Question

Primary Master Drive Fails....sort of....

Asked by: jonleehacker

I just upgraded my computer by changing the MB, processor and ram - all else is the same.
the new ones are asus a7v333, 2400+ and ddr2700 - 512 mb.

when I try and boot up the revised system I get the following error "Primary Master Drive Fails".

the bois sees the drive, identifies it correctly then gives the error. The bios ide detection is on AUTO.

I ran the powermax utility and the drive (maxtor 30gig) passed all the tests (yes powermax could find the drive!) except "Bios extension support: FAILED"

I have linux on a cd so I booted from that and it can see the drive and all the files! (Hooray no lost data).
Unfortunately the Linux cd is Knoppix and in German so if you give me instructions to use some cool linux tool they'd better be foolproof....:)

It wouldn't be the end of the world if I got a new drive and rebuilt the software and transferred the files but I love it if I could solve this one without that.

Thanks for any help,

Jon

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2003-08-10 at 16:47:07ID20705443
Tags

master

,

drive

,

primary

,

fails

Topic

Miscellaneous Hardware

Participating Experts
7
Points
125
Comments
22

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Detecting Primary Master: --none
    Upon startup, the boot screen indicates no Primary or Secondary Master hard drives detected. I use auto detect in the BIOS. (My primary is a WD 100 GB and Secondary a Maxtor 60 GB. I then cycle power and on the second or third try, it boots as normal. It does this maybe every...
  2. Debian (Knoppix) Wireless Card Stopped Working
    Hey Everyone, I'm new to Linux and having difficulty with my wireless card. I have Knoppix installed to my harddrive and am using an SMC 2632W 802.11b wireless card. The wireless card was working fine until I went to a conference the other day. It would not sync up to the...
  3. Cannot ingite Knoppix.
    Hello Experts. I've installed Knoppix on Harddrive and had message like "Knoppix installed successfully." But, MBR apparently is not set for LILO. I can boot from Knoppix-CD but not sure, can I ran LILO from it. (At least, I did not have a success.) So, I am tryi...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

Expert Comment

by: jonleehackerPosted on 2003-08-10 at 16:48:02ID: 9118898

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: TearsForFearsPosted on 2003-08-10 at 16:54:10ID: 9118911

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: TearsForFearsPosted on 2003-08-10 at 16:56:28ID: 9118918

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: TearsForFearsPosted on 2003-08-10 at 16:56:42ID: 9118920

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: jonleehackerPosted on 2003-08-10 at 17:03:47ID: 9118937

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: TearsForFearsPosted on 2003-08-10 at 17:12:31ID: 9118964

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: AlbertaBeefPosted on 2003-08-10 at 17:14:38ID: 9118970

Rank: Wizard

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: jonleehackerPosted on 2003-08-10 at 17:22:14ID: 9118987

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Accepted Solution

by: AlbertaBeefPosted on 2003-08-10 at 19:20:37ID: 9119233

Rank: Wizard

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: SnowguyPosted on 2003-08-10 at 20:05:32ID: 9119389

Rank: Guru

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: jonleehackerPosted on 2003-08-10 at 20:14:31ID: 9119416

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: Huseyin1Posted on 2003-08-11 at 02:44:17ID: 9120970

Rank: Master

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: PaulPositionPosted on 2003-08-11 at 07:06:37ID: 9122289

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: pteroPosted on 2003-08-11 at 14:02:15ID: 9125250

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: jonleehackerPosted on 2003-08-11 at 14:40:24ID: 9125518

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: pteroPosted on 2003-08-11 at 14:51:40ID: 9125605

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: SoundDocPosted on 2003-08-11 at 15:09:06ID: 9125712

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: pteroPosted on 2003-08-11 at 15:15:05ID: 9125752

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: jonleehackerPosted on 2003-08-11 at 15:31:22ID: 9125843

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: jonleehackerPosted on 2003-08-11 at 21:03:18ID: 9127384

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: SoundDocPosted on 2003-08-12 at 06:10:16ID: 9129671

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

 

Expert Comment

by: AlbertaBeefPosted on 2003-08-12 at 16:27:52ID: 9134498

Rank: Wizard

Comments are available to members only. Sign up or Log in to view these comments.

20120131-EE-VQP-001

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...