!!!HELP HDD INSTALLATION!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter venividivici87
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venividivici87

Hi guys, I've bought a 120 Gb hard disk (maxtor ata 133): I wanna use
it as slave disc replacing an old 40 Gb disc. I've linked t to the
power source and to the data cable putting it in the centre of cable;
I've followed instructions and I havn't put any jumper to set disc as
slave. I keep at the end of the data cable the other hard disc (maxtor
20 Gb) that is set as master. Starting Windows Xp the new disc doesn't
appear, though It happens in "Devices Managment" near the old disc.
I tried to use "find new hardware" from Control Panel, to change the
position of the jumper but there aren't news. Can someone help me?
 
I keep at the end of the data cable the other hard disc (maxtor
20 Gb) that is set as master. Starting Windows Xp the new disc doesn't
appear, though It happens in "Devices Managment" near the old disc
Click to expand...

If it's being seen in Devices Management it may only need partitioning
and formatting for it to be seen OK.
Go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools Management, Computer Management,
and Disk Management. See if your new disk is there. If it is then right
click on it and create a partition and format it.
If this is not working then you jumpers need to be set correctly so that
it's seen as a slave by the bios. If you aren't sure where to do this then
go to the Maxtor website and find the diagram for your hdd under Support.
 
there's a problem: the disk has 120 Gb but disk manag see only 31 Gb.
Is it a Bios problem?How Can I solve it?
 
From that information it's clear that you are installing this hard drive on
a motherboard that is 4 to 5 years old or older. Is that right?
The bios on the board can only read hard drives up to 32 gb. If you go the
the mb manufacturer's web site they may have a bios update for your
particular board that will allow it to read a larger hard drive size, though
it is doubtful that this will be the case.
You have three options.
The cheapest and easiest, but not the safest, is to go to the Maxtor web
site and download Maxiblast tools and run the install program. It will
install an overlay software program on the hard drive that will allow your
motherboard's bios ability to read the full size of the hard drive.
Sometimes the software can get corrupted. Should that happen you would not
be able to boot your disk and all the data on it could be lost.

The second route is the safest and that's to buy an additional hard drive
controller card that plugs into one of your PCI slots. This will allow full
use of the hard drive. You would plug your hard drive cable into the
controller card's connector after you install the software for the device
driver and that's it. One of the best known makers of these cards is Promise
though there are others.

The third route is to do nothing and just use the hard drive with 31 mb and
enjoy.

In all cases always back up your important data. Sooner or later we all
crash.
 
Thank you very much..but if my bios doesn't see more than 33 gb why i
have used a 40 gb hard disk without problems??..thanks a lot again..
 
Another problem: the new disc has not 31 Gb but 33. I've checked in
maxtor web site: there's no similar problems.
 
In all likelihood, the BIOS of your motherboard is too old to recognize any
harddrive larger than 40, based on the fact that you currently are using a
20 GB and a 40 GB. The 120 GB will not work in that case.
 
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