I just bought a new hard drive to replace my primary master drive, however when i plug it in, my primary slave is detected either as a secondary master or not at all. Second problem - i can't install windows on the new drive. i boot up from a windows boot disk, but i cant run windows install on the new drive, i just says it is a "microsoft ram drive" i think it acts as a virtual drive...but i dont know. any thoughts? when i throw commands at it, it says can't run format on this drive or cant install to this drive. the drive is str8 out of the packet, mayb i havent set it up or something>?

First problem - have you checked the jumpers.You may need to set them on BOTH hdd's present.

If using cable select (which I dont), which interface cable connector used for which hdd becomes important.

Good luck - keep us posted.

hello
with new drive you must first "fdisk" the drive to create a partion. next you reboot for partion to be seen in windows and than ether format it from windows or reboot with bootdisk and format it.and create any more partions at this time for complete fdisk format instructions goto www.burzurq.com
and yes boot disk is a virtule drive that exists in ram
have a nice day

What kind of drive (make/model) is already in your machine and what kind (make/model) are you adding. This would help alot.

Well, the old drive is a 20gig fujitsu, and the new drive is a 40 gig western digital. the slave is a 60gig seagate - that was installed about 3 months ago by a technician, so i didnt change the settings for it.

The 60gig is set to 'cable select'.

The one i am replacing (20gb) jumper is currently set to 'primary'.
The new 40 gb hard drive has the jumper options:
1. primary w/slave present;
2. primary or single;
3. cable select; or
4. slave.
which should i put the new drive jumper on? i also have a cdrom drive and a burner drive attached to those thick grey cables.

second question:
when i boot up the system is detected as:
Primary Master: Fujitsu (old hard drive)
Primary slave: Sony CDROM
Secondary Master: Seagate Hard Drive (60gb)
Secondary Slave: Acer CD-Burner
is this correct? should the second hard drive be the primary slave or the secondary master? i cant remember what it was before i started mucking around with it!

Regards,

Tegan.

As I understand the situation, you have connected 4 devices on your 2 ide connections (primary and secondary).

When using cable select, the connector(s) on the flat interface cable itself are used to decide whether the device connected is master or slave. The end connector is the master and the middle is the slave.

As advised previously I do not use cable select myself. I would set the jumbers for the 4 devices:-

Primary - (master w/slave)(slave)
Secondary - (master w/slave)(slave)

I have known problems when installing windows with multiple hdd's. It might be best to disable (in the bios) all but the primary master, before installing and then enable one at time.

Good luck - keep us posted.