# WinXP can't format Hard drive on Asus motherboard



## shinjyo (Sep 25, 2004)

I just got my new computer component all together, however i got a problem.
I couldn't format the hard drive by using the winXP CD. And it just show up the hard drive may be damaged. But I just good everything brand new, even i have tried another hard drive, but still have the same problem.

Here is what i got:
CPU: P4 2.26GHz L2 Cache 512
Motherboard: Asus P4SP-MX (Should support Ultra DMA 66/100/133)
Hard Drive: Maxtor Diamond MAX Plus 9 (80GB)
Ram: 512 Ram DDR
Display: nVida Geforce MX..
CD-Rom: Sony 520A RW

P.S. I don't have a floppy drive( i don't know this will affect a little bit or not)

Please! Anyone can tell me what to do, but at least i would like to know what happen?


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## clintfan (Sep 4, 2003)

Hi shinjyo, and welcome to the forum!


Although your mobo uses the SiS chipsets, it appears to be very simple, offering only primary & secondary straight IDE. On such a simple mobo, software installation should go smoothly, almost foolproof. So the type of problem you've reported is _not_ normal.

A new DiamondMax HDD should also work fine, there should not be any errors such as you mentioned. Although it is possible that a HDD can be bad --I have a bad DiamondMax here which I've yet to RMA-- the fact you tried a second HDD with the same result, makes me think it might be a cabling problem.

Make sure the cable you use is an 80-conductor ATA66 cable. These should be smooth cables, not bumpy like the old 40-conductor cables. Make sure your HDD is attached to the far port on the short end of the cable, the cable isn't longer than 18 inches (45cm), and the HDD is strapped as Master. Please do not trust "Cable Select" (CS) modes.

PRI_IDE1 <======12in.======> empty <===6in.===> Maxtor-HDD

If the cabling is fine, then you either have 2 bad hard drives, or a bad mobo.


I do not think you will need a floppy drive, at least not yet. A basic OS install like you are attempting, apparently does not require adding any SiS drivers at install-time, and this is all that a floppy would be needed for. Once the OS is on the HDD, you will be able to read additional drivers off the CD... such as the SiS Mini IDE Driver, SiS Display driver, LAN, SoundMax, and, and, and...? Sorry but these non-Intel chipsets require more individual drivers than I'm used to, and their names are cryptic in the Asus download site, so I'm not sure exactly what to tell you do install. Best follow the instructions in section 3.2.2. of your mobo manual, and use the CD.

Hope this helps,

-clintfan


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## Howardjnl (Oct 24, 2004)

I have a very similar problem. I have brand new P5GD2 Premium motherboard with BIOS v1007. I have a new DVD-RW drive on one IDE cable, and now two (was one) HDD on a second cable. I'm using the Primary IDE plug and the primary RAID plug as the two IDE connections to the motherboard. No matter which cable is connected to which of these plugs on the motherboard, the DVD-RW works fine. The HDD's (one Western Digital IDE and one SeaGate IDE) show up at POST during IDE scan (the DVD-RW does not), show up in BIOS setup for setting boot device order, but do not show up as detected in the IDE stuff (the DVD-RW does show up). The WinXP set up does not detect the HDD's either. I've also tried one drive at a time, several combinations of jumper settings (the DVD-RW is now a "Master" on it's cable in the Primary IDE plug, the Western Digital HDD the "Master" and the SeaGate HDD is "slave" on the cable in the Primary Raid plug (IDE, no RAID). No change. Floppy drive works fine.

John


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## chewwong (Sep 10, 2004)

Have you done Fdisk before formatting?


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## twajetmech (Jul 1, 2004)

The maxtor drive should have come with MaxBlaster, its a bootable cd that will allow you to format and partition your new HD, if you bought it oem then download it from the maxtor website and follow the directions on how to make a bootable cd


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## Howardjnl (Oct 24, 2004)

*WinXP can't format HArd drive on ASUS*

Chewwong,
No, I didn't do Fdisk. On my system (the one with Western Digital and Seagate drives, not the Maxtor one that began this thread) I used Western Digital's utility to reset the partions. I'll try Fdisk this evening. Thanks very much.
John


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## Howardjnl (Oct 24, 2004)

Guys,
Where can I get fdisk on a bootable medium? Can't do it from WinXP CD on boot. Creating a bootable floppy doesn't include it. Help.
John


