Installing a new Hard Drive

[Aerius Zension]

has been quite aggravating.

I recently purchased an 80 gig HD to add to my computer. I'm running XP, so it should be pretty simple.

I currently have a 20 gig HD that came with the Dell. I'm trying to add the 80 gig as my secondary, or slave, with the 20 gig as master.

So, just like installing a CD drive, one would assume you must switch the little plastic pieces (I'll call them pins) on the prongs.

The HD that came with the computer has the pin initially set to "CS," rather than master. I would assume cause it was alone.

Now, I switch the pin to master and set the secondary drive to slave. Only I get the DOS screen, asking me to reboot or insert my boot disk. I try the disk and and choose all of the 5 options, to no success.

On the secondary drive that I purchased, it shows me a different pin setting than what the primary shows for master/slave.

After many trials/errors, I give up. Does anyone know that I might not be doing in order to make this work? Any help would be appreciated?

 

[MoFo]

Omg, I'm going through similiar frustrations.
Windows doesn't seem to want to read my new drive so it renders my computer useless. It won't even turn on properly. It just sleeps automatically after rebooting.

I need help too!!!

 

[deep]

You've tried putting back the original drive to CS and it still doesn't work?

Because if it does work under those conditions, you can install your new drive no problem. Just make sure the first connector on the cable is attached to the drive that came with your computer, and the second connector on the same cable is attached to your new drive. CS stands for cable select meaning that whichever drive is on the first connector is treated as the master and the second as the slave.

 

[pr0nstar]

"HA HA!"

 

[Hi i'm God]

I dont get why thats funny?

 

[Aerius Zension]

Originally posted by deep
You've tried putting back the original drive to CS and it still doesn't work?

Because if it does work under those conditions, you can install your new drive no problem. Just make sure the first connector on the cable is attached to the drive that came with your computer, and the second connector on the same cable is attached to your new drive. CS stands for cable select meaning that whichever drive is on the first connector is treated as the master and the second as the slave.

Yeah, the original HD is set to CS and the flat cable can only be inserted into the main drive then into the secondary.

I am unsure as to the order of the yellow/black/red/???colour wire selection. One says ?3 and ?5. The "?" mark is a letter that I cannot remember.

Thx so far Deep.



I am surprised Kenny hasn't posted more and used his magical computer powers to let me know what's wrong?

 

[Hi i'm God]

You should only have the power cables and the at/t whatever cables.. the psu ones are the only colored ones I know.

 

[OTIS]

1. Ignore CS..

If your drives are on the same IDE channel (same ribbon)
2. Set your boot drive to master
3. Set your new drive to slave
Make sure they are on IDE channel 0 or the primary one.

If your drives are on separate IDE channels, (separate ribbons), 1. Set both to master
2. Set secondary devices to slave (CD rom, DVD-rom)
3. Make sure your boot drive is on the primarey or IDE 0

Go into your BIOS, make sure your primary boot device is selected as the drive you want it to be.

Profit.

 

[deep]

Originally posted by Aerius Zension
Yeah, the original HD is set to CS and the flat cable can only be inserted into the main drive then into the secondary.

You've tried setting the jumpers on the new drive to CS as well, connecting it to the same cable and it won't work?

I am unsure as to the order of the yellow/black/red/???colour wire selection. One says ?3 and ?5. The "?" mark is a letter that I cannot remember.[/B]

I'm not sure what you're referring to here. The data cable for hard drives is typically colorless, not that it really matters, but that's the flat cable. The one that is likely to be coloured with smaller normal looking wires coming out of it is the power connector, but I'm sure you know that already.

 

[PosTMOd]

Originally posted by OTIS
1. Ignore CS..

If your drives are on the same IDE channel (same ribbon)
2. Set your boot drive to master
3. Set your new drive to slave
Make sure they are on IDE channel 0 or the primary one.

Ignoring CS didn't work for mine... try CS on both first.

CS= cable select, IDE 0 being the first one hooked up, and IDE 1 being the terminal (if I remember correctly... who knows these days?).

 

[pr0nstar]

Originally posted by OTIS
1. Ignore CS..

