! in front of device (hard disc) in BIOS *Solved*

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phool@round · #1 Post by **phool@round** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:27 am

I have the (!) in front of a hard disc in my BIOS. The BIOS recognizes the drive model # just fine. This is what I've done so far to see if I could remove it.
I've updated the BIOS to it's most current version. I've tried a firmware update on the drive (didn't need it), partitioned the drive smaller than BIOS limitation, changed UltraDMA mode to match chipset. I still have this exclamation in front of the drive and it won't boot without use of a boot manager. What could the issue be that's causing this?

#2 Post by **Harryc** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:32 am

Which machine is this?

phool@round · #3 Post by **phool@round** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:39 am

Thinkpad 570E 2644-6BU

The Drive is an IBM Travelstar DJSA-220 4200rpm. By default it's DMA-5 and through use of the Feature Tool I've made it DMA-2 (ATA- 33) to match the 440BX chipset's IDE mode. I've checked it with Drive Fitness Test and there aren't any issues with it, nothing in it's log that says it's been damaged or abused.

#4 Post by **Harryc** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:51 am

Is there any yellow flags in device manager or errors on the drive or IDE controller...check system logs too.

phool@round · #5 Post by **phool@round** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:54 am

None, fresh install of W2K and after install was complete it rebooted fine. I'm thinking along the lines of the the MBR since I had Linux on it last.....

#6 Post by **Harryc** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:26 am

Yeah, you could try fdisk /mbr from the recovery console....

phool@round · #7 Post by **phool@round** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:42 am

I'm going to run GParted on it too. I have the boot disc and it's just as good (if not better) than M$ tools.

phool@round · #8 Post by **phool@round** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:25 pm

I found this thread and it is 100% relevant to my topic; http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ght=570%2A

What I would like to add to this is; If you update your BIOS on an older system, make sure you select "Load Setup Defaults" after the update......It's a crucial step, one that I overlooked.

My drive is now recognized without the "!" in front of the drive.

Tah Dah.....

(Edit: Thanks Ray and Harry for the help. I was on my own with this one, pretty simple solution and very simple to overlook.)

Believe it or not there actually is a "Reset" button, it's above the IrDA window, a tiny little hole..... which I tried several times by the way......lol.

#9 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:31 pm

That advice sounds familiar!

Yeah, I called it a "reset" but "load defaults" isn't too different, eh?

! in front of device (hard disc) in BIOS Solved

! in front of device (hard disc) in BIOS Solved

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