Two hard drive set up question

[Camel Toe]

I have a puter question if I may. I just installed a fresh XP. Now my second drive doesn't show in "my computer" desktop icon when clicked, only the C drive shows, that is the primary HD. In the set up (delete on black screen) it shows both drives as installed but it doesn't have anything that asks which is primary and which is slave. But one is 1st choice and the one that I can't get into is the second boot device. There is no jumper on the slave HD. The ribbon is attached black plug to secondary and gray to primary, in reverse, as they are mounted secondary over primary in the box. Is this my problem? Black plug has to go the primary? Is there a pri/sec setting somewhere I missed in set up? One that defines which is first boot device and which is second? The secondary HD has no OS, just files.

Thank you for any concern.

[dirtydog]

Turn off the pc, dissconnect the second drive, boot up, turn off and reconnect the second drive, should recognise it then.

[Camel Toe]

Thanks I'll give it a shot.

[Camel Toe]

Didn't work. So in the CMOS why should I have the secondary drive as a second boot device? There's no OS there to boot it up. I disabled it as a boot device. Still does not recognize it.

[Mid]

show in device manager ?

[Camel Toe]

nope it doesn't

[melvbot]

deleted.

[Camel Toe]

what's deleted? it shows up in the CMOS. it worked before i reinstalled xp into the primary drive.

[dirtydog]

I disabled it as a boot device

How did you do that and does it have any bearing with the problem you have? Just a thought.

[Camel Toe]

I don't think it matters. The choices for boots in the CMOS are 1, 2 and 3 only .. they are the hard drives the DVD drive and the floppy (or disable). Since boot ups can be read in the floppy and the DVD drive it couldn't matter cause the second hard drive has no OS.

The problem seems to be when I installed the new XP a letter (used to be E) wasn't assigned to that drive.

[dirtydog]

You have to call it something so you need to assign it a letter.

[Wallalai]

Didn't work. So in the CMOS why should I have the secondary drive as a second boot device? There's no OS there to boot it up. I disabled it as a boot device. Still does not recognize it.

It's not a second boot device, it's just indicate that if no OS is found on the first disk, the system will look on the second hard drive if an operating system is bootable.

By default most of the BIOS had CDROM as the first bootable device, then the first hard disk (Master) and so on. Years before floppy disk was the first boot device.

[Camel Toe]

I read that. But you know those Internet tecs. They throw terms around as if they're talking to another tec. Don't they ever realize, if I knew what they were talking about I wouldn't need to ask one.

[Wallalai]

Oops, have you tried to right-clic on the "My Computer" icon on the desktop and then "Manage" to see if the disk is there ?

It could be that the disk is not formatted . I could be wrong but it's worth two clicks.

[Camel Toe]

Didn't work. So in the CMOS why should I have the secondary drive as a second boot device? There's no OS there to boot it up. I disabled it as a boot device. Still does not recognize it.

It's not a second boot device, it's just indicate that if no OS is found on the first disk, the system will look on the second hard drive if an operating system is bootable.

By default most of the BIOS had CDROM as the first bootable device, then the first hard disk (Master) and so on. Years before floppy disk was the first boot device.

I'll try that.

[Camel Toe]

Oops, have you tried to right-clic on the "My Computer" icon on the desktop and then "Manage" to see if the disk is there ?

It could be that the disk is not formatted . I could be wrong but it's worth two clicks.

No, it's not recognized in the manager. And, again, it worked before I reinstalled XP on the other hard drive. The secondary is formatted and contains 30 Gigs of data, all by way of this very computer.

[Wallalai]

Now if you are unsure about how to connect the "spaghetti like" cable


Blue (extrémité 3) = Motherboard
Grey (middle) = SLAVE (or second Hard Drive)
Black (extrémité 1) = Master --> Where winXP is installed.

This apply for IDE Hard drive (dont forget the jumpers: usually Master is jumper free and Slave must to have a jumper according to the indications on the Harddrive sticker).

[Camel Toe]

Know all about that:

There is no jumper on the slave HD. The ribbon is attached black plug to secondary and gray to primary, in reverse, as they are mounted secondary over primary in the box. Is this my problem? Black plug has to go the primary?

They are backwards now, they were backwards before.

[Camel Toe]

If I can't solve this problem soon I'll plug the black into the secondary and install windows on it.

[Wallalai]

No, it's not recognized in the manager. And, again, it worked before I reinstalled XP on the other hard drive. The secondary is formatted and contains 30 Gigs of data, all by way of this very computer.

Check the white electric wire to the hard drive, sometime they are loose.





In your situation I would disconnect the second hard drive and connect the bootable device to the top end black connector and check if it works. Windows boot.

Then if it boots correctly, disconnect this hard drive and connect the second one at the same place. Switch on the computer and you'll see if the disk is recognized by the PC or invisible. It should show a message like "No operating system found" or something like this.

At least you'll know if the hard drive works or not.

[Camel Toe]

okay.

[Camel Toe]

Better, I'll reverse the two 4-wire plugs.

[Camel Toe]

I removed and replaced the HDs and plugged them in correctly. Still the same. I reversed the two power plugs, no taco. It's the primary that has the 2-pronged jumper in place, it was like that before too.

[Wallalai]

Out of ideas.

Have a look here: Hard Drive Troubleshooting | StudyNotes.net

or

Tutorials/Hardware Upgrades/How to Install a Second Hard Disk - PC Technology Guide

Or it could be a faulty IDE ribbon cable connector. I've had the problem.

Sorry I cannot do much more to help you.

[baldrick]

if it shows up in the BIOS is should be plugged in correctly.

in windoze go start --> run --> diskmgmt.msc and give us a screenshot. we need to see what windoze has to say about the second disk