I tried to format my HD in a different computer, transfer files, and then use it in a different computer. No cigar. The only way I could use it was to place the blank drive in the second computer and totally partition and format the drive in the computer it was to be used in. Don't know if this is analogous to your situation, but if you delete the partitions on the drive (after temporarily storing the data on another drive) you may be able to partition and format it on the BF6. Good luck.

[Guyver]

Depending on the size of the drive and the age of the BIOS in the old system, it may interpret the settings differently, based on what the BIOS can handle. I've never had a problem with forcing a drive to use custom specs either though, so I'm not sure what the problem is with your drive. (BX6R2, BE6, BE6-II, BX133-RAID).

I'd go with getting the data off using the old system/network, and the reformatting it under the new system.

[Brian R.]

Actually, in my case, both BIOSs were reasonably modern (within 1 year old). The old computer MB was an Intel Seattle and the new one was a BE6-2.

You might try flashing the BIOS on the new board again...

Also, is the IDE cable you're using reliable?

[This message has been edited by Brian R. (edited 02 August 2000).]

[Raptor^]

I tried it with the IDE cable that was in my comp from before the upgrade, and with the one that came with the BF-6, no joy there.

My old mobo (Totem P2BX) reported the HDD correctly (per the specs on the case of the drive) using 3 different BIOS revisions, a new I820 motherboard (dunno what board, not my machine) in a different comp reports the information correctly now, so I don't think that the Totem was getting it wrong in the first place.

I could just reformat it based on the settings on the BF6, but it is staggering that a modern board could fail to detect a disk drive correctly.

I also find it interesting that Brian had a similar problem with another Abit motherboard, when I have done both what he described with many different computers, both old and modern. Perhaps there is some larger problem with IDE disk detection on Abit boards in general.

[Brian R.]

Once I had formatted the HD in the BE6-2 case, I could replace it in the old case and copy the files from the temporary HD.