Disk Read Error

[AngeloR]

I just put together a "new" build utilizing a few parts from an older pc that I had.

Using a new Motherboard, graphics card and ram combining it with an old hard-drive and dvddrive (ATAPI/E-IDE).

The hard-drive is set to Cable Select, as is the dvd drive but for some reason, when both are connected along the same cable, since the board only has a single connector.

This only seems to be a problem when both drives are connected, as if only one is, it boots up alright (tested with live cd's and the hard-drive already has an OS installed).

I've tried changing the jumpers so that the hard-drive is set as master, but for some reason this is still an issue.

To be honest, I'm not quite sure why this is happening, and in the end I ended up just converting the dvd-drive to run off USB at the moment, and it runs fine.

 

[Baez]

The hard-drive is set to Cable Select, as is the dvd drive but for some reason, when both are connected along the same cable, since the board only has a single connector.

You forgot to include the problem .

 

[AngeloR]

Sorry about that cvb724, I thought I had mentioned that.. I was a little rushed as I was just writing a midterm exam..

The issue is, it will boot up, it will POST, it will recognize that the drives are attached, then it will randomly reboot, and say that there is a disk read error.

 

[KurrentEweser]

I came across a stupid Western Digital drive that refused to be recognized by any computer unless it was on cable select. This kept other drives from using the same cable either as a master or a slave.

This may help.

PCGuide - Ref - IDE/ATA Configuration and Cabling

 

[AngeloR]

Wow, that was actually a very interesting read. I never knew that was the case until today. Thanks!

I don't have my computer with me at the moment, so I'll have to test this out later tonight, but I'll update and let everyone know how it went. It's entirely possible that this is the case however, since I used the stock cables that came with the board.

 

[KurrentEweser]

Also 40 wire cables will cause read errors with ultra ata drives.

 

[Nitestick]

not true, sometimes the BIOS software may complain that an 80 conductor cable should be used and it will run at a lower speed but it should not cause read errors.

have you checked the BIOS boot order?

edit: also is the pre-installed OS a linux distro?

 

[AngeloR]

@KurrentEweser:
Sadly, it didn't seem to work.

@Nitestick:
I have checked the bios boot order, made sure that it booted from the DVD Drive first, and then from the hard-drive second. I also made sure that the dvd drive was set as Master and the hard-drive as slave. However that still didn't seem to do anything.

The OS installed is Windows XP Professional.

However, as a round-about solution, a friend ended up buying a sata dvd drive for me that they found cheap, so I just swapped them and everything works great now. Still, I would like to know WHY this happened, for future reference

 

[Nitestick]

sounds like either a crapped out DVD drive or a conflict between the DVD drive and HDD, which does occasionally happen. with IDE one faulty drive can cause problems for other drives.

 

[AngeloR]

@Nitestick: I think more than likely it's just a conflict between the DVD drive and the HDD because the DVD drive works fine when it was connected via usb, and the hard-drive works great too.