Bios can't see IDE drive, but windows CAN after bios mod!!!

Discussion in 'BIOS Mods' started by Learner, Nov 3, 2009.

  1. Learner

    Learner MDL Novice

    Apr 15, 2008
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    #1 Learner, Nov 3, 2009
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2009
    Hi,

    I flashed the bios of my friend's PC with an original Asus bios for his P5K premium WiFi motherboard, rebooted, set settings to default, rebooted again.

    I then flashed the bios with the modded version with asus slp and asus slic 2.1. I rebooted, set settings to default, rebooted again.

    But hey, the bios doesn't have the "primary hard drive option" anymore where I used to select the primary boot drive (which then used to appear in the "boot priority" option.)

    The missing drive is an IDE drive. There is also a SATA drive in the PC, which does appear in the boot priority list, but there is no way of making the IDE drive appear there since the bios doesn't detect it.

    Funny thing is, I can installed an operating system on this IDE drive by booting from windows CD, and I can even access it from the second operating system that's installed on the SATA drive.

    But I cannot boot directly from it because the bios cannot see it and so I cannot choose it as the primary hard drive.


    I have used EasyBCD to manually insert the OS that's on the IDE drive into the boot manager. However, when I boot from the IDE drive by selecting the OS options during boot, I get an error screen and cannot boot.

    The bios was able to detect the drive before the flash.

    Now here is the even weird thing. I also have the P5K Premium motherboard and I too used the same modded bios. But I can see my IDE drive and SATA drive without a problem. We both have very similar hardware. The only difference is that I have an extra eSATA external drive too.

    So what happened to my friends PC? I even flashed the original bios from asus back again, but the bios cannot detect the IDE drive anymore, yet the OS from the SATA drive can see and use it. :confused:
     
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  2. Yen

    Yen Admin
    Staff Member

    May 6, 2007
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    Only logical explanation to me is that the bios settings you have used before were right to show the IDE device whereas the default setting you are using now cannot. Have you applied a mod of the same bios version you have used before? The biosversion should be the same...

    Check the settings, try to detect it manually.... have a look if the IDE onboard controller is enabled and properly configured.......alternatively you can try the affected IDE device at your PC to have a look if it's working...IMO it's no biosmod issue.
     
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  3. Rite

    Rite MDL Member

    Sep 26, 2009
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    Check BIOS settings. Ensure the FIRST BOOT DEVICE is set to the one your OS is installed on. Check the BOOT SEQUENCE in the BIOS, set your OS hard drive as the FIRST DEVICE in the boot sequence. Ensure "BOOT TO HARD DRIVE" is enable in BIOS.

    :)

    Also, you might DETACH ALL HD CABLES except the one your OS is loaded on to confirm the HD is working properly.
     
  4. truthinjection

    truthinjection MDL Member

    Aug 27, 2009
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    I'm not familiar with that particular board/BIOS, but there are also sometimes settings like "SATA Mode: SATA,AHCI,RAID" and "SATA Mode: Native, Legacy, Combined" which muck with the order and presentation of drive (and perhaps even controller) display/enumeration.

    They generally are designed to grandfather SATA controllers into OSes that weren't designed for them, but they might be overriding your normal IDE controller as part of a "combined" setup.

    Good luck!
    -tij-
     
  5. Rite

    Rite MDL Member

    Sep 26, 2009
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    That is true. Especially when the motherboard has both Intel and JMicron SATA controllers on board. In such cases, it is best to attach the HD to the JMicron SATA controller port to avoid conflicts.
     
  6. kocoman

    kocoman MDL Senior Member

    May 16, 2007
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    Try clear cmos, sometimes it get corrupted when you flash..
     
  7. Blindbat

    Blindbat MDL Novice

    Nov 3, 2009
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    #7 Blindbat, Nov 5, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 29, 2017
  8. kocoman

    kocoman MDL Senior Member

    May 16, 2007
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    The BIOS is very primitive has no fallback on errors or correcting on error codes. Unlike Windows,.. ie: if something crash, it cannot tell you the 'exact' problem.

    Thats why for BIOS people need the mini-pciE or PCI diag/bios code cards. The bios can only halt on the 'code' of what it was doing, and not what cause the hang, misconfiguration. etc
     
  9. Learner

    Learner MDL Novice

    Apr 15, 2008
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    OK, sorry I couldn't reply earlier since the problem is on my friend's PC and I have to go down to his house when I get time.

    I tried flashing to the original BIOS (before the issue started) and the BIOS still does not show the IDE hard drive. I've used default settings and also went through every single settings and rebooted everytime to check if the drive is detected.

    It seems like the BIOS is not the problem, although the BIOS flashing is definitely what triggered the problem.

    I am thinking that it's more to do with master and slave settings on the hard drive now.

    The IDE hard drive is connected to an IDE cable which is also connected to an IDE DVD rewriter. My friend says the jumpers on the drives were set to "Cable Select" option.

    I will have to check this again when I get time.
     
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  10. Yen

    Yen Admin
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    May 6, 2007
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    That sounds like a possible reason...no cable select, configure it right as master and slave. Make sure the master device is plugged at the end of the ribbon IDE cable, slave at the middle of it.
     
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  11. Learner

    Learner MDL Novice

    Apr 15, 2008
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    Sorry forgot to report back on this issue. You are right. It was the cable. Didn't think it could have been that since it was working fine before the BIOS update. But anyway, thanks for pointing me towards the source of the problem.
     
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