C HARKNESS said:
I am getting ready to install a second hard drive in my computer and a >
technician at CompUSA told me to be sure the second hard drive jumper
setting was set to slave because the C drive would be set to master. He
said their can only be one master drive. He told me I should consider
copping all my software to the new hard drive, then > go into msconfig and
change the new drive to C and change the old drive to another letter. I
could then use the old drive to backup my files.
The documentation on my Dell says to set the jumper settings on the >
second hard drive to cable select. I suggest you go to your computer's
documentation/manual and check to see what it says.
Charlie
shanemckay:
1. First of all, purchasing a used HDD - internal or external - is a
dangerous thing, akin to playing "Russian roulette" in our view. We always
caution our contacts/customers to avoid doing so except in extreme
circumstances. And this is true regardless of the seller's indication that
the drive in question is without defect. I realize that in most cases a
drive manufacturer will provide a "refurbished" disk where a RMA issue is
concerned but at least it's coming from the manufacturer. And besides, the
user has no other option in this kind of case.
2. But what's done is done...
At the very outset, you should download the HDD diagnostic utility from
Seagate's website and check out the disk to determine if it's defective. If
so, that's the end of that.
3. If all indications are that the disk is non-defective and you've
correctly connected/configured the drive as it resides in its USB enclosure
(changed the USB data cable?; connected it to another USB port, if
available, on your PC?; checked your motherboard's BIOS to indicate all
settings re USB are correct? power is being applied to the USB device? power
on/power off before & after bootup?, etc.) then (assuming you can) remove
the Seagate HDD from the enclosure and install it as a secondary HDD in your
machine to see if it's OK there. You know how to do this, yes?
4. Operating at USB 1 - 1.1 speeds is "cruel & inhuman punishment". You
simply must purchase a USB 2.0 PCI card to obtain any semblance of decent
USB performance. Frankly, if your current system doesn't support USB 2.0 I
would hope - if at all possible - you could manage to upgrade your system so
as to get a reasonable level of performance over what you're getting now.
BTW, I'm assuming your XP OS contains SP2. If not, it would be wise to
install that service pack.
5. If the HDD proves non-defective you may be simply dealing with a
defective USB enclosure or USB cable. Lord knows we've encountered many of
them over the past few years.
Anna
P.S. - note to Charlie...
Charlie:
Either you misunderstood or was misadvised by the CompUSA tech re copying
your software to your new HDD and using msconfig to change the drive
assignment letter to C: re your new HDD.
That simply will not work. It's a bit more complicated than that. In general
the appropriate course of action would be to use a disk cloning type of
program such as Acronis True Image to clone the contents of your old HDD to
the new one; then connect/configure the new HDD as Primary Master.
Or you could make a fresh install of the XP OS onto your new HDD and then
install (from the install media, e.g., installation CD) whatever
programs/applications you want on the new drive. You could then copy over
your user-created data from the old to the new drive.
The above is a very brief outline of the process. You should do some
research on this issue.
Anna
