Help with installing second hard drive

Question

I'm really hoping someone can help me here.

I just got the internal Western Digital 80gb hard drive, to add more space to my computer (currently using almost all of the original 80 on my Dell 8200).

Well, I opened up the computer, and was immediately confused but did what I could.

I have the 80/40 pin connector belt (this is going to be very un-technical), which was going straight from the hardrive (seaquuest or something like that), to the motherboard. I took the old belt out and put in the western digital hard drive under the old one, added the new belt that came with the WD drive, which had all the same parts as the old one, and added it under the gray slot (black for the original so it would remain the primary). I put the jumpers on the 'cable' setting, which the dell manual said it is capable of.

So when I started the cpu, it couldn't read anything. Disk drive 1 primary, drive 2 primary, drive 1 secondary, etc. It might have read the cd tray drive but that's it.

I tried making the new one the primary, but it still won't start. In set up, it says there are 2 drives (the old one is FAT32, the new one is NTSC [or whatever it's called...]). I also get the message "NTLDR is Missing".

When I try to boot from the disk western digital contains, it lets me 'set up the hard drive.' I tried it with the new one, and the old one it won't touch because it isn't Western Digital, but I don't think I'd want to anyway.

So even after that I get the same messages. I can't seem to get anywhere with this, and it looks like it should be so easy. I've never done this before. Does anyone know what I've done wrong?? (I'm typing this from my girlfriend's computer.)

Even trying to put everything the way it was does nothing now. It either doesn't read the drives, or says it seems them but still won't do anything. I essentally spent 95 bucks today to break my computer. Can anyone please help, I'm desperate!

Thanks,
Steve

simpswr · Answer

Not sure why you changed out the cable, but the cable must be attached so that the side with the red stripe is on the Number one pin on the motherboard ( should say on the board ) and the number one pin on the drive . . the one next to the power plug.

The original drive should be connected to the end of the cable. If the original drive was jumpered to CS ( Cable Select) then the second drive should be connected to the middle connector and jumpered as CS . . if the original one is jupmered to MS ( Master ) then the new one should be jumpered to SL ) Slave ). Both will need to be connected to a power cable.

Properly connected, you should be able to boot as you did before. Once the system is booted, you will need for partition and format the new drive before Windows wil see it. . this is done differently depending on your Operating System.

wrs

simpswr · Answer

You may have to go into BIOS and reset to defaults to get it to recognize the change.  wrs

stephenemond · Answer

That's EXACTLY how I have it set up now, the old drive is at the end of the cable, both jumpers are in the cable position, and the new one is set up as the secondary in the gray position in the middle of the belt. The belt is facing the right way and everything, the power plugs are in, but when I start, it says "Primary driver 1 not found, primary driver 2 not found."

It won't read either. And I can't even get the original one to work anymore, I'm really scared I messed it up somehow. I can't get anything to do anything. It seems so easy, and everything is right where it should be but it's not even close to working.

I'm figuring it has something to do with all this "NTLDR" FAT32 stuff, which is bad because I have no clue what any of that stuff means, let alone how to fix it. I really hope I haven't lost 80 gb's worth of stuff..., let alone my entire computer.

stephenemond · Answer

Is this easy enough to do? How do I go into BIOS to reset the settings?

MSL · Answer

stephenemond,

The instructions for adding a second hard drive to a DIM 8200 are here. I'm a little concerned because you state ".. and put the western digital hard drive under the old one,..." The instructions have you move the old drive to the lower bay and install the new drive in the upper bay. This is to enable you to properly connect the IDE cable (connector belt) to the drives without twisting. If you are confident that both drives are set to Cable Select, the connections for power and the IDE cable are seated properly, and the old drive is on the end of the cable, the new drive is connected to the middle of the cable reset the NVRam using the instructions here. This should get you back to operating off your old drive as before. Next will be to set-up the new drive.

Marc

Dimension 8200: Intel P4 3.06GHz w/HT enabled, AO9 Sponged BIOS, 1.5GB PC800 RDRam, WD 80 GB (7200 RPM) ATA primary HDD, WD 160GB (7200 RPM) ATA secondary HDD, Dell 1800FP, 128MB ATI Radeon 9700 PRO w/TV out, GVC-REALTEK Ethernet 10/100 NIC, Conexant HSF V92 56K Modem, Samsung 16x DVD-ROM, NEC 4x DVD+R/RW CD-RW, TEAC 1.44M 3.5in Floppy, HK 695 Spkrs., Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, OfficeXP Pro (added), WindowsXP Pro

stephenemond · Answer

Yeah, I origanally put the new drive under the old one because the belt that came with the Digital Western drive was backwards from the one that was already in my computer. Trust me though, I've tried both belts in every configuration and it won't read anything.

I'll try the other thing you mentioned tonight...

So I should reset the NVRam with both of the drives connected in the way the Dim 8200 directions states, or should I do it with just the original drive in place?

stephenemond · Answer

Good news, guys! Everything is up and working- phew!

Not even sure what I did, I just took everything out, made sure everythin was spot on, tried one more time, and up comes the XP logo.

Thanks for all your help, very much appreciated!

MSL · Answer

stephenemond,

Glad to hear you're up and running. For future reference, you clear the NVRam with everything installed.

I fully understand the cable backwards problem, I went to aftermarket round cables in part because of this and in part because of length problems. I placed my master hard drive on the primary IDE controller and my slave drive on the secondary IDE controller. From the beginning I made sure everything was "spot on" yet when I closed the box I noticed that the connector for the lower drive was being pulled out by the graphics card.

Marc

Storage, Drives & Media

Help with installing second hard drive

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