Harddrive/Mobo question

kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
edited August 2004 in Hardware
A guy I know is working on setting up a new computer for a church. He bought a new mobo, ram, cpu etc.... The problem he's getting is that as soon as an OS install goes from 'loading files' to setup he's getting a blue screen and it crashes. I think (he hasn't checked yet) but the problem is he's using old ata 33/66 hard drives in it and they simpley aren't compatible with the new mobo. I told him to run knoppix on it and see if everything else is working and do memtest also just to cover the basics.

Personally I think it's the HDD's but I don't know for certain. So does anyone know for sure one way or the other if you can't use an ata33 hdd on a board that is for ata 100/133?

Comments

  • avansantavansant New Jersey
    edited July 2004
    I don't know for sure, but I think if you look at it my way you will agree!

    Computer companies like to scream about the features their products have, and if the adapter didn't only support 100/133 it would say up to 133 rather then 100/133... That's the way I see it anyway, however, I also see a small inconsistency, and though my knowledge is less then perfect, here it is. If all a harddrive does is store information (the part I am unsure about) and it can copy the files over then the problem either doesn't exist, or exists when it tries to read from the harddrive (as I suppose sending data to a decive doesn't mean you'll be able to retrieve from it).

    Also, if the harddrive is that old, could it just be broken? I find that harddrives are the most commonly abused and broken pieces of hardware.

    I found this little bit on IDE basics, the only thing that I'd really like to point out is that ATA33 uses different cables from all the other ATAs.
    the bit
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited July 2004
    Good read, there were a few things there that I didn't know. I would normally agree that it could be a damaged hard drive which is why he's testing it. However normally *normally* that would have come out during formating it and probably not a blue screen crash right off the start. You would have write errors during the install. Unless the hard drive became completely messed up between pulling it out of one working machine and putting it in the other.

    ATA 133 does use a different cable that's true however most mobo's are 100/133 and therefore come with ata66/100/133 cables so there is no compatiblity issue. ATA66 works in a 100/133 mobo as I've used them before in a system transfer I've just never done it with ata33 in an ata 100/133 machine.
  • LianadLianad
    edited August 2004
    You might have already solved this, but here is an interesting tidbit of information. Is your friend by any chance trying to install Windows XP? If so, it could be something as stupid as the Windows CD.

    Here is my story. I bought 2 copies of XP, one for each of my comps. (this was a few years ago obviously). Start installing the one copy on my secondary comp, everything going fine. Start installing other copy on my main computer. Every single time around the same spot during the windows install (might have been the loading files as your friend, it would crap out and give me a blue screen of death.

    I formatted, tried again, same thing, reformatted, tried again, same thing. Every fucking time it crapped out at the same spot with a blue screen of death. I thought somehow my main computer got fubared, I just couldn't understand it. Meanwhile my secondary POS comp has already completed the XP installation and is running fine.

    For the HELL of it, I decided to try the other XP CD. Wouldn't ya know it? It installed perfectly fine, I entered the serial from the "bad" copy and everything installed silky smooth. I ended up cracking that other fucking CD in half so I would never accidentally use it again on mistake and wonder wtf was up.

    Moral of the story, NEVER discredit the possibility of your install disc being bad. I mean I would have NEVER thought of that. I spent hours upon wasted hours rechecking my computer to see if a cable got fucked, reformatted numerous times. I swear I wasted a good 5 hours that night, all because of the darn install disc.

    Funny thing is, just a week ago a guy at work told me he couldn't get XP to install on his new machine, and that it kept giving him a bluescreen. I laughed and thought "no way could it be the disc problem". I gave him my copy of the disc and told him just to use his serial. Wouldn't ya know it? It installed perfectly fine and he is up and running.

    I have no idea how a bad burn can give you bluescreens or how MS can release CD's that are bad. I mean heck, if my friend and I both got bad copies over the years, I wonder how many other bad copies are out there?

    Just something to keep in mind. If he was trying to install XP, just have him try a different XP CD and see if that fixes things first!
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited August 2004
    I'll mention that to him cuz it's a possibility.
  • bchadbchad
    edited August 2004
    We recently just installed Windows Xp because my old hard drive failed to work anymore, at all. Well I built the computer myself about a year ago so the hd was probobly about 3 years old and laying around the house so I guess it was time for it to go anyway. So we tried another hard drive even older then that from an old p1 from back in the day and that hard drive wouldnt work either but I knew it wasn't broken. However when we got a new WD 80g hard drive it worked but windows wouldnt install now at this point I got pretty frustrated but I tried my friends window Xp cd with the new hard drive and everything is working more then fine. So yes the hd can be to old to work in a new machine by my exp. alone no other proof for that and also Windows Xp Cd's can be f*d up.
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