Unrecognised 2nd hard drive problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Geoff
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Geoff

Using Win XP Pro SP2 (and updates).

I have been using two hard drives in my computer and recently I disconnected
the secondary hard drive in order to fit in another smaller hard drive to
which I "ghosted" my operating system to, for emergency back up purposes.
After removing this drive and reconnecting my secondary hard drive my
computer does not now recognise my old hard drive! No jumper pin changes
were made, I have removed and reconnected cables, checked the BIOS for Auto
"recognition" but still nothing. What have I missed? Where to now? Thanks
 
Geoff said:
Using Win XP Pro SP2 (and updates).

I have been using two hard drives in my computer and recently I
disconnected the secondary hard drive in order to fit in another smaller
hard drive to which I "ghosted" my operating system to, for emergency back
up purposes. After removing this drive and reconnecting my secondary hard
drive my computer does not now recognise my old hard drive! No jumper pin
changes were made, I have removed and reconnected cables, checked the BIOS
for Auto "recognition" but still nothing. What have I missed? Where to
now? Thanks
Click to expand...


Geoff:
If I correctly understand you...

You're indicating that your motherboard's BIOS *does* detect the secondary
HD but the OS does not. Is that correct?

If so, have you accessed Disk Management to see if the drive is listed there
but no drive letter has been assigned to it? If that's the case, see if you
can assign a drive letter.

If that doesn't work out, connect the HD to another IDE channel and see if
it's recognized there.

If the BIOS does *not* detect the HD in question, that is, of course, a
different problem.
Anna
 
The BIOS does not recognise it :-(


Anna said:
Geoff:
If I correctly understand you...

You're indicating that your motherboard's BIOS *does* detect the secondary
HD but the OS does not. Is that correct?

If so, have you accessed Disk Management to see if the drive is listed
there but no drive letter has been assigned to it? If that's the case, see
if you can assign a drive letter.

If that doesn't work out, connect the HD to another IDE channel and see if
it's recognized there.

If the BIOS does *not* detect the HD in question, that is, of course, a
different problem.
Anna
Click to expand...
 
Sorry - should have stated in my original post that BIOS does not recognise
2nd hard drive. However if I make the second hard drive the primary one
(having disconnected the original primary drive) then it is detected by the
BIOS still using the primary IDE channel.
 
Geoff said:
Sorry - should have stated in my original post that BIOS does not
recognise 2nd hard drive. However if I make the second hard drive the
primary one (having disconnected the original primary drive) then it is
detected by the BIOS still using the primary IDE channel.
Click to expand...


Geoff:
So you're saying that the BIOS *does in fact* detect that 2nd HD as long as
it's connected on the Primary IDE channel, either at the Master *or* Slave
position rather than on the Secondary IDE channel? So, presumably you can
boot to either of your HDs that are connected anywhere on the Primary IDE
channel - is that right?

So is the basic problem really that *any* device, HD or otherwise, is not
detected by the BIOS when connected on the Secondary IDE channel, i.e., if
you connect an optical drive on that channel it's similarly not detected by
the BIOS?
Anna
 
Thanks Anna for your time - the second hard drive is detected by the BIOS
if jumpered correctly as a Master on the Primary IDE. It is not being
detected by the BIOS as a Slave when jumpered correctly with the first hard
drive (Master) on the Primary IDE.

Currently I have two optical drives (Master and Slave) that are recognised
by the BIOS and O/S on the Secondary IDE.
 
Geoff said:
Thanks Anna for your time - the second hard drive is detected by the BIOS
if jumpered correctly as a Master on the Primary IDE. It is not being
detected by the BIOS as a Slave when jumpered correctly with the first
hard drive (Master) on the Primary IDE.

Currently I have two optical drives (Master and Slave) that are recognised
by the BIOS and O/S on the Secondary IDE.
Click to expand...


Geoff:
So you can boot to the "problem" HD when it's connected as PM, right? (I'm
assuming you created a viable clone). So when all is said & done, the
problem is *only* with the device connected at the Primary Slave position,
period. Isn't that correct?

If you connect one or another of your optical drives as PS - what happens?
The BIOS won't detect the device?

And you say you've changed the IDE data cable used by your HDs, yes? And
you're absolutely sure you've correctly connected/jumpered that problem HD,
right.

And you've reviewed your BIOS settings to ensure they're all correct
relative to this issue, yes?
Anna
 
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