HDD causes lockups, size too big?

Hi,

I have a problem with one of my two hard disk drives.
My first hdd is IBM 20gb and it's not causing any problem at all. My second one is Maxtor DiamondMax Plus60 60gb hdd and it's problematic.

Here's my comp spec:
MOTHERBOARD:
ATX PC333 Socket A Socket-462 for the AMD K7 type of processor
There are SiS746 Northbridge and SiS963L Southbridge
Supports AMD Athlon XP/Athlon/Duron processors
Supports 333 MHz FSB

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1700 1.4ghz

MEMORY: PNY 512MB PC2100 DDR RAM

O/S: Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

VIDEO CARD: nVidia GeForce FX 5600 Ultra 128MB (8x AGP)

OTHERS:
-DvD-Rom (secondary master)
-HP cd-writer 9300 series (secondary slave)
-IBM 20gb EIDE HDD (primary master)
-Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 60 60gb EIDE HDD (primary slave)

Here's the problem with the 60gb HDD:
The label on the HDD says the Cylinder is 16383 and the Heads is 63, but my BIOS detects it as Cylinder 29437 and Sectors 255. The label also says Master/Single:ON --- but Slave:OFF. Note that I put the Maxtor HDD as primary slave.

Sometimes, not always but occasionally, the HDD led lights up and does very strange noise after several seconds.... then either it locks up or continues.

If it continues, usually it happens again within several seconds (30 to 90 seconds).

It it locks up, either one of these two happens:
1) Blue screen of death, saying some junk and saying "beginning dump of physical memory."
Then it takes forever to do, that eventually will reset the computer. After the computer resets, the BIOS could not detect the Maxtor HDD, but it detects the IBM one just fine.
I had to power off the computer, and power it back on for the BIOS to be able to detect the Maxtor HDD.

or

2) Windows complains about some device (ie: the Maxtor HDD) was unplugged unsafely, and shortly after, an error window pops up saying that some unknown error has occured and windows is shutting down in 60 seconds. After it shuts down, again the BIOS could not detect the Maxtor HDD (see #1).

I have gone to Maxtor website and downloaded/installed their utility program called Maxblast3 or something. They say it breaks the 30gb barrier of older BIOS. The utility program formats the HDD too. I did that 2 days ago, but it happened again today. I assume that program did not fix this problem.

They also have a diagnostic utility to test the HDD's integrity. I downloaded/installed that program and it creates a bootable floppy disk. I booted from the floppy disk but it freezes up on "Starting Caldera DR-DOS..." I went away from keyboard for 15 minutes, came back, and still says "Starting Caldera DR-DOS..." I then had to reset the computer and assumes that this diagnostic program is not working for me, somehow.

They also suggests that I should do some kind of BIOS upgrade, but I don't know how to do that, or I don't know if I want to do that.

Recently, I have upgraded the motherboard. I thought that the motherboard may not be compatible somehow with this Maxtor HDD. After the upgrade, the problem persists.

I have also upgraded my power supply. My old one was 4+ yr old 250 Watt power supply, and my new currently one that I'm using now is 500 Watt. The problem persists.

I don't know what else I can do, but my IBM 20gb HDD is working perfectly, not a single problem -- and that IBM HDD is older than this Maxtor HDD too. I'm wondering if the HDD size over 20gb (or 30gb) is causing some sort of incompatibility with the BIOS or motherboard.

Any ideas or advices I could have?

Thank you for reading and your time!

Have you tried a new HDD cable? Being that the Maxtor drive is newer and probably faster it could need an ATA/133 cable to function properly.

Also it is possible that upgrading your BIOS could help. For info on that go to your MOBO manufacturers website. They will give you the files and tell you the proper method to flash it(usually involves booting from a floppy disk but some newer MOBO BIOS can be flashed from within Windows).

Ian

It is never a great idea to run newer hard drives from older ones.

I would make it master and put it on the other ide channel. See how it behaves.

What the label says concerning heads/cylinders does not matter as long as the total is in expected range. How the drive is configured SURE DOES.

I did not see a positive statement that you configured the 60gig drive as SLAVE.

Have you checked with maxtor for known issues with the motherboard or ide controller.

Is updating BIOS recommended?

So far it has not been acting up, so I haven't done anything. I'll plan to buy new cable (right now it's flat and I want the round one) if it does act up again.

I'll also try to switch it from being primary slave to become secondary master like you advised.