I'm installing a 2nd hard drive on the XP Media Edition Presario, so that we can easily access the data on the old drive. I'm a rookie at this. I got the old drive into the new machine, hooked up the - is that the IDE 'belt'? - to the old drive, pluggid in connector P4 to old drive, and Presto! - the new machine thought it was the old machine, with Windows ME appearing onscreen, but doing no more than showing the logo. OK, something is in the wrong order. I want the old drive to be a slave to the new one, so to speak, so that I can access the old drive's data. Can anyone sort this out? Thanks very much. me

you must install the 'old' drive as slave and ... check the diagram on the disc, it usually tells you the correct jumper settings (between the power and the ide connector socket ... then make sure both drives are detected in the bios (usually F2 during the compaq post screen) Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.' icq 10183575

if mounting on the same cable the slave must be mounted in the middle connector (socket) and must have jumpers set to either cable select (CS) or slave (s) If mounting on the second ide controller cable the HDD should be as stated above with the optical drive connected as master OR it may be connected as master and mounted on the end socket and the optical drive mounted as the slave drive. In The Matters Of Style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, Stand Like A Rock