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Hours Trying to install 2nd Hard Drive!! PLEASE HELP!!

Nov 29, 2004 5:30AM PST

Ok this is my problem. I'am using Compaq Presario 5410US, Seagate 40 gigs HD Model ST340810A, WinXP Home Edition SP2. I'm trying to install a old 3.2 gig Western Digital Caviar 33200 (I know I know, not much but what the hell!). This drive was in my old PC which was running WinME. I want old HD to be slave and my C drive to be master. Now I did all that jumper thingy. I've been reading forums all DAY! When it boots up I notice quickly something saying "No IDE Fixed present" When I go to Bios I do not see either drive. ALL I see are the Cd-RW, DVD and floppy drives. When I use the bootup disk I created says "Starting.....Windows ME" and I get A:/>.

Now I tried to switch it around and made the C drive Slave and the Old drive Master. Oh lookie here the bios see both drives. Then WinME Started I stopped it cuz I got scared, didnt want anything to happen to my C drive.

restarted PC with boot disk but got the same thing "Starting.....Windows ME" and I get A:/>.

Whem I try to type "fdisk" it says bad command or file

I was thinking maybe the boot disk?? I created it by formating it into MS-Dos Startup disk. I tried to download the Winxp boot disk. but it tells me I can't run it. something about system file can not run MS-Dos.

I Know I'm doing something wrong but can't get what it is.
Can any help me??? for the love of 3 gigs please help!!
Thank you in advance. Please let me know if there is any more info you need that might help.

Discussion is locked

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Re: Hours Trying to install 2nd Hard Drive!! PLEASE HELP!!
Nov 29, 2004 5:51AM PST

Babygurl,

The part of not seeing the drives in BIOS indicates that the ribbon cables were not fully in their sockets.

Or the XP drive is set to cable select.

Or the 3 gig drive needs jumpered strangley. Had a W/D that would not slave to another H/D... to a CD it would work fine.. never did figured that one out.

Normal when using a boot disk to go to the A prompt.

Step by step....
XP drive master on last ribbon connector. Old drive as slave on middle connector. Some will say use cable select on the drives and I will suggest that settings of master/slave does not work. Make sure connectors are fully inserted and reboot.

Luck

Bill
.

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Re: Hours Trying to install 2nd Hard Drive!! PLEASE HELP!!
Nov 29, 2004 12:50PM PST

That's how I had it just as you suggested but it didn't work. I also was told to try CS on both drives. Only thing is they keep saying that If I put both drives on the same connector it will slow my 40 gig drive down. They suggested I connect one HD to the CD-RW connetor and make it Master/slave. And connect the other HD to the DVD-Rom and make it Master/slave.

What do you think?

Thanks for your help!!

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Re: Hours Trying to install 2nd Hard Drive!! PLEASE HELP!!
Nov 29, 2004 9:14PM PST

I would use CS on both drives on the same cable.....it won't even be noticable even if the older drive does slow down the master. The reason I wouldn't hook it to the cdrw mainly is for data transfer problems you might encounter during a burn if a harddrive and the burner are on the same cable. However, if you do decide to hook the slave harddrive to the cdrw and want to burn something from that drive to the cdrw, you can try slowing down the burn speed for that particular burn so that the data transfers easier.

TONI