Hard drive not recognized

  • Thread starter Thread starter mk
  • Start date Start date
M

mk

I have a Dell dimension 4100 with the original primary master 10GB Maxtor
hard drive and a primary slave 60GB Maxtor drive. The 60GB drive was added
a few years ago. The OS is Win XP Pro and resides on the 60 GB drive. All
has worked well for years.

I just moved the 60GB drive to a new computer and replaced it with another
hard drive (30GB Samsung) in the original Dell computer. I changed the
drives so that the Samsung drive would be the primary master and the Maxtor
10GB the primary slave. However, the bios will only acknowledge the primary
slave position, no matter which drive I connect to it. I have tried the
jumpers in both the Master/Slave and Cable Select positions. Previously it
was set up in the Cable Select jumper positions.

Why won't the bios now recognize the Primary Master position? Can anyone
give me some ideas?
 
Just to add to my last post: I tried switching the ribbon cable, using the
"primary master" end on the Maxtor drive and the "primary slave" end on the
Samsung drive and both drives were recognized. But I would still like the
Primary Master to be the Samsung drive.
 
mk said:
Just to add to my last post: I tried switching the ribbon cable, using the
"primary master" end on the Maxtor drive and the "primary slave" end on the
Samsung drive and both drives were recognized. But I would still like the
Primary Master to be the Samsung drive.
Click to expand...

The 10 GB Maxtor would remain the primary drive because it is
the one with a primary partition for Drive C. Both the 60 GB
Maxtor and the 30 GB Samsung are probably configured as hard
drives with an extended partition (and logical drive(s)). And
if the 30 GB Samsung had been cloned from the 60 GB Maxtor, it
would have been made a HD with an extended partition.

The only way to make the 30 GB Samsung the Primary Master would
be to physically configure it as the Master HD and do a clean
install of Windows XP on to it.
 
Just to add to my last post: I tried switching the ribbon cable, using the
"primary master" end on the Maxtor drive and the "primary slave" end on
the Samsung drive and both drives were recognized. But I would still like
the Primary Master to be the Samsung drive.
Click to expand...


mk:
You've stated that the 60 GB HD you uninstalled was (apparently) the boot
drive containing the XP OS although it's unclear why you had that drive
originally connected as Primary Slave rather than Primary Master. Now you've
replaced it with a 30 GB HD from another machine. You still have a 10 GB HD
in your current Dell 4100 machine. Do I have all this right?

So what are you booting to? Does the 10 GB HD contain a bootable XP OS? Or
does the 30 GB HD contain a XP OS that you can boot to?

Assuming your 30 GB HD contains a bootable XP OS and that's the drive you
want as Primary Master, are you stating that the BIOS doesn't recognize that
drive when it's connected as PM but it *does* recognize that drive if it's
connected as PS? And when it's connected as PS you're able to boot to it?

You're absolutely sure you've correctly jumpered your drives and the IDE
data cables are securely connected to the drives and the motherboard's IDE
connector? You're using the end connector of that cable to connect it to the
drive designated as Master, right? Any chance of a defective cable? And
you're pretty sure the Samsung is non-defective, right?
Anna
 
set jumper for
Samsung as Master and master on ribbon cable
Maxtor as slave and slave on ribbon cable

OR

set jumper for
Samsunsung as Cable Select and master on ribbon cable
Maxtor as Cable Select and slave on ribbon cable
 
I've tried about everything including different jumper settings, another
cable, testing the Samsung drive,connecting only the Samsung drive as
"Master" without the other hard drive at all. I've also deleted the
partition on each drive so that neither has an OS installed. Even though the
computer won't boot, when I check the BIOS the Samsung drive is always
showing as the Slave when connected either alone or with the other drive.
The only way I get a normal Master/slave indication is when the Master cable
end goes to the Maxtor drive and the Slave end to the Samsung drive. Then I
get Maxtor as Primary Master and Samsung as Primary Slave.
 
The 10GB Maxtor was the original Primary drive in this computer. The 30GB
Samsung drive was the primary drive from another computer. Both had primary
partition for Drive C. There was no cloning involved.

When you say to physically configure it as the Primary Master, do you mean
with the proper jumper setup and correct master end of cable connection? If
so I've already tried that.
 
I did more research on the jumper settings for the Samsung drive on the
Samsung we site and found another jumper setting that could be used. That
setting worked and now the drive is acknowledged as the Primary Master.
thank you all very much for your input. Greatly appreciated.
 
Your welcome.

most of the time the jumper settings are on a label attached to the drive.

a helpful green check mark would be appreciated for the effort!!
 
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