More hard drives, more trouble
I have three hard drives. The one with Windows on it wasn't being detected. Over the course of a day or two, it went from working 95% to 50% to, well, lower. Last night, it wasn't being detected at all. When it was connected, I got bluescreen errors every hour or so.
My plan was to reload Windows on my other drive. That wouldn't be a problem except the USB ports on my motherboard died a few months back.
But I got a new USB card when they started getting flaky. That wouldn't be a problem. Except I have a USB keyboard, and the BIOS doesn't recognize it any more.
That wouldn't be a problem, except my machine is set to boot from HDD then CD (for some reason) and is incapable of successfully completing a Windows reinstallation. And I can't even choose safe mode or choose to boot from the CD.
Anyhow, what's happening? I have two hard drives on my primary IDE. If they are both connected, they're not seen by the BIOS. If I disconnect power to the master drive, the slave drive is detected. I tried it vice versa once and the master drive was detected, but I don't think that's statistically significant.
When they were both connected, the machine tended to bluescreen frequently. The master drive passed
There are five possible points of failure.
1) The master drive - I was convinced that this was the culprit until I disconnected the slave drive this morning, and everything worked. Now further troubleshooting is required. 30%
2) The slave drive - It's very possible one drive to interfere with the detection of another. Since the OS is on the master drive, it'd be difficult to troubleshoot. 20%
3) The jumper settings - The whole detection issue is symptomatic of jumper problems, I'll be the first to admit. However, I hadn't changed anything to the configuration in months. And it works intermittently, which isn't typical of jumper issues. They're supposed to be an all-or-nothing deal. 20%
4) The motherboard's primary IDE controller - perhaps. I haven't seen this as a point of failure often. I should try swapping the IDE ports to see what happens. 5%
5) The cable - cable failure is rare, but none of the other options make much sense. 25%
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UPDATE: After I get this whole thing typed out, I open the case up and my drives were jumpered master and cable select. So far, it's been a day and things are working fine. I still don't understand how that worked for a few months then failed, but I don't mind as long as things stay fixed. I still can't get into the BIOS or safe mode or anything. Or boot from a CD or floppy. But I'll pick up a PS/2 keyboard at my convenience.
My plan was to reload Windows on my other drive. That wouldn't be a problem except the USB ports on my motherboard died a few months back.
But I got a new USB card when they started getting flaky. That wouldn't be a problem. Except I have a USB keyboard, and the BIOS doesn't recognize it any more.
That wouldn't be a problem, except my machine is set to boot from HDD then CD (for some reason) and is incapable of successfully completing a Windows reinstallation. And I can't even choose safe mode or choose to boot from the CD.
Anyhow, what's happening? I have two hard drives on my primary IDE. If they are both connected, they're not seen by the BIOS. If I disconnect power to the master drive, the slave drive is detected. I tried it vice versa once and the master drive was detected, but I don't think that's statistically significant.
When they were both connected, the machine tended to bluescreen frequently. The master drive passed
There are five possible points of failure.
1) The master drive - I was convinced that this was the culprit until I disconnected the slave drive this morning, and everything worked. Now further troubleshooting is required. 30%
2) The slave drive - It's very possible one drive to interfere with the detection of another. Since the OS is on the master drive, it'd be difficult to troubleshoot. 20%
3) The jumper settings - The whole detection issue is symptomatic of jumper problems, I'll be the first to admit. However, I hadn't changed anything to the configuration in months. And it works intermittently, which isn't typical of jumper issues. They're supposed to be an all-or-nothing deal. 20%
4) The motherboard's primary IDE controller - perhaps. I haven't seen this as a point of failure often. I should try swapping the IDE ports to see what happens. 5%
5) The cable - cable failure is rare, but none of the other options make much sense. 25%
--
UPDATE: After I get this whole thing typed out, I open the case up and my drives were jumpered master and cable select. So far, it's been a day and things are working fine. I still don't understand how that worked for a few months then failed, but I don't mind as long as things stay fixed. I still can't get into the BIOS or safe mode or anything. Or boot from a CD or floppy. But I'll pick up a PS/2 keyboard at my convenience.