If your drives are on the same IDE channel (same ribbon)
2. Set your boot drive to master
3. Set your new drive to slave
Make sure they are on IDE channel 0 or the primary one.

If your drives are on separate IDE channels, (separate ribbons), 1. Set both to master
2. Set secondary devices to slave (CD rom, DVD-rom)
3. Make sure your boot drive is on the primarey or IDE 0

Go into your BIOS, make sure your primary boot device is selected as the drive you want it to be.

Profit.

 

[Aerius Zension]

Originally posted by OTIS
1. Ignore CS..

If your drives are on the same IDE channel (same ribbon)
2. Set your boot drive to master
3. Set your new drive to slave
Make sure they are on IDE channel 0 or the primary one.

If your drives are on separate IDE channels, (separate ribbons), 1. Set both to master
2. Set secondary devices to slave (CD rom, DVD-rom)
3. Make sure your boot drive is on the primarey or IDE 0

Go into your BIOS, make sure your primary boot device is selected as the drive you want it to be.

Profit.

Hmmm, I may have tried this before, but will try again.

My drives have the same ribbon, or IDE channel to connect to. There is only one order they can go to.

In fact, I tried using the 2ndary drive as Master and not using the primary drive at all, to no avail.

I assume boot drive means primary, so I will again set this from CS to master, and set the 2ndary to slave according to the label on the boot drive.

Originally posted by OTIS
Make sure they are on IDE channel 0 or the primary one...

Go into your BIOS, make sure your primary boot device is selected as the drive you want it to be.

How would I check these two options in Windows?

Originally posted by deep
You've tried setting the jumpers on the new drive to CS as well, connecting it to the same cable and it won't work?

Yeah, by using it as the boot drive and my orig as the 2ndary. Still nothing. Ignore the last part you quoted me on.

 

[PosTMOd]

http://compreviews.about.com/library/weekly/aa-diy-secondaryhd.htm

 

[deep]

Originally posted by Aerius Zension

Yeah, by using it as the boot drive and my orig as the 2ndary. Still nothing. Ignore the last part you quoted me on.

Do not switch the old drive to secondary/slave. There's shit on there that identifies it as the disk your computer boots up from, so by moving it around you're going to get those error messages about "insert boot disk" etc.

Set jumpers on both drives to cable select, put the old drive on the first connector, the new drive on the second one. Power up. Hit whatever button you need to in order to get into your BIOS (usually delete). Look around on the pages and see if the new drive is even showing up in the bios. As OTIS suggested you might need to tell your bios that a new drive has been connected to your comp, but most modern comp's should do this automatically on power up.

If two hard drives aren't showing up in your BIOS then you can start troubleshooting from there

 

[PosTMOd]

P.S.: Don't listen to me-- dope makes me really stupid

 

[OTIS]

Originally posted by Aerius Zension


How would I check these two options in Windows?

You don't, windows takes cues from your BIOS not the other way around.

 

[exrboy]

The answer is reboot. Rebooting fixes everything.

 

[HotSauce]

Originally posted by Hi i'm God
I dont get why thats funny?

He said Ha, Ha...

 

[Aerius Zension]

Thx all.

Got it working, kinda.

That link PostMod provided was good. Everything was accurate, except for the bloody finger this guy's got

What needed to be done was figure out which connector was the primary one to be used (the blackone) and which was 2ndary (grey one). Then switch the boot drive lower and put the new drive above (just the order of the cable).

Set them both to CS and let the computer do the work.

Upon startup, I got the little popup on the bottom right saying new drive yada yada.

So, now that it recognises it, I'm just have to put some stuff in their in order to access it i guess. I went to My Computer to find what letter was selected for the drive (ie, F:\). Didn't recognise it at first, but I shouldn't have a problem from here.

Thx all, esp OTIS for the drunken post, PostMod for the link, and Deep for the answer. Guess we're cool till we disagree in another thread.

Cheers!

 

[pr0nstar]

Am I a geek knowing that's an Antec case?

 

[deep]

AZ : Are you using Windows XP? Now that the drive is physically connected and recognized you have to format it. You can do this through windows explorer by right clicking on the yet unusable drive and going to format. Use NTFS when prompted, it's faster / better than FAT32. Then you can fill it up with all the manporn your little heart desires