I've bought a 40Gb hard disk to add to my system (it's only got 8 Gb). I know I've got to Fdisk it and Format it. It's set to Slave (I changed the jumpers), and on the same ribbon as the original disk. Problem is - BIOS won't recognise it - won't auto detect it - and I can't add it as a user defined as I don't know what cyls heads etc????) Am I doing this right? How should I set it in Bios? as it won't auto detect in Bios.

Make sure you have it jumbered right. What's the make of it, Maxtor , Western Digital? I had the same problem last week. It was a Maxtor and on top it showed a diagram of how to set the jumbers, but the bios would not find it. Then I looked at the directions and found that the diagram on the disk was wrong.

Some BIOS' on boards sold in late 1999 or early 2000 had 8.4 GB hard drive limitations. What make is your motherboard? Check the manufacturer's website for a BIOS update that may allow you to use a 40 GB drive with it. If you know what hard drive it is I can get the information you need to set it up by manually entering the sectors, cylinders etc.

I agree that we need to know the brand and preferably the model of the drive. As far as the 8 GB limitation, on his motherboard, I rather doubt it because he's running a PIII 450, more than likely w/ the BX chipset. If I remember correctly, the 8 GB limitation was pretty much fixed before that, around the time Intel released the 440FX or LX chipsets during the transition from Pentium to PII.

You may have to change the jumpers on your original hdd. a) from master only, to master with slave. or b) if set to cable select, it should be on the end conector on the interface ribbon cable. ---- To obtain info on the new hdd, go to the makers website with the model number and all should be revealed. Also there will be programs to overcome problems suh as your pc bios, not recognising all the hdd capcity etc. Good luck - keep us posted.

Motherboard is a Chaintech with the intel 82440BX chipset. BIOS is 4.51 PC. New drive is a maxtor (572z189 on the brown box) but paper info says it is an EXCELSTOR. Pictures of Jumper settings are the same on the drive and in the paperwork for slave settings. I've no paper info on the old harddrive - it was original in the machine - but I can see that it is set to master jumper settings.

Please read again my earlier post. If original hdd jumper(s) set to master only, they will will have to be changed. For info on hdd, go to hdd makers website, with model number and all will be revealed. Good luck - keep us posted.