Problem with new hard drive in Acer computer

[davbell22602]

I have acer computer and I replaced the harddrive cause the harddrive crashed. Well when I replaced it and hooking it back up. When booting the computer to install the windows xp it stops at verifying pool date...... What does that mean? I couldn't find another 160gb harddrive so i had to get a 300+ gb hardrive.

3200+ amd sempron,512mb,160gb,combo drive.ast160-us321h

[davbell22602]

here what somebody already suggested.

Turn off PC, unplug the power cord and open the case. Remove the shiny watch type battery in there for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes insert the battery back in on the motherboard. Plug-in the power cord. When you turn on the PC go into the BIOS and change the Clock settings. Make sure the DMI (desktop management interface or system management

SMBIOS can see the HDD.

The issues you were having is that the system needed to have it's CMOS (memory to hold the date, time, and system setup parameters) reset or flush out the old data.

[davbell22602]

Ok everytime I keep trying the battery fix the pc is always unplugged and doesnt work. But pc stays unplugged even when not being used right now.

[flman]

Is the new hard drive detected in bios? When do you get the pool data error, as soon as you turn it on, or does windows load some files first? You should check the bios and be sure the drive shows up? I am not sure of where you are in the install when this all happens?

[davbell22602]

This happens when the computer boots up before getting to the install process.

[flman]

Sounds like a problem in the bios, or hardware is halting the bios? Did it do this with the old hard drive? Do you have a SATA or IDE hard drive? Maybe you should plug the old HD back in, just to see if that stops the pool problem? What kind of bios do you have, Award or Phoenix? Maybe you need to enter the bios and manually set the date?

[Mopar1973Man]

I would head over to SeaGate web site and pick up the SeaTools and run the DOS version to check the hard drive status... http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=SeaTools&vgnextoid=720bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

[davbell22602]

this is a seagate sata harddrive 360 gig . The old one crashed.

[Mopar1973Man]

Yeah... Head over to the Seagate site and pick up that DOS tool. It will check the motherboard to hard drive communication anf verify the hard drive for problems. There is even tools to limit the drive to a small er size to aid with BIOS problems.

[davbell22602]

Its a seagate 300 sata. So I might have to partition this drive so it works? I was trying to avoid doing a partition but if I have to I will then.

[flman]

Could you post a link to the Acer web site, and your computer specs? If we knew more about your particular PC, we could offer more help.

[davbell22602]

3200+ amd sempron, 512mb,160gb, combo drive ast160-us321h model t160 http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/desktop/0000/Acer/AspireT160/AspireT160sp2.shtml

Edited January 17, 2010 by davbell22602

[Mopar1973Man]

Well partitioning the drive will not change the fact that when BIOS ask the hard drive how big the drive is it will report the full size of the drive regardless of the partitions on the drive. So that what the tool does is force the drive to report a smaller number to the BIOS at boot time so the drive is accepted by the motherboard. Now the only thing that missing in that information is who makes the motherboard? I know its a 939 socket motherboard which I know is out of date... I can't even buy 939 processor from my dealer... Another idea is if you can find the anufacture of the motherboard you could go check there web site and Acer web site for a BIOS flash hoping maybe to extend the motherboard ability for larger drives.

[davbell22602]

Its made by Phoenix Bios 262016967There's two stickers with some numbers on themsticker #1M/B MBP310900362600770EK06sticker #2041T62610002 PC C51GM03A1-2.0-8EKRS

[Mopar1973Man]

Well you found the BIOS maker... But still need a FCC ID number or a manufacture brand for the motherboard... Asus, Abit, MSI, GigaByte, etc... Some of the common names...

[davbell22602]

ITE IT8712F-A0551-IXSZN1FGLamega 87-96One of the sets numbers on the stickers is the FCC. Cause the FCC approval stamped box is next to sticker # 2 and sticker #2 is under sticker #1.

Edited January 18, 2010 by davbell22602

[davbell22602]

What am I looking exactly when going to these sites with info?

[Mopar1973Man]

You should look up the model of the motherboard through the manufacture... Like mine is a Asus M3A motherboard. So here is the page for my updates for BIOS.

[ATTACH]464[/ATTACH]

Now look through the BIOS updates on the page which there show be several (maybe). Like myself I'm made a few updates to my board to deal with a few issues. There is 11 updates since the time my board was produced.

NOTICE & WARNING!

But read up all the information pretaining to BIOS updates. When flashing a BIOS chip you don't want to have any interruptions in power or shut the computer off because it will kill the chip and make the computer unuseable.

[davbell22602]

So would I update the Bios since theres no windows xp on the harddrive?

[Mopar1973Man]

I would consider both options carefully... Looking at changing the hard drive settings (common) or flashing the BIOS (uncommon). I would check the BIOS updates to see if there was a update for hard drive limityation problems. If there isn't a update I would consider looking at modifing the hard drive settings...Either way it can be done without winodws present and typically is done from a floppy disc or a bootable CD ROM...