Conflicting IDE devices?

[srkstl]

I am running a Win2K machine with 4 IDE devices (2HDD on IDE1 and a DVD and CDRW on IDE2). I made the mistake of trying to add a tape drive (using a Promise FastTrack66 card for the HDD's) and now I can only get Windows to recognize the DVD on IDE2. CMOS recognizes all IDE devices correctly, although it takes much longer than it used to. Before the above referenced "mistake", all devices were working well.

I'm stumped. I reformatted and reinstalled with no change. I've played with master and slave settings on my IDE2 devices with no success.

Thanks for your help.

[Hpro]

Windows has the power to update ESD RAM (BIOS) and if it updates the bios will even after you have reformatted still contain the data windows wrote to it unless you reset the bios - this is actually what you have to do..

After resetting the bios you must install the drivers for the Promise first before you even insert the card and then restart and plug int the promise and I think you will be back to normal - this unfortunately will include a reinstall of Windows ..

[srkstl]

Thanks, but I already completed a clean reinstall of windows and have given up on using the Promise card (and the tape drive...I resurrected a P75 from the closet and set it up on the network). I just want to get my system back to the way it was with 2 HDD and 2 CDROMs.

After the reinstall, when I determined that it still wasn't working, I went ahead and updated the bios in hopes that that was an issue. Still didn't work.

Last night I disconnected the DVD and connected the CDRW and burned a few CD's without a problem, and then reconnected the DVD. I can't see that the issue is the drive, and I'm hoping it's not the board. Any other ideas? Thanks.

[morriswindgate]

Depending on the BIOS, it may be as simple as redecting the devices on the IDE2 channel or on some BIOS setting them to ATAPI device. Another thing that you can do is unplug the IDE2 channel, start the computer and go to the BIOS, Auto detect to see that it detected the hard drives, shutdown. Plug in the IDE2 cable and then restart, go into the bios and auto detect, save and then let it start windows.
The proper setup for using the Promise card would be both hard drives on the card and all other devices on the IDE channels, or move one of the hard drives to the card and then attache the other devices to the open IDE Channels

[srkstl]

I tried it. When I unplugged IDE2, the CMOS recognized the HDDs quickly (3-5 secs). I entered the CMOS, performed the autodetect (also quick), saved and exited. Then I shutdown, reconnected the IDE2. During bootup the CMOS took about a minute to recognize the IDE devices. I entered the CMOS and autodetected each IDE. This time it took about a minute on each. I noticed that with each of the devices, the light on the CDRW (which doesn't work in Windows when all 4 devices are connected) lit up. Does this mean anything to you?

The end result is the same. I still have the 2 HDDs and the DVD only in Win2k. Any other ideas?

Thanks.

[glc]

Did you by chance use the 80 wire cable that came with the Promise card on IDE2? If so, rejumper your drives to Cable Select or replace the cable with a standard 40 wire cable.

[srkstl]

Thanks. I'm pretty sure it was a 40-conductor cable. I did replace it with an 80-conductor cable and changed the drives to "cable select" with no change in the results. Other ideas?