PC BIOS Help

Spruence M · 09-15-07, 11:08 AM

Checking your Hard Drive Type:

The following is a picture of a SATA or ATA cable. Take notice to the type of plug it has on the end.

The following is what an EIDE or IDE cable looks like, although different, to an untrained eye they are identical.

Let me know which type you have please. That will answer the question of wiether or not you need to disable the SATA search at startup.

Edit: IDE and EIDE look identical. Just to make that clear.

STEED · 09-15-07, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spruence M

Checking your Hard Drive Type:

The following is a picture of a SATA or ATA cable. Take notice to the type of plug it has on the end.

The following is what an EIDE or IDE cable looks like, although different, to an untrained eye they are identical.

Let me know which type you have please. That will answer the question of wiether or not you need to disable the SATA search at startup.

Edit: IDE and EIDE look identical. Just to make that clear.

If these plug in at the back I can say I have never used or own one as in the second picture, as for the first one it looks like a no as well. Hang on let me re-phase that I do have cables Simula to the first one and the big connection is Simula but the small one hmmmm.

Just checked the paper work when I bought it and it states ATA Hard Drive, true to say since then I have a new one. So would there be no change and remain a ATA?

Zantham · 09-15-07, 12:45 PM

Quote:

the start up the bar gets almost to the end then I get this on my screen.

Floppy disk seek failed
Drive 1 not found serial ATA Sata-1
Drive 2 not found serial ATA Sata-2
Drive 3 not found serial ATA Sata-3

There is no floppy drive on the PC but I have got two external floppies

This message you should be getting BEFORE you start booting Windows XP, these are generally what's called POST message, and relate to your system BIOS.

Your computer appears to be searching for a floppy drive (externals don't count in this case), and Serial ATA hard drives. Most computers nowadays are set to automatically detect hard drives, and your's appears to be letting you know that it hasn't found any drives on those three SATA ports. Most computers have 4 SATA ports, perhaps it does detect your drive on the fourth port?

The pictures of the cables Sprunce_M showed are found inside your case, not the back. You need to open your computer up so you can see it's guts. They will run from the motherboard to your hard drive inside your computer. You will most likely have the wide ribbon cable that runs to your optical drive as well.

Quote:

"paper work when I bought it and it states ATA Hard Drive"

This suggests to me then that your hard drive is an IDE drive, and hence you should have that wide ribbon.

STEED · 09-15-07, 12:49 PM

Are right, cheers Zantham. I shall check this out shortly back in 20 minutes I hope.

Spruence M · 09-15-07, 01:00 PM

If you change from the RAID/ANCL to the RAID/ATA and the error still arises, then report back here, and I will try to find a screenshot of what it looks like in my BIOS to show you what the manual overide would look like.

STEED · 09-15-07, 01:27 PM

OK, checked inside I got three cables as in the second picture two big and the other one a little smaller, there is another cable and going by my manual the picture looks the same as inside the PC. The manual states this is a Serial ATA Connector.

Zantham · 09-15-07, 02:00 PM

Ok, an IDE cable, such as runs to a hard drive or optical drive, measures about 2" wide. If you were to count the little holes in the connector for this cable it would have 2 rows of 20 pins (40 total). Sometimes one or more of the pins is blocked off.

A floppy cable looks very similar to an IDE cable, but measures 1 3/4" wide. This cable has 2 rows of 17 pins (34 total). Sometimes one or more of the pins is blocked off.

A serial ATA cable is maybe as wide as your little finger (about 1cm wide).

The color of the cables is unimportant, but generally IDE and floppy cables are grey-white, occasionally black, and SATA cables are generally red, but blue or black is common too.

Most Dells's bought in the last..year maybe? no longer have floppy drives internally. Does yours? I ask because it sounds like you have a floppy drive cable, in which case you don't need to disable your onboard floppy drive controller, but rather set it to the correct drive. (3.5" Floppy, 1.44MB). Check that the floppy cable is plugged into the drive (hopefully the right orientation), and that the drive also has power going to it (separate cable, these are 4-wire cable, red black black yellow and you will have wires like this running all over inside your computer).

It also sounds like you have at least two IDE devices in your computer. These can be hard drives and optical drives. Most computers usually only ever have one hard drive, and one optical drive, but 2 optical drives is somewhat common as well.. generally the two optical drives are plugged into the same cable, one in the middle, one on the end. (FYI - by optical drive I mean CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, etc. including burners). Since you brought up RAID, your computer can have more than one hard drive (generally two in this case).

If you can let us know what drives you have and how many of each...(isn't this fun??

)

STEED · 09-15-07, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spruence M

If you change from the RAID/ANCL to the RAID/ATA and the error still arises, then report back here

Will this change cause a problem as I have forked out on a very large bill some months ago and I don't want to fork out again.

By the way were those instructions I were given look OK?

Spruence M · 09-15-07, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by STEED

If these plug in at the back I can say I have never used or own one as in the second picture, as for the first one it looks like a no as well. Hang on let me re-phase that I do have cables Simula to the first one and the big connection is Simula but the small one hmmmm.

