Quick Jumper Question

simbady · 17 Jan 2009 at 19:43

Hi, i am relativly new to builing pc's. I have just found a old 80GB IDE Harddrive. I plug it into the the mobo and power supply. When my pc turns on i can hear it but my mobo doesnt detect it. I noticed that it doesnt have a jumper on it, does it have to have a jumper to be found my the mobo when it is only it pluged into the mobo.

IDE cable one with Master and Slave but i am not using slave.

HD : WD800BB

Cobertizo · 17 Jan 2009 at 19:47

You haven't given a full model name as far as I can see, but this page may help (if I've guessed the rest of the model name correctly):
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=501&lang=en

Alternatively jumper settings may be displayed on the drive itself. Sounds like you do need to get the jumpers sorted out in this scenario...

simbady · 17 Jan 2009 at 19:49

Yeah it does say on the hard drive where it needs to go but I thought you only need a jumper if you are using more than one piece of hardware on one cable?

Cobertizo · 17 Jan 2009 at 19:57

Depends on how the hard drive is designed. Sometimes you can get away without a jumper if it's master and the only drive, but sometimes you do need one...

If you don't have any spare jumpers to hand, I managed to cobble one together with some aluminium foil and some luck the other week. Could give that a try!

[EDIT: Oh, and here's the right link for your drive: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=708&p_created=#jumper

Depending on what jumper config you have you could be okay without (i.e. if it's 10 or 6 pin, then you should be fine without a jumper - if it's 9 pin then you will need one).