Need a little help

rewindurmind

rewindurmind

rewindurmind

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Joined
24 May 2007
Posts
55
Hello.

I'm not quite the hardware expert but I recently purchased an IDE hard drive from Overclockers. I want to make it my secondary hard drive. My original one is also IDE and I can't seem to get it to work. I've done the jumper settings. It recognises my hard drive on "Device Manager" but it still doesn't show up in "My Computer" and in Bios it says "Not Installed" I was just wondering as to how I'm supposed to install it.

Thanks.
 
Does the drive show up in Disk Management at all? (right click on My Computer then select Manage). You'll need to partition and format it before it can be accessed from within Windows.
 
The first thing to get right is to ensure the BIOS can see the drive successfully. From what you've posted this appears not to be the case yet. Until you sort that out it's unlikely to work from within Windows. Once the BIOS sees it, you can work on getting it formatted etc from within Disk Management in Windows.

Usually with IDE disks you either set one drive to master via jumpers and the other to slave, after which they should be detected as such by the BIOS. However, some cables also supports cable select IIRC, so then configure both drives as Cable Select (CS) and they should automatically be identified as master and slave based on which connector on the IDE cable they're plugged into (the controller must also support CS.) In general it's better/easier to use explicit Master/Slave config on the hard drives rather than Cable Select.

Edit: I've just done a quick google about the CS issue, and found this relevant page: http://www.mikeshardware.com/howtos/howto_connect_ide_hd.html

HTH
 
Last edited:
Thank you both for your help. How can I get BIOS to recognise my hard drive? I've set my hard drive with the operating system as primary and my newest one as secondary. BIOS recognises it as "Not Installed" but I'm not sure on how to install it :(
 
Connect the master harddrive to the end of the IDE cable, and the slave to the middle - obviously making sure you set the jumpers correctly on the drives. If you're not sure how to set the jumpers, post the make and model of the drive here, and we'll see if we can help.

Obviously connect the IDE cable to the motherboard, fire the machine up and enter the BIOS. Most BIOS I've come across allow you to set each harddrive to Auto - or sometimes choose Auto, and press Enter with Auto selected.

If the BIOS still doesn't pick the new drive up, set it as a Master, and remove the old drive for now. If the BIOS picks up the new drive, then you've either got a cable or jumper problem on your hands.

If possible, tell us the make and model of your motherboard, too.
 
Thanks a lot for your help mate.

(sorry for grammar errors kitty jst decided to go to sleep on my right arm)

my original harddrive is a

hitachi deskstar ATA/IDE 80.00GB

i'll edit my post in a min i just found something that i want to try out
 
Oh, and make sure your Hitachi's jumpers are set as follows:

|::| - the | represent jumpers over pins.

Look at the jumpers, as the single pin on the top left (not shown).
 
Well I took the jumpers out in the Samsung hard drive and this is what I'm getting still

spa0139mi0.jpg


spa0140nt7.jpg
 
Just a thought - highlight both "hard drives" and change them to Auto, using the + and - key.
 
rewindurmind said:
K. One more question.

How do I move my operating system onto my hard drive, without the disks? Is it possible?
Click to expand...
Going to have to use something such as Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image to copy one drive to the other.

If you have a valid serial, then apparantley you're allowed to use any CD, downloaded or not - so long as the serial is legit and valid. Ie: Download XP Home/Pro CD, if that's what you have, and use your existing serial to register it.

Of course, I am not for one minute suggesting you download an XP CD and serial from a warez site. :p
 
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