Motherboard IDE Problems....

I have a Gigabyte ga-m57sli-s4 i got from newegg about year ago my PSU when bad and it damaged the motherboard I sent in in to to get it fixed and everything works fine except when I got the board back I plugged everything in as it was before I sent it out and I am getting a Grub error 21 I messed around in my bios and rebooted and am now getting a grub error 17 I tried It detects my 40GB IDE but it won't boot the windows I had on there and I tried to reformat the drive but I get an error it just reads as unallocated? any help would be great thanks

Jay

back to Grub error 21

Grub error #21 shows the drive cannot be seen by the Grub loader. Error #17 indicates Grub can't recognise the file system on the drive itself. Those and any other Grub errors are described in any Grub manual like the one seen at http://www.linuxselfhelp.com/gnu/grub/html_chapter/grub_13.html

While in for repair the tech may have updated the bios version or it was simply returned to the factory defaults as part of the repair process. Try cleaning the ends of the data cable for the drive or use another one to see if the first one simply needs to be replaced.

Is there any possible to get rid of it do I need it I'm just running vista thats it

The startup repair tool seen in the repair tools section when booting up with the Vista dvd will repair the mbr entries by re-entering new one seeing Grub removed. Here I had a form on Grub4Dos set for dual booting XP along with Vista showing it can still have some useful purposes at times.

The automatic startup repair option should take care of that right away. When booting up instead of clicking on the Install Now button you simply look down under that in the lower part of the screen for the repair computer link. Memtest and other options are also seen along with the startup repair tool.

Somethings up when I tried useing the tools it doesn't detect my HDD when I go to Install now it shows my 40GB HDD but I cannot do anything with it it just shows up as unallocated it cannot be formatted and cannot create on it but I know there is Vista installed on it already do you know what that could be?

Have you tried another ribbon cable to see if that's the problem. That's one reason why I switched to far more durable round cable for any ide drives optical or hard disk in order to avoid running into problems with the flat ribbon type.

The Antec Cobra dual nylon ide cables cost quite a bit more however like $15 for shipping as well as the $14.95 tag unless found for $9.99 at a few sites. An older review on those can be seen at http://www.dvhardware.net/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=31 Most available now however are the UV white colored.

yeah It worked just fine before I sent my motherboard in when I got it back it just stopped working I tried the 2 different cables one round and one flat is there possible bios options that was messed with? or do you think my IDE port is damaged? I'm not sure because it is detected just not usable

Since you have already tried more then one cable you could be looking at a drive problem. How old is it? If the heads are now worn you would be looking at replacing the drive.

I doubt they would have sent the board back if they hadn't gone over it with a fine toothed comb to make sure everything was in working order. You would simply have to see the same settings you had set in the bios before sending it in for repair since it is likely back at the factory defaults.

Have another ide drive onhand to try out? Testing a known working drive to see if there is any other problem would be one idea. Trying the 40gb on another system is another one to pass your way to see if it works or fails there.

Ok so I tried a new drive but no luck it was having the same problem bios reads it but when trying to install vista it is an unallocated disk and not usable. When I tried to format it a message popped up " This computers hardware may not support booting of this disk. Ensure thaat the disk's controller is enabled in the computers bios menu. not sure how to do this though

With cables swapped and now a second drive running into the exact same thing I'm starting to suspect that the damage seen when the supply went on you may have been more severe then even they found when the board was sent in for repair. The one thing that's always enabled on most boards is the ide controllers especially since the OS is usually installed by way of an ide optical drive.

First you would look over the bios section in the user manual for the board to get familiar with each section. Different bioses will have different layouts like one will see the Integrated Peripherals section while another sees Onboard Hardware Configuration. Some boards may not even see any on/off setting for ide controllers while still seeing that for floppy search.

Hey thanks for your help PC eye I tried everything and I think I'm going to have to just send it in again nothing i do makes any change