Just checked the paper work when I bought it and it states ATA Hard Drive, true to say since then I have a new one. So would there be no change and remain a ATA?

Most likely, Yes, you would have an ATA. If it looks simular to the first pic, I could'nt find an exact in the 20 seconds I alotted myself. (Actually, I am not sure about the 1 small connector, never seen 1 like that) anyway, this is what I would do if it were my machine:

First: Would find out which ATA Slot my hard drive is plugged into.

They will look simular to this and may have numbers next to them denoting which is which. Also your motherboard manuel should tell you.

My suspicion: You have a total of 4 of the above male plugs on your motherboard, and it is capable of using all 4 at one time, (had you ever the need to adding more.) and your error message is telling you that 1-3 are missing because they are not there, and still turned on in your BOIS, and same story for your Floppy Drive.

As far as what the Dell Technition has recommended, (Now that I understand it, or at least believe that I do) I would follow that advice first, turning it from Raid/ANCL to Auto/ATA may stop the message from coming up, if the techy did'nt give you a mothball solution.

I however do not believe that it will fix the message about your floppy drive however.

*****On a further note*****

The RAID/ANCL may be the name of the "Raid Controller" that your motherboard has. I think all motherboard manufacturers give their RAID special names to denote different styles of data transfer, so on, so forth. Your not even using a RAID, so the Auto/ATA would be the right setting.

***Floppy Drive***

As I stated, I don't believe changing the above setting is going to make this message go away. You will have to find in your BOIS, (Proboly in the same area as the RAID) where to turn off your onboard floppy controller.

((Are your two external floppy drives USB? IF so: Have you tried booting with them unplugged?))

09-15-07, 12:49 PM	#4
STEED Lucky Jack Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Down Town UK Posts: 27,695 Downloads: 89 Uploads: 48	Are right, cheers Zantham. I shall check this out shortly back in 20 minutes I hope. __________________ Dr Who rest in peace 1963-2017. To borrow Davros saying...I NAME YOU CHIBNALL THE DESTROYER OF DR WHO YOU KILLED IT!

09-15-07, 01:27 PM	#6
STEED Lucky Jack Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Down Town UK Posts: 27,695 Downloads: 89 Uploads: 48	OK, checked inside I got three cables as in the second picture two big and the other one a little smaller, there is another cable and going by my manual the picture looks the same as inside the PC. The manual states this is a Serial ATA Connector. __________________ Dr Who rest in peace 1963-2017. To borrow Davros saying...I NAME YOU CHIBNALL THE DESTROYER OF DR WHO YOU KILLED IT!

09-15-07, 11:08 AM	#1
Spruence M Sonar Guy Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: 14 Meters Posts: 394 Downloads: 29 Uploads: 0	Checking your Hard Drive Type: The following is a picture of a SATA or ATA cable. Take notice to the type of plug it has on the end. The following is what an EIDE or IDE cable looks like, although different, to an untrained eye they are identical. Let me know which type you have please. That will answer the question of wiether or not you need to disable the SATA search at startup. Edit: IDE and EIDE look identical. Just to make that clear.

09-15-07, 01:00 PM	#5
Spruence M Sonar Guy Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: 14 Meters Posts: 394 Downloads: 29 Uploads: 0	If you change from the RAID/ANCL to the RAID/ATA and the error still arises, then report back here, and I will try to find a screenshot of what it looks like in my BIOS to show you what the manual overide would look like.

09-15-07, 02:00 PM	#7
Zantham 中国水兵 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Canada Posts: 283 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 1	Ok, an IDE cable, such as runs to a hard drive or optical drive, measures about 2" wide. If you were to count the little holes in the connector for this cable it would have 2 rows of 20 pins (40 total). Sometimes one or more of the pins is blocked off. A floppy cable looks very similar to an IDE cable, but measures 1 3/4" wide. This cable has 2 rows of 17 pins (34 total). Sometimes one or more of the pins is blocked off. A serial ATA cable is maybe as wide as your little finger (about 1cm wide). The color of the cables is unimportant, but generally IDE and floppy cables are grey-white, occasionally black, and SATA cables are generally red, but blue or black is common too. Most Dells's bought in the last..year maybe? no longer have floppy drives internally. Does yours? I ask because it sounds like you have a floppy drive cable, in which case you don't need to disable your onboard floppy drive controller, but rather set it to the correct drive. (3.5" Floppy, 1.44MB). Check that the floppy cable is plugged into the drive (hopefully the right orientation), and that the drive also has power going to it (separate cable, these are 4-wire cable, red black black yellow and you will have wires like this running all over inside your computer). It also sounds like you have at least two IDE devices in your computer. These can be hard drives and optical drives. Most computers usually only ever have one hard drive, and one optical drive, but 2 optical drives is somewhat common as well.. generally the two optical drives are plugged into the same cable, one in the middle, one on the end. (FYI - by optical drive I mean CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, etc. including burners). Since you brought up RAID, your computer can have more than one hard drive (generally two in this case). If you can let us know what drives you have and how many of each...(isn't this fun?? )