Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility

Question

Hello there,

I tried to add a 2nd HDD into my Optiplex GX260,

but all I get is:

I tried every single Jumper combo from the new HDD (Hitachi Deskstar with 250 Gigs),

obviously without success...

downloaded the newest bios

os is xp prof

btw, bought the hdd from ebay, a rip off?

plsd to hear,

Hauke

speedstep · Answer

1. Set the drive for cable select.
2. Remove all drives and only use that drive as primary.
3. Set Cmos for Primary as AUTO