big troubles

I just wanted to format my harddrive thats all simple process! This was the first time I attempted it on this machine since I got it. Well right off the bat I started having trouble with my computer. I fdisked deleted partition and recreated the partition. Then when i restarted the pc... it wouldnt find my C: drive and let me type format c: I begin to panic not knowing what is wrong. Ok so I tried numerous things finally my solution was take out the harddrive and put it into this pc Im on now. I could now format and install windows from this pc. This told me it was a motherboard problem. I take the harddrive out and put it back into my pc. When I do this I fire up the machine. First thing I see is this message:

"No drive attached to fasttrack controller... The BIOS is not installed."

Ok, then it goes to a win2k stop message and stays there.

So, I have no idea what a fasttrack controller is ....is it something on the motherboard? Do i need to flash my BIOS? If so Im not quite sure I know how to do that! I know a good amount of stuff about computers but this is just a tad over my head. Id appreciate if someone can help.

Thanks,
newgirl

It sounds like your motherboard has IDE raid and is trying to run in RAID but can't since you only have one drive. Try seeing in the bios if there is an option to turn off Raid.

or configure the drive to run in raid by itself. I did that on my other computers hard drive.

I checked my BIOS but did not see anything that concerned RAID. I also do not know how to configure my harddrive to run with or without raid. This is just wack. I checked my motherboard manual and it doesnt even cover the issue of fasttrack controller. Where is this coming from and why is it on my board.



God im frustrated!!!!!!!!

Newgirl, what model motherboard do you have?

I have the Asus P4S8X - 533 FSB etc.. I just reset my cmos that did nothing i rebooted and got the same error.

"No fasttrack controller The bios is not installed."


I want to fix this but i dont know what else to do.

I would reformat that drive again and leave it blank, then put it back in the Asus (and run Win2k from the disc). I've tried moving hard drives across computers and it was never really pretty. Something with the IDE drivers cause a lot of errors.

I just took a quick look at the Asus site. That motherboard comes with two IDE ports, and an Promise Serial ATA port is optional. It sounds as though your motherboard has the Serial ATA port, and much like an unused RAID controller, you will see it looking for a drive when you boot up. Since it sounds as though you aren't using it, I would go into the BIOS settings and disable it.

I agree with Xymurgy. When using Fdisk, you can sometimes get mixed up on drive partitions and their drive letters. The RAM drive that is created bumps all of the drive letters temporarily.

The easiest way would be to change your boot order to boot from the CDROM, and boot to your Windows 2000 disk, and format and install that way

My problem with using my pc to format is i cant get it to format my harddisk. Thats why i used this other pc im on now to format it. I guess I can try once again to format it from here and just leave it blank then try to install windows but it may not let me.

Like if i put the win98 boot disk in it loads the RaM drive then it says : Preparing to start your pc this may take a few minutes. Please wait....

Then it says Data error reading drive A
Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail

So if i hit f it then says:
The diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to drive D.
File not found
To get help, type HELP and press enter.
A:

Thats where I get stuck so I cant format but if i type fdisk I can fdisk it from my pc thats it... cuz when i go to restart after deleteing an recreating my partition it gives me those same error messages as above but when I try to type format c: it just says bad command or file something.


So... hrmmm not sure what to do from this point either!

Sadly,
newgirl

You can use the Windows 2000 CD to format the drive, and not use Fdisk or your floppy drive at all. Or at least you should be able to.

There may be a problem with your floppy drive, or the version of Fdisk that you are using. Booting from the CDROM, and using the Win2K CD will allow you to bypass these potential problems.

Go into your BIOS settings, and change the boot order to boot from the CDROM drive. Have your Windows 2000 disk in the drive, and reboot. You should be prompted to "Hit any key to boot from CD". You should be able to follow the prompts from there.

If this doesn't work, tell us how far it went, and we may be able to come up with something else to try.

It worked thanks so much!

You are welcome.

And welcome to the forums!

Thanks

I wish I would of thought of that but it seems to be the simple things sometimes get overlooked so easily, especially when you are in the habit of doing something one way. Just like in my case being so use to using the floppy to format/fdisk it never occured to me to use the cd since I havent had the win2k for that long.

I'm sure you'll never look back now that you know how to do it that way.

And if you've been using 98 or ME until recently, I'm sure you'll be very happy with 2000.

repo man11 said:

I just took a quick look at the Asus site. That motherboard comes with two IDE ports, and an Promise Serial ATA port is optional. It sounds as though your motherboard has the Serial ATA port, and much like an unused RAID controller, you will see it looking for a drive when you boot up. Since it sounds as though you aren't using it, I would go into the BIOS settings and disable it.

I agree with Xymurgy. When using Fdisk, you can sometimes get mixed up on drive partitions and their drive letters. The RAM drive that is created bumps all of the drive letters temporarily.

The easiest way would be to change your boot order to boot from the CDROM, and boot to your Windows 2000 disk, and format and install that way

Click to expand...

I'm having the same problem. I get the error message "No fasttrak controller The bios is not installed."

I'm using a P4C800-E Deluxe mobo with one hard drive attached to the primary IDE. What exactly do I have to select in bios to solve this issue.

Thanks for your help

Does anyone know what I should do?

I'm not using a Raid array. Just one HD. I can't even install the fasttrak drivers from the support CD.

If there is something that I should turn off in Bios... please point me the in the right direction.

Thanks.

Invisible Hand,

Have you disabled the "OnBoard Promise Controller" found in the BIOS Advanced screen? That is your FastTrak Controller that's trying to POST.

You might want to look at the following while you're in the BIOS just for ha ha's.(even though it doesn't appear to be your issue)

In your BIOS "MAIN" screen select IDE configuration.
Assuming your OS is 2000 or XP choose Enhanced Mode.
Since you only have an EIDE HD installed you will want to select the P ATA option at the "Enhanced Mode Support On" line. That's your Intel ICH5R Controller.

Peace

Thanks Zot......but I beat you to the answer

I found the solution at abxzone.com

If this happens to anyone else, here is what you need to do:

Go to Bios ~ Advanced Tab ~ Onboard Devices Tab ~ Promise Controller ~ Then, Disable Onboard Promise controller.