Hard Drive dead?

[peergynt]

When I boot to CMOS, the drive's values are different from what they should be. For example, CMOS states that it's a 4 GB drive whereas it's actually a 20 GB drive.

I've tried placing the drive on all available channels primary1, secondary0 and secondary1. Also, I cleared CMOS between each change and tried both Cable Select and Mas/Sla configurations. The result is always the same.

So do you think it a goner?

[Rob Pomeroy]

It could be that you're using an old motherboard that doesn't recognise hard drives larger than 4GB.  Check the motherboard vendor's website for an updated BIOS which may have fixed this.

[peergynt]

Thanks for the reply.  It's one of the two original HDs that shipped with the system.  It all worked once before.  I recently added another drive and a new CD device.  Everything except my one disk works fine. The system looks like this:

P0 -- new 80GB disk (OS, works fine)
P1 -- new CD (works fine)
S0 -- old 20GB disk (works fine)
S1 -- old 20GB disk (doesn't work)

[GX1_Man]

Run some free diagnostics on the drive from the appropriate drive manufacturer.

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1122425778

[peergynt]

Thanks GX1_Man.  The Western Digital diagnostics error code looks like this:

Test Result: FAIL
!!-Cable Test: Read diagnostics sector error!

I also tried Dell's diagnostics tools:
OVERALL RESULT: UNUSUAL STATUS, Could not complete test

I'd chkdsk it but I don't have a drive letter...

[GX1_Man]

Sounds like a drive that needs to be replaced. You could try swapping in another cable, or check another drive on that IDE port to confirm.

[peergynt]

Thanks for your help.  I think you're right about needing to replace it.  I'm kind of disappointed because I was planning to mirror it with another disk of same size.  Now I need to buy two new disks