Installing slave hard drive

[bobgote]

Hey guys,

I was hoping you could help me install a new hard drive I bought as a slave. There's something going wrong, and I can't fix it, and one of my friends came round, and he's good with hardware, and he couldn't get it working.

What I have is my old 4.3GB HD with the OS etc etc on it, and I want to keep that as the master, and the new 40GB one I want as the slave. then I put it in, and put all the cords etc on, and i'm pretty sure the jumpers are in the right places. My CMOS thing is weird, but they're all set to autodetect, so I guess that's fine.

Now here's the problem. On loading, it will only detect the one HDD, the 4.3GB one. Even when the other one's all connected. If i remove the 4.3GB one, then it detects the other, but not both at the same time. Does anyone know what's going on, or can direct me to a good site that can help me.

This is my first port of call, if this doesn't work out I'll email other places, but i thought i'd give this a go.

 

[col]

Sounds like both are set to be master. I'd recheck the jumpers to make sure that one is slaved. The orientation of the jumpers varies from make to make!

 

[Chieftess]

Check the jumper settings in the manual. Normally, a drive will have settings for the primary and slave (even a 3rd and 4th one on some HDs). I'm not sure if you have to move the jumper on the first drive. Also, make sure BIOS detects it, too.

 

[bobgote]

I'm at uni now, so i can't check it, but i'm pretty sure the jumpers were in the right place. It has the settings printed on the cover of the HDD.

Anyway, just another question, on the 2 port grey parallel cable, which should the master be? I think i got it right, and have tried both ways anywhoo.

Could it have anything to do with my motherboard/processor/OS not being able to support that size of HD? I have an AMD 450MHz processor, and am running windows 98 SE. If you want more info than that, can you tell me how to get it for you?

 

[Stat Kat]

Originally posted by bobgote
Hey guys,

Now here's the problem. On loading, it will only detect the one HDD, the 4.3GB one. Even when the other one's all connected. If i remove the 4.3GB one, then it detects the other, but not both at the same time. Does anyone know what's going on, or can direct me to a good site that can help me.

If the CMOS detects the new drive and reports the right size, you're not dealing with a board/OS issue. It's likely a jumper issue. Are the two HD from the same manufactuer? Sometimes two drives from different companies don't work well...

Your new HD manual should also have directions on what to set the CMOS slave HD to instead of the auto-detect setting. You may have to leave the master on auto-detect and change the slave...but it sure sounds like a jumper issue to me too.

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

Definately do check the jumpers again..and ensure that the data cable covers ALL the pins.

 

[muppet]

I have two hard drives on 1 IDE cable. I think if you place the jumpers on both drives to "cable select" the drive on the end of the cable automatically becomes the "master". At least, that's what the computer store guy told me to do.

I don't know much about computers - just trying to be helpful.

Also, could it be the CMOS recognizes the drive but you haven't told windows to deal with it yet?

From my LIMITED experience, I recall when I added a HD to an existing W2K machine:

1. The OS didn't recognize the drive (or at least I couldn't initially access the drive) through the "my computer" icon, or install anything on it. It was physically there, but nothing in windows recognized it even existed.

2. By going through [administrative tools --> computer management --> disk management] I could "add" the hard drive and have W2K format and assign a drive letter to it.

After that process the drive could be dealt with from anywhere in windows.

 

[col]

I have two hards drive on one IDE cable - but it doesnt make any difference which way round you connect them.

I have A Maxtor and a Quantum. The jumpers are completely different on them. One was vertical for master; the other was vertical for slave.

If each drive is Ok without the other, its definitely a jumper problem.

Last thought - check the jumper itself isnt broken and is joing the pins.

I lost the instructions too but I think you can get the correct config from the respective websites IIRC.

 

[bobgote]

Originally posted by Stat Kat

If the CMOS detects the new drive and reports the right size, you're not dealing with a board/OS issue. It's likely a jumper issue. Are the two HD from the same manufactuer? Sometimes two drives from different companies don't work well...

Same company, both seagate. (hope they're not too bad)

Your new HD manual should also have directions on what to set the CMOS slave HD to instead of the auto-detect setting. You may have to leave the master on auto-detect and change the slave...but it sure sounds like a jumper issue to me too.

It has the instructions on it, but my CMOS thing is weird, and not what i'm used to at all. I could do it on an older computer, but this is just weird.

Originally posted by muppet
I have two hard drives on 1 IDE cable. I think if you place the jumpers on both drives to "cable select" the drive on the end of the cable automatically becomes the "master". At least, that's what the computer store guy told me to do.

I didn't have the cable select jumper on. maybe i should put it on. need some more of the jumpery things tho.

and I have software to do the work once i get to windows, but the CMOS needs to get it first.

Anyway, thanks for your input everyone. I'll check those jumpers out as soon as i can. (prolly not til saturday too many assignments)

 

[Chieftess]

I've had Seagate drives, and they work great! I even had a Seagate and WD drive in the same system! (the seagate was the master drive. )

 

[penvzila]

Unless they're the same speed, put them on diff ide channels. Dont use cable select, just set the main os one to master and have it alone. set the other one to slave and slave it to the CD-ROM.

 

[bobgote]

Originally posted in Stat Kats Status
Double Secret Probation

Hey! Does this mean you like national lampoon's animal house?

and penvzila: they are different speeds, i'll take your advice on board (the new one is nice n fast )

 

[col]

My set up was faster with the two hard drives on one cable and my two CDROM/CDRW on the other!

One school of thought says never mix hard drives and CD drives on one IDE cable!

 

[munzy76]

When I got my new one I couldn't use it as the slave and had to set it up as master. Try that maybe. I know it doesn't help you since you want to run the OS on the older one, but with your OS on the new one the computer will run faster.

 

[bobgote]

well it all works now

actually i'm pretty sure it was the second thing i tried, but it seemed to work this time oh well, i'm not complainin . Thanks for all your help anyways.