A Stumper

[clocker]

damn, what an interesting problem. two maxtors not getting along huh?

is there any explanation, or is it a trivial freak of computer nature?

I have no explanation per se, just confirmation that this oddity does occur -every time- in a reproducable and predictable fashion.

I spent nearly two hours this morning (and it's my friggin day off!) trying every combination of drives, multiple times.
Just FYI- yes, I did swap out/disconnect the opticals as well to eliminate them from the equation.

The only constant that would invariably cause the PC to "lose" the IDE channels upon power disconnect was the pair of Maxtor drives.

It's really not that big of a deal...upon first boot from install at home, all he has to do is enter BIOS, touch nothing, hit F10 and enter, then just let her boot up.
As long as there is standby power (i.e., the PSU is plugged into the wall) the PC will always remember the IDE devices and act right.

Like I said...it's up to him now.

Personally, I think he should just get a little 80GB Seagate and make that his C: (Windows) drive and use one of the 300GB Maxtors as his storage drive.
He could put the second 300GB drive in an external enclosure and make it a backup storage box.
I should know by tomorrow what he wants to do.

[fkdup74]

I spent nearly two hours this morning (and it's my friggin day off!) trying every combination of drives, multiple times.
Just FYI- yes, I did swap out/disconnect the opticals as well to eliminate them from the equation.

Even with the Maxtors on separate IDE channels?
You know, to rule out if they just didn't loike the master/slave configuration?

This is truly a wierd situation.

-edit- I said "loike". I will shoot myself now.

And....FYI....that's what you get for goofin around on your day off. 2 hrs of frustration.

It never fails, if you go in to the shop (or in my case, office) on an off day, you spend more time there than you planned to,
and you end up with more headaches than on a regular day at work.

I can't count the times I have tried to sneak in on a Friday off, or a Saturday, trying to get some quick work done, and get hit with more problems than I bargained for.

Moral of the story...stay away on your day off. Go fishing, watch a ball game, tinker with your toys, anything, but don't go near work.

[clocker]

Even with the Maxtors on separate IDE channels?
You know, to rule out if they just didn't loike the master/slave configuration?

Now that I did not try.
For two reasons.

-Because of the case layout it would be difficult to connect a harddrive and an optical on the same cable, and...
-That config-assuming it worked properly- would be rinky-dink and unprofessional. Basically, a worse option than just booting twice to get the drives recognized.