HELP! Installing a 2nd Hard Disc into a PC

[Chas Uno]

This is one for all you computer techies.

I'm trying to sort out an old computer, a Pentium III 600 mhz with 128k ram. Now, I need it to run a 2nd hard disc drive, and previously with other computers I'd just slot it in and connect it to one of the spare IDE cables going to the master hard disc or with one of the CD roms.

However, with this PC I put the second hard disc in, connect it up and the computer doesn't seem to recognise it? I connected it the same way that I connected the same hard disc to computers when I was over in the USA, and it worked over there but doesn't over here The hard disc is fine as it runs on my old computer (the one I'm using now!). Also, it has the jumpers set to be a 'slave' and the master is set as 'master'.

At the moment the 2nd hard drive is on the same cable as the master disc, though as mentioned above I've also connected it in parallel with CD roms before and it worked fine.

What do I need to do to get the computer to read and recognise the 2nd hard disc? Do I need to change the settings in CMOS or something? Any help would be greatfully received!

Cheers,

Chas

 

[Liam]

Have you had this connected up before, some operating systems only read certain file formats.

Get into the BIOS and auto detect HDD's too.

Liam

 

[Si]

Check BIOS and ensure jumper settings are correct on both drives.

 

[Chas Uno]

The hard disc I'm trying to connect is working fine in my old computer as a slave drive, but won't register on another computer I'm sorting out. Both are running Windows 98, the one I am using now is a Pentium II and the newer one is a Pentium III.

The newer one will boot from my slave drive if I set it to Primary master and replace the original hard drive, so it can read it fine. It just won't recognise a 2nd hard disc when it's installed :bang:

Is the BIOS the same as entering 'Setup' (by holding down the delete key) during start up?

 

[Si]

Yeah usually Del or F1 @ Startup.

 

[Chas Uno]

Check BIOS and ensure jumper settings are correct on both drives.

Jumper settings are correct. I removed both drives and set the jumpers for both as slave and master.

I had a problem with entering setup as it asked for a password and I don't have it! So I've removed the internal battery and will leave it for 24 hours as I'm told that will reset the password... I assume that I can't get into the BIOS unless I get past the password!

It just seems weird that other computers I've put my hard drive in as a slave worked fine with it without changing any settings other than the jumpers. I did this with the same hard drive in two different machines while I was over in the USA, so it works ok on a Dell and a Hewlett Packard!

 

[Liam]

IDE cable or IDE controller could be dead.

Liam

 

[dave]

you tried setting to cable select?

 

[Chas Uno]

I'm connecting it to the same cable that the master is connected to. It has two sets of connectors on it to allow two hard discs to be connected in parallel. This is the same as on my older computer and both drives work fine that way.

Therefore I assume that the IDE controller and cable must be ok if it can read one drive but not the other

It's worth mentioning that this new computer has never had two hard drives connected before, so maybe I do need to set something up in the BIOS/ Setup. I'll try this tomorrow as it's late and I need to get to bed.

If anyone else has any suggestions I'd be grateful to hear them!

Such as, is it better to have the master and slave drive on the same IDE cable, or should I connect the slave drive in parallel with one of the CD roms?

Damn computers!

 

[Trancendental]

Don't have to leave it for 24 hours.

There is a Jumper on the Mainboard which will reset it to Factory.

its usually right next to the battery. Swap the Jumper the the alternate position and then turn on PC without battery, leave it for about 20 seconds. then swap back and replace battery. This should reset it.

Try Putting the Jumper to Cable Select on the Slave, then try Cable select on Both Master and Slave.

Try the Second Hdisk as the Primary and the Primary as the Secondary.

If the Board will simply not detect ANY type of secondary Hdisk then chances are the BIOS settings are incorrect.

Go in there and make sure HDisk Detection is set to Auto OR find the specifics of the drive and set it up manually.

 

[Chas Uno]

Cheers for the help everyone!

Trans, I'd already left the machine off with the battery removed before I read your message, so it was all nicely reset for when I tried it today. Wish I'd known about the jumper next to the battery yesterday!

Anyway, now that I was able to enter SETUP I could then tell the PC to auto detect the hard discs. It found both and all are working fine now. Well pleased!

Now I have to do a fresh Windows install and format the original hard disc and it will be ready to take over from my old PC.

Pentium III, 600mhz, 128mb ram! Woohoo! I know a lot of you will laugh at the spec but it's over twice the power of my old machine and it was free...

What I'd do for a Dual Core processor running at silly speeds with a 300gb hard drive!

 

[Liam]

Nice one Chas.

Liam

 

[jug]

Pentium III, 600mhz, 128mb ram! Woohoo! I know a lot of you will laugh at the spec but it's over twice the power of my old machine and it was free...
What I'd do for a Dual Core processor running at silly speeds with a 300gb hard drive!

at work yesterday we had to pay hundreds of pounds to get over a dozen PC's taken away for recycling and they were all better spec than that :bang: and not just a little better. one of them had an AMD2000+ processor, 512mb ram and a 20gig hard drive. i wanted to keep them all but work said they were 4 year old redundant junk and too old to use! if i had the space i'd have taken them and sold them on ebay. (i managed to salvage a laptop and wireless modem/router and a couple of wireless cards )

its mad when you think about all the people who could have used them, i bet it happens every day.

 

[Firewarrior]

most defiently, just happened here with all the dell stuff

 

[Chas Uno]

Nice one Chas.

Liam

Cheers Liam!

at work yesterday we had to pay hundreds of pounds to get over a dozen PC's taken away for recycling and they were all better spec than that :bang: and not just a little better. one of them had an AMD2000+ processor, 512mb ram and a 20gig hard drive. i wanted to keep them all but work said they were 4 year old redundant junk and too old to use! if i had the space i'd have taken them and sold them on ebay. (i managed to salvage a laptop and wireless modem/router and a couple of wireless cards )

its mad when you think about all the people who could have used them, i bet it happens every day.

Argh! :bang:

So I'm going through all this grief to finally update to Windows 2000 and a slightly faster machine and people are scrapping computers about three times as powerful!

Forgot to mention, I also am working with a 20GB hard disc drive. That's the biggest I've got, the next one down is 17GB...

Anyone know of redundant computers being chucked give me a shout. I might get that 3.0Ghz processor sooner than I think