HELP!

[michael]

I just bought the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 OEM from aria yesterday with an Abit AB9 Pro motherboard and 1Gb of OCZ PC 6400 RAM. When I try to load up the system, it goes through some checks, and then tells me: 'A Disk read error occurred.' I think this is because I need to reinstall Windows XP on the hard drive.

The hard drive is a Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 IDE, and I have a LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-823S as the slave on the cable.

The problem is, when I set the DVD drive as the primary boot device, and put the XP CD in the drive, it does not boot from the disk, or give me the option to.

My question is this: Is this because I have an IDE hard drive and optical drive on the same IDE cable? And if so would getting a SATA II HDD solve the problem?

If this is not the case, any help would be appreciated.

Michael.

[Mighty_Jah]

Hi mate...I would stick 1 IDE cable on each.device..just to get the Master HD and First boot device...up n running..and attach any extra drives later...when its installed....set em all to CD/DVD on first boot...itl sort its own head out...when it comes to install.

Master HD in IDE 1 Slot
DVD in IDE 2 Slot

Jumper any other drives...accordingly when its up n running...!

Hope this helps dude... :wink:

Mighty... :wink:

[Firerat]

[quote:da83f8e00a=\"michael\"]I just bought the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 OEM from aria yesterday with an Abit AB9 Pro motherboard and 1Gb of OCZ PC 6400 RAM. When I try to load up the system, it goes through some checks, and then tells me: 'A Disk read error occurred.' I think this is because I need to reinstall Windows XP on the hard drive.

The hard drive is a Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 IDE, and I have a LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-823S as the slave on the cable.

The problem is, when I set the DVD drive as the primary boot device, and put the XP CD in the drive, it does not boot from the disk, or give me the option to.

My question is this: Is this because I have an IDE hard drive and optical drive on the same IDE cable? And if so would getting a SATA II HDD solve the problem?

If this is not the case, any help would be appreciated.

Michael.[/quote:da83f8e00a]

First of all I would always recomend that you keep Optical ATAPI Drives and PATA Drives on Separate IDE Cables, it will still work on the same cable but the performance will not be as good. Infact where posible only have one drive on each cable, in the case of two PATA drives this will improve performance when transfering files between them.
SATA drives are the way forward, they are faster and the cables are much neater. However I don't belive that this would solve your problem as the 'A Disk read error occurred.' could be due to a dirty or scratched CD.
Have a look at the CD and clean off any smudges with a damp cloth, use a bit of detergent if its not coming off easily.
if scratched and depending on how badly scratched it is
Procare CD Surface Scratch Repairer
may be able to repair it

Hmm, just re-read your post, the read error is with the Hard Drive!
Make sure that all the cables are connected properly

get copies of PowerMax and Maxblast from
Maxtors Support Site

PowerMax will test the drive, Maxblast will prep it for install
BTW Maxblast will wipe out your Data!!!
it might be worth investigating further before useing MaxBlast

[michael]

Thanks for the quick replies.

@ Firerat: There is not a problem with the hard drive, as I reinstalled my old mobo/processor/ram and it loads windows up fine. No problems at all.

@Mighty_Jah: There is only 1 IDE Slot! >.<

I personally think the problem is to do with having optical drive and pata hard drive on the single IDE cable. This review ( http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2799 ) says that Abit removed PATA support, but according to the technical support guy at Aria, and the motherboards manual, i can have an IDE hdd, but the guy at Aria said IDE HDD OR Optical Drive. I think that could be where the problem lies.

There is nothing wrong with the hard drive, i think it tells me 'disk read error' because i need to reinstall windows. But with the optical drive as the slave, it isnt booting from the CD when it is set as the primary boot device. But Im not 100% sure.

[Barley]

I've just read a review on the Abit AB9 Pro motherboard, and it seems Abit have removed support for IDE hard drives, the IDE port is just for optical devices. The board is intended for use with SATA hard drives only.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2789&p=2

I think you're going to have to buy another motherboard, or buy a new SATA drive.

[michael]

Thanks a lot. Thats what I needed to hear =P. Im going to get a SATA HDD today, so hopefully it will work! I was planining to get a SATA HDD in the near future, but afer just spending £600 on the processor, motherboard and RAM, I'm kinda skint. SATA here I come!

I will post later on, when I get home from work and sort it out to so if it installs properly. Thanks for the help everyone.

Michael.

EDIT: I think the manual says you can have an IDE drive because it is also the manual for the AB9 too rather than just the AB9 Pro.

[Firerat]

Hmm, Yeah reading the manual it does surgest that you can use an IDE Hard Drive

I've asked Tech if they can confirm that only Optical Drives work


Edit , DoH I hate Typos

[Belso]

There wouldn't be a IDE slot if you couldn't use IDE HDD.

Right... remove your hard drive and cd drive from the system.

Look on the back of your hard drive for this.



Right now you need the little plastic jumper on Cable Select.

Do exactly the same for the CD Drive.
________________________________________________

Now put everything back.

Enter the bios and have the 1st boot device set to CDROM

The enter your Windows Disc. Lemme know if that works.
________________________________________________

Goodluck 8)

[Firerat]

[quote:5453a277ff=\"Belso\"]There wouldn't be a IDE slot if you couldn't use IDE HDD.

Right... remove your hard drive and cd drive from the system.

Look on the back of your hard drive for this.



Right now you need the little plastic jumper on Cable Select.

Do exactly the same for the CD Drive.
________________________________________________

Now put everything back.

Enter the bios and have the 1st boot device set to CDROM

The enter your Windows Disc. Lemme know if that works.
________________________________________________

Goodluck 8)[/quote:5453a277ff]

The Problem is that Intels ICH8R Chipset does not support PATA, Optical Drives may work as the are a kind of SCSI Emulation ( ATAPI )

From the board layout in the Manual I can't see a separate IDE Contoller

[Barley]

I'm pretty sure the board doesn't support IDE hard drives. In the review I was reading, they specifically commented that Abit had dropped IDE support, and they thought maybe Abit had made the decision a generation too early and should have waited until their next generation of boards were released.

[Firerat]

[quote:3e1edb2946=\"Barley\"]I'm pretty sure the board doesn't support IDE hard drives. In the review I was reading, they specifically commented that Abit had dropped IDE support, and they thought maybe Abit had made the decision a generation too early and should have waited until their next generation of boards were released.[/quote:3e1edb2946]

I think when you say Abit you actually mean Intel, as it is Intel that make the ICH8R Chipset which dosn't support PATA nativly

[Belso]

Only one way to find out 8)

[Firerat]

[quote:f644eab724=\"Belso\"]Only one way to find out 8)[/quote:f644eab724]

Yeap

Suck it

[Belso]

[quote:f30775e648=\"Firerat\"][quote:f30775e648=\"Belso\"]Only one way to find out 8)[/quote:f30775e648]

Suck it[/quote:f30775e648]

8)

[michael]

Ok, I have now bought a SATA II HDD; I was going to get one soon anyway. I will try with the jumpers like you said Belso, but at least it should work with the SATA HDD if that fails. I will post back later.

Thanks again.