New hard disc won't boot

[kloper 0]

Hi!

 

I have a weird problem. My new hard disc won't boot... I even returned it to the store. They tested it and said it was ok. Hardware:

 

ECS K7S5A motherboard

500 MB RAM

Seagate 120 GB (new hd)

IBM Deskstar (old hd)

nVidia geforce2 mmx 400

SB PCI 128

 

I tried installing Windows XP Pro on a single 120 gb partition. The installer tells me to reboot using the hard disc. I reboot, BIOS tells me I have a primary master 120gb hard disc installed, but then it says:

Booting from CD-ROM... No

Booting from IDE-0... No

 

I boot my old XP on my old hard disc and I verify that the new hard disc's partition is active (bootable).

 

I try a different partition setup:

 

500 mb linux boot partition

15 gb windows system partition

104 gb extended partition with a coupl eof more linux and windows partitions

 

I try to install both windows and then debian linux, but the same result as above. I'm starting to think my board can't handle my new hard disc... Is that possible? I can use it in slave mode no problem, though.

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

Kloper

[Tomay 0]

Did you try to update the bios?

[CyberGenX 0]

Is this a SATA drive by chance? Did you jack with the jumpers at all? What chip are you running?

[kloper 0]

Yes, I set the jumper to master, and the BIOS recognizes the drive as primary master. It's not a SATA drive.

 

No, I haven't updated the BIOS. I'll try that.

 

The board:

http://www.ecsusa.com/products/k7s5a.html

 

The drive:

http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/discsales/marketing/detail/0,1081,579,00.html

 

My old drive:

IBM Deskstar 7200 RPM 40 GB Hard Drive

[CyberGenX 0]

You can use that drive and boot to it in slave mode with no problem? If so then it is prob. the board. It may be that the controller is going south. Or that you may have to us Cable Select mode. Try the other controller as master, if that works then it is very possible that the controller is bad.

[kloper 0]

No, I can boot the old drive and use the new drive as slave. Booting with cable-select is a good idea. I'll try the other controller as well.

 

Thanks

[kloper 0]

Cable select didn't work. The controller should be ok since I can boot the old drive with the same controller.

 

Maybe my board is too old for this shit... I'll try to flash the BIOS. If that doesn't work I guess I'll have to somehow use the old drive as boot loader for the new drive. This sucks.

[kloper 0]

Victory!

I flashed the BIOS with the newest version and the drive botted up!

Thanks for all the help.