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noahlamy

9 Posts

8402

December 16th, 2006 02:00

Hard Drive jumpers on Dimension 2400

I definitely want to upgrade the HD on my old 2400 and maybe add a second HD while I'm at it or later. I was examining the factory supplied drive and noticed that the jumper was set to "cable select". Just out of curiosity I moved the jumper to "master or single drive" and the system wouldn't boot or even recognize the drive. BIOS setup reported the existing drive as an unknown device. Oddly enough the system diagnostics on the utility partition recognized it as a hard drive but the BIOS did not. Seems a little weird to me. But this of course brings up the question of how I can have a master and a slave drive if the system doesn't recognize the master jumper, and this being the case even if I go with only one larger drive how am I going to Clone or Ghost my existing drive on to the new drive? Oh, the existing drive is a Seagate 40gb.

shesagordie

10 Elder

 • 

46K Posts

December 16th, 2006 02:00

Jack.
 
No problem.   :)
 
Bev.
 
 
 
 
 
Please don't send me questions about your system by DCF Messenger.
Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.

shesagordie

10 Elder

 • 

46K Posts

December 16th, 2006 02:00

noahlamy
 
Dell uses "Cable Select" jumper settings.   The "Master" drive connects to the end of the Primary IDE cable and the "Slave" to the middle connector, of the same cable.
 
Example,
 
 
Bev.
 
 
 
 
Please don't send me questions about your system by DCF Messenger.
Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.
 
 

jackshack

6.4K Posts

December 16th, 2006 02:00

The ribbon cable normally used on IDE drives has three connectors; blue for the motherboard, gray in the middle, and black at the end.  Not all follow this color code.  Between the gray and black connectors is a small twist in about four conductors.  This allows determination of the master drive to be made by which drive connector it is attached to.  The middle, or gray, connector is always the slave and the end, or black, connector is always the master.  If you try to strap the drive as a slave or master in a system like this it will always cause confusion.  That is why the drives are strapped as cable select.
 
You didn't mention if you have a three connector IDE cable.  I have seen some computers that were equipped with a cable that did not have the center connector.  If you get one of these you will need to purchase a new one that does have the center connector.  Also, the cable should be an 80 conductor cable.  The older cables had 40 conductors and will not work on ATA 66 drives and higher; the drive in the D2400's I have is an ATA 100, and yours probably is also.
 
(Sorry Bev; I need to learn how to type faster)

Message Edited by JackShack on 12-15-200610:24 PM

noahlamy

9 Posts

December 16th, 2006 16:00

Got it Bev,
My PC has only a single drive cable on the HD but a 2 drive cable on the secondary channel for the CD/DVD drives. I see the different colors on the connectors and the ribbon cable is labelled for Drive 0 and Drive 1.

noahlamy

9 Posts

December 16th, 2006 16:00

Thanks JackShack,
My PC has a single device cable for the HD and a dual device cable for the CD/DVD. I notice that the HD cable has many more (double?) conductors than the CD cable. I guess this is what you were talking about. So I have to get a cable with 80 conductors and black/grey/blue connectors?

jackshack

6.4K Posts

December 16th, 2006 16:00

You don't need to insist on those exact colors, just make sure you can id the motherboard connector.  The remaining connectors can be id'd by their position on the cable.  And yes on the 80 conductor cable; your drive won't work at its fastest speed without it.

shesagordie

10 Elder

 • 

46K Posts

December 16th, 2006 17:00

noahlamy
 
Pleased to have helped.   :)
 
Bev.
 
 
 
 
Please don't send me questions about your system by DCF Messenger.
Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.
 

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