HD problems

sheepy · February 25, 2003, 03:05:14 PM

i recieved a western digital HD from the very generous lets help sheepy out coz he is 2 poor to afford his own stuff fund. due to mine having S.M.A.R.T problems, and has bad sectors.

thats in the past, well almost.

i cant get my pc 2 detect the new hard drive i have totally emptyd my limited idea tray as to how to fix it.

i have tryed a coupld of diffrent jumper positions on the hd its self, it is currently on cable select [i think].

it wont show up in my computer.
im using XP.

it detects it when i go through
-control panel
-add hardware.
-click on yes i have already connected it to the computer.
-it brings up a list of the harware on the comp. it has the HD on it. listed as [a little HD symbol] WDC AC31 3000R

I click on itand it does nothing.

sheepy · February 25, 2003, 03:05:46 PM

ps any one got any ideas?

:roll:

Stryker · February 25, 2003, 03:16:57 PM

Thats a very interesting way at installing a hard drive, Old William Gates would be proud of his No1 bumchum.

Now check out the bios for any issues, such as those on auto detect.... is the channel the HD on set to 32bit?

There are a raft of other settings too..... most of which I cant remember. Just take a look.

sheepy · February 25, 2003, 03:23:24 PM

me+bios = death to computer so i wont b doing that.
and i didnt understand anythink else u said.

Gandalf · February 25, 2003, 04:06:25 PM

you need to go into the bios to get your pc to recognise the HDD.

Simple rules. On IDE, one device master, other device slave. C-Select is rarely used. So if it is your second drive, and the other is a master, then set it as a slave.

Also, keep HDD's together, and CD/DVD's together as IDE runs at the same speed as the slowest item. So a HDD on with a CD will only run as fast as a HDD. (Maybe not the case with the new ultra ATA standards, but it used to be, so it is good practice to abide by this rule)

Finally, enter the bios. On the right should be an option for Auto Detect Hard Drives (Something like that) Go into that and select the default option it gives you (Usually 2, it will have a Y after it) then save and re-boot. That should be it!

sheepy · February 25, 2003, 04:09:01 PM

right, have been in to bios, on ide 1 there are both HD's detected, and on ide 2 there is the cd rom as master and no slave.

sheepy · February 25, 2003, 04:12:53 PM

basically everythink detects the HD except my computer, i think what im going to do i have to put it as master and install windows to it then put old one as slave and copy stuff across b4 the old HD dies a not very dignified death

Anonymous · February 25, 2003, 08:02:16 PM

Glad the drive arrived safely :-)

Cable Select only works if you have a proper CS cable. If you are using normal IDE cables then set master or slave.

There are loads of cases where a particular drive works as a slave but not as a master with another HD fitted (and vice versa). Trying the new one as master and old as slave may be an idea. Why not try that then use drive image, drive copy or ghost to image your old drive to the new one?

Stryker · February 25, 2003, 08:44:22 PM

u running XP sheepy?

if so you have to prep the hard disk using "Disk manager" in the control panel.

Gh0st Face Killah · February 25, 2003, 10:11:40 PM

Never had to do that with xp myself.

Have you tried formating the drive from within xp. Right click on the drive icon and select format. It will ask if you want to, then really want to, say ok to all of these and off it goes. I am assuming it was sent to you empty, or has nothing on it that you need.

smilodon · February 25, 2003, 10:49:14 PM

Sheepy...

your problem appears to be that your BIOS can see the drive and XP recognises it as a connected device (thing). However XP cannot see it in windows explorer. Assuming I have this correct then your problem is simple. You have to format the drive either as NTFS or FAT32. Assuming you do this then XP will see the drive and you'll be able to install to and read from it.

Howvever...there's always a 'however'....you existing HDD is about to die. So you need XP on your new HDD.

Here's the plan - disconnect the old HDD ribbon or power lead so XP cannot see it. Install the new HDD as the master on IDE 1 and install XP on it (use the NTFS file system when offered the choice)

Once you have XP installed on your new drive reconnect the old HDD as a slave on IDE 1 and re-boot. The new master HDD will be used and the old slave HDD will appear as a fixed drive (E: or F: or something). Now copy what ever you like from it to the new HDD.

Throw out the old drive (or sell it on Loot if you are evil) and you're sorted.

You could image the old drive onto the new one but you need special software to do that and it's more agro than a fresh install.

Sorted......I think :?:

sheepy · February 26, 2003, 10:40:16 AM

- i have tryd it as slave.
- it was fully formatted when it was set to me.
- i need to get a copy of xp again, as this is what i was wanting to do similoin.

smilodon · February 26, 2003, 01:16:17 PM

Aha Shlerpy I see your problem.

Are you sure that the new HDD is partitioned and formated either NTFS or FAT32. I've never had a HDD that is delivered formated, usually they are blank. Either way you will need a copy of XP before you can go much further.

sheepy · February 26, 2003, 03:55:36 PM

it wasnt new, bb sent it to me

Gh0st Face Killah · February 26, 2003, 04:30:17 PM

This might be the reason its not seeing it. Not knowing what BB is running OS wise this could be it.

But as others have stated your best way will be do do a fresh install of xp onto this drive and then copy every thing over.