I am trying to put a new ATA/IDE HDD on my 5 year old computer but the operation doesnt seem to be succesful. I have put the pin covers as primary slave (as specified on the new HDD) and connected it to the slave cable. what i get when i turn on the computer is ''Auto-Detecting Pri Slave...Press to abort'', and it just stands there doing nothing. I cant even use the keyboard. What is the problem? Is it an incompatibility or something i did wrong?
Your help will be very much appreciated.

From the western digital help page:

"On the initial boot your system may a) lock up, ...
a) If your system locks up (i.e. does not respond after a few minutes), follow these steps:
Turn your system power off. Check the IDE interface and power supply cables to make sure that they are properly connected.
Check jumper settings.
Turn your system power on.
Try to enter your CMOS setup."

If you can enter the BIOS, make sure the settings of the primary slave match the jumper settings.

If it still does not work, use the boot disk that came with the drive to run the install program. If you don't have the disk, download it from the mfrb website.

Hi,

thanks for the help. I think i will need to download the boot disk, but what is the mfrb website? can't find anything about this

Have you checked the jumper settings on the primary master?

They may be set to master. If so change to master with slave.

I am not sure what you mean by connecting the new drive to the *slave cable*.

If the hdd is to be a primary slave, it should be connected to the spare connector on the primary ide interface cable.

Note: if you use CS (cable select) strap settings the master uses the end connector and the slave uses the middle.

Good luck - Keep us posted.

Mike, that's what I meant about the cable.

I don't understand what u mean by *master with slave*. The only option I have on the first hdd to set it as master is 'Master or single drive'.

The second hdd has 2 jumpers (the first one has 1) and i put it as slave but still no change.

When i put the slave drive i cant even go to bios settings.

I thought that it may be because my bios is old and i need an update?

I will try to download an update with my 56k pay-per-minute connection :P... and will keep u informed... Thanks a lot guys

Personally I would not touch the bios as it is too risky.

Often there are 4 jumper settings for hdd's, which are:-

Master (means there is no slave)
Master with slave
Slave
Cable select

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The reason for my comment about slave cable is this is not precise asto which port using. With the ide interface, generally there are two interface cables each with two connectors, providing four connections in total:-

a) primary - master and slave
b) secondary - master and slave

----

Once the hdd is 'seen' by the pc, you may experience difficulty in using/seeing all its capacity.

If hdd is larger than around 2gb, fat32 must be used.

If pc then only sees some of hdd capacity, generally around 8gb, this is due to a bios limitation. In this case, go to the hdd makers website and download their disc manager program which overcomes the problem.

It might help if you provided details of both hdd's. Is there any possibility they are incompatible as some require special interface cables.

Good luck - keep us posted.

The first hdd (20gb) uses the same kind of cable as the second one (80gb).
what i have on the 20gb (seagate) is:

-master/single drive
-slave
-master with a non-ATA compatible drive
-cable select

80gb (hitachi deskstar) is:

-master
-slave
-cable select
-forcing DEV 1 present

The 80gb drive is a ATA/IDE. can I put the 20g on *master with a non-ATA compatible drive*? will try this and keep u informed.

still doesn't work. I've also tried to put it as master and nothing.

I was thinking.... Can a hdd be damaged while passing through x-rays? It did pass through at the airport. or maybe some other damages while it was in my bag?

I would suggest going back to basics to prove that the pc 'sees' the new hdd, as until this is achieved you can go no further. I would do the following:-

a) remove the original hdd and connect the new hdd in its place, with its jumper(s) set to master, or may be cable select.

b) check exactly what ata the new hdd is and whether it requires the later type if ide cables.

c) has this hdd ever been used, and if so is the info required? I wonder if there is info or an o/s there that is causing the problem.

d) do you intend reformating/re-partioning the new hdd. If so, it may be worth low level formatting it first.

e) I have heard of electronic items (e.g. mobile phones) being damaged by x-ray machines in airports. However I would expect the hdd still to be seen by the pc and then it might fall over with a read error.

Good luck - keep us posted.

The drive has been used and I need all my work on it. I've tried to put it as master on the computer but doesnt work.

I've tested it as slave on another computer and it works. However I cant access my documents. For exemple, when I go to user Didier or Administrator in Documents and settings, I receive a warning saying that the Access is Denied.
I didnt put any password or anything else on XP. Why does it do that?

I also had a problem on the computer it came from: At the windows start up I have received a warning saying that a file was missing to load the users settings.

Can this affect the fact that I cant access my files now??

Please follow up.....

It sounds as if maybe there is some incompatability.

If I understand correctly, it appears you are trying to read it with W98, and it is not recognised, but it is when installed with WXP, although you cannot access some info. It may be worth postng this aspect of the problem on the XP forum.

Is it possible the hdd has been formatted with ntfs (or whatever) which I believe works with XP but not W98.

Good luck - Keep us posted.