problem with extra hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lisa Jeffris
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Lisa Jeffris

My computer will not recognize the second hard drive. My
son who also does computers for Noaa did not know what to
do. He said something about the second drive being a
diamond. Got any ideas, I really need that drive as it
has all my files from my older gateway.

Lisa
 
My computer will not recognize the second hard drive. My
son who also does computers for Noaa did not know what to
do. He said something about the second drive being a
diamond. Got any ideas, I really need that drive as it
has all my files from my older gateway.

Lisa
Click to expand...
This is no doubt a "BIOS" issue.

You need to investigate the little jumpers on the actual physical disk
drive. There is usually a little drawing that shows you how to set the
jumpers for a particular configuration. Options are "Master, no slave",
"master, with Slave", "Slave", "cable select". Something like that. If
you have both physical drives connected to *one* ribbon cable, the one
on the end of the cable is "master" the one connected to the "middle" is
called "slave". So, you have to set the little jumpers on the actual
physical drive to match how you've connected them. Modern equipment
seems to work ok on "cable select" but you have to try it and see.

On my machine I can set both of the physical drives that are attached on
cable "0" to "cable select" and the BIOS is able to recognize them both
properly.

If your BIOS is a fairly new one, it should be able to recognize them
easily if you set them like that too. Your son should be able to help
you get them set right. If he can't, you should stop feeding him. :-)
 
Ok, first thing, The drive is an IDE correct?
We will assume it is:

1) Most important, leave the computer plugged in, shut it
off, "GROUND YOURSELF", before

working on the computer, touch the screw on the wall plate
for the plug in, that will ground

any static from your body. If you leave the computer to do
something, insure you ground

yourself before touching the computer again.

2) You have to insure the jumpers are set correctly, if
you just plugged this into the Hard

drive cable that was there and did not unplug anything
(Very important) then the drive that

you boot up on is the Master. Jumpers for that can be set
in the following way.
Master (by itself)
Master (with a second drive on the cable) or
Slave (it is the 2nd drive and you have a Master).

So, you bought the drive, hopefully the jumper settings
came with it (newer drives have them

on a label on the top of the drive), if not, find the
model and drive name, do a search on

the web, you will have to go to the web site, make sure
you find the correct model of the

hard drive, you can find the jumper settings on the net
(hopefully).
Your current drive, set it as master with a 2nd drive, set
the jumper on your new hard drive

for a slave. Now, the IDE Cable (You will have 2 IDE
Busses, IDE BUs #1 & Bus #2), the

Master has to go on the end connector of the IDE Cable
(IDE Bus #1), the slave plugs into

the connector in the middle of the same cable. Also, if
they are older drives, the IDE

cable has a colored line on the ribbon (usually red) on
one side of the cable, the side of

the cable with the red line, make sure that side plugs
into pin 1 on the hard drive. Look

on the connector port on the hard drive, some times they
are hard to see, but make sure that

you plug the cable in correctly.
(Don't forget to hook up the Power!)

2) Once you have the drives hooked up correctly (don't
forget the Power!), you can turn on

the computer, You now need to go into your BIOS **
CAUTION, be very careful in the BIOS, if

you change the wrong thing, your computer may not boot up
***
When you first turn the computer on, soon as you see
something on the screen, or even before

that, push the delete key (AMI BIOS), "" AND KEEP PUSHING,
do not hold down, push then let

go, push again, keep doing that", backspace key possibly,
and there are others, but I do not

know which ones. Anyway, you need to get into your BIOS
and make sure that IDE BUS 1 has

Autodetect set for Master and Slave detection. If you can
find that, you should be able to

boot up with both drives showing, watch the screen after
you reboot. If your Hard drives are

detected, then they will show up when you reboot.

3) If you have a CD, that should be on IDE Bus 2. Leave it
alone.

If you need more help than this, I will check back
tomorrow.
 
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