Replacing master hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lew
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Lew

I have an HP 6746 and want to replace my master drive (which is 30GB) with a
160GB hard drive. I'd like to make my old 30GB hard drive a slave. Since
the old hard drive is in an awkward position and I'd rather not attempt to
move it. When I set the jumpers on the old drive to slave (still connected
to the master IDD and power supply) and set the new 160GB drive to master
(using the slave IDD and power suppply) the computer doesn't recognize
either drive. If I connect the new 160GB drive to the master IDD and power
supply that drive is recognized. The slave IDD and power supply may not
reach my old 30 GB drive, so I may need to purchase a male-female IDD and
power supply to reach it. If I connect the original 30GB drive (setting
jumper to slave) to the slave IDD and power supply will that do the trick?
 
Lew said:
I have an HP 6746 and want to replace my master drive (which is 30GB) with a
160GB hard drive. I'd like to make my old 30GB hard drive a slave. Since
the old hard drive is in an awkward position and I'd rather not attempt to
move it. When I set the jumpers on the old drive to slave (still connected
to the master IDD and power supply) and set the new 160GB drive to master
(using the slave IDD and power suppply) the computer doesn't recognize
either drive. If I connect the new 160GB drive to the master IDD and power
supply that drive is recognized. The slave IDD and power supply may not
reach my old 30 GB drive, so I may need to purchase a male-female IDD and
power supply to reach it. If I connect the original 30GB drive (setting
jumper to slave) to the slave IDD and power supply will that do the trick?
Click to expand...
First and to avoid confusion: master/slave are jumper positions that you set
on the drives themselves. And the disk connectors are called Primary and
Secundary slots.
The master disk is normally connected to the end connector (black) of the
ATA cable, while the slave disk is connected to the middle connector (grey).
The blue connector goes to the motherboard.
You don't say if you further want to use the old disk's OS. In this case you
first should create an image file of the old disk onto the new one. Herefor,
you should use a program like Norton Ghost or Acronis TrueImage (easier to
use).
Before creatin the image file, you should format the new disk and create a
partition on it that is at least equal to the partition of your OS on your
old disk. To create the image file, connect the old disk as master on the
primary slot, and the new disk as master on the secundary slot (or as slave
on the primary).
When this is done, connect the new 160 GB as master on the primary and the
old disk as master on the secundary (or as slave on the primary.
Reboot. Your system should now start Windows from your new 160 GB disk.
 
Since you say this in an HP computer, I'm going to guess the the cable to
the hard drive is a "Cable Select" cable. For this type of cable you don't
set master and slave jumpers on the drive. You set the jumper at Cable
Select (CS) and the drive is assigned master or slave by its position on the
cable. While it is prefereable to have the new drive as the master, there is
a good chance that even if it is the slave that you can make it the C: drive
by telling the BIOS which hard drive to boot from. Most of the newer BIOSs
will give you that option.
 
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