[wellylug] New HDD on old motherboard

[Brent Wood]

--- Richard Hector <richard at walnut.gen.nz> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I've got a new(ish) 80G drive which my BIOS doesn't recognise.

Firstly, ensure you are using a 80 strand cable, not a 40 strand one.

Try it initially with NO other drives on the cable (have the drive on the end,
not the middle).  I know IDE is pretty common, but not all drives like each
other. Try the drive set jumpered as both stand alone/master and slave, as one
may work.

If this fails, then drop to a 40 strand cable (slower, but maybe more reliable
with the older motherboard) & repeat.

If you are using a Western Digital drive, ensure it is jumpered correctly for
standalone (which is NOT the same as master, unlike some other brands)

Then repeat with another drive on the cable, try both master slave & both
end/middle cable connectors.

Otherwise maybe a problem with Intel chipsets & Linux. It should have been
fixed with a 2.6 kernel though, it was well known with 2.4 kernels, so is
possibly a different problem causing the same diagnostic.

Another step I suggest is to download & flash the latest BIOS for the
motherboard. If you look at the history you may even see it listed as a fixed
problem.

I'd also see if Knoppix or PCLinuxOS recognises the drive OK, I'd be surprised,
but a live CD could be worth a try. 


Anyway, if the BIOS has problems with the drive, it is unlikely that Linux will
detect it properly & ever run smoothly.

I have an old BTC PCI IDE controller (UMC 8673 chipset) which might work for
you. You're welcome to borrow it & see if it helps.



For interests sake, here is a quote from Linus Torvalds in 1998:

"BUT: Whatever you claim, there _have_ been pervasive reports about
problems with IDE-DMA, for a long time. I've asked people to turn of DMA
before, exactly because the rumors have been there. We _know_ that our IDE
driver seems to be much too timing-sensitive for some reason, without ever
reporting errors even when they happen. Whether that's hardware or the
driver is secondary - the fact is that problems have magically gone away
when IDEDMA is turned off or when using a shorter cable."

Alan Cox was working on fixes to the IDE driver up to a year or two ago, I
haven't looked into this since then.


Brent Wood