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## twajetmech (Jul 1, 2004)

bootdisk.com ! you can also download the maxblaster software in floppy format as well. the maxblaster software is excellent, works on most other drives as well and is full featured...and free ! as is bootdisk.com


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## Howardjnl (Oct 24, 2004)

twajetmech,
Well, it appears that anything NOT WinXP works fine. The Win98 boot floppy disk can recognize and manipulate the hard drives, the Western Digital bootable floppy can also work fine. It's just WinXP booting from CD-ROM that doesn't work.
Also, with the hard drive ribbon cable in the Primary IDE plug (blue) on the motherboard and the DVD-RW ribbon cable in the PriRAID IDE plug, the error I get is the blue screen that says that in order to protect my system the boot up has halted, etc. On the other hand, when I switch the two cables on the mother board, I get the other message about no hard drives being found.
My version of WinXP has NO service patch (no SP1 or SP2). I'm going to build some bootable XP SP2 floppies (source from Microsoft) and give that a try this evening.
Make sense?
John


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## Howardjnl (Oct 24, 2004)

Folks,
Just found this interesting Q&A on the Asus site:

Question: "When connecting DVD-ROM on PRI_IDE1 port of my P5AD2 Premium, I am able to boot up using CD. However, I cannot boot from CD when it is connected to PRI_RAID1 port. Why?"

Answer: "Due to ITE 8212F controller limitation, when connecting more than two IDE devices on ITE RAID controller, the motherboard BIOS cannot define which device is the correct device for boot up option. Please always connect your ATAPI boot up devices (Optical drives such as CD-ROM) to the blue PRI_IDE1 slot from ICH6R."

Sounds like only one IDE device per IDE RAID port (PRI_RAID1 and PRI_RAID2). In my testing, when I had the hard drive ribbon cable on PRI_RAID1 I either had not done anything to the drive yet (format, etc.) or had a second drive on the same cable. Looks like my plan of attack for this evening is to move the single HDD to PRI_RAID1, and the DVD-RW to PRI_IDE1. The answer above does not specifically say that putting a single optical drive on PRI_RAID1 is wrong, but it doesn't say otherwise either. I've heard a couple of references in this site to putting optical drives on PRI_IDE1.
And if that doesn't help, continue with plan to boot from XP SP2 floppies.
John


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## Qiset (Oct 17, 2004)

*had the same problem.*

I had the same error on my system. I was using two 512 ddr sticks and 
fixed the problem by removing one. I've had the memory checked by
kingston and it's ok. I've wondered if my powersupply can't respond 
fast enough to support dual-channel under heavy demands. It was a cheapo
case from fry's.


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## Howardjnl (Oct 24, 2004)

Well folks, here's the situation today:

DOS and DOS based utilities (such as FDISK from Win98 boot diskette and Western Digital's "Data Lifeguard" utility) can see and manipulate the Western digital 80GB hard drive just fine. In ASUS CMOS Set Up, I see the DVD-RW drive as the Master on whichever IDE port I put it on, but I don't see the HDD any where. In the boot priority I see all drives (floppy, DVD-RW, and HDD). Using either WinXP or WinXP-SP2 set up, XP can't locate any hard drive, not even when select the start up option to load a driver (says there is not drive to load a driver for). I also notice in the Western Digital utility that the DVD-RW appears on the "motherboard" controller, but the disk drive appears on "unknown controller".
Even though both 512MB Kingston memory chips appear to be working fine, I tried removing the second one as described in the previous post. No difference. Using FDISK, FORMAT, or the Western Digital utilities to set up the drive with DOS FAT-32, NTFS makes no difference, XP does not detect the drive. I've tried a second Western Digital drive, and a SeaGate drive as the single HDD, and no difference.
I'm working on registering my P5GD2 board and myself as a "member" on the ASUS site to see if I can get any satisfaction that way.
Any other suggestions? (Aaarrrggghhh!!!!)
John


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## Howardjnl (Oct 24, 2004)

Got it! Looking back, it was something obvious. I needed the ITE8212 RAID Controller driver. The WinXP set up asked about any necessary drivers needed as it comes up, but I wasn't aware that any were needed. After looking, relooking, stimulating tired brain cells, etc., I pulled down the latest ITE8212 driver update from ASUS (ASUS never responded to my message, BTW), and tried it out as part of the WinXP set up. That did it! All is fine now.

As others have mentioned before, ASUS is weak on documentation and support response. I definitely agree. I like their motherboard, but support and documentation definitely can be improved.

Thanks for your help and advice!
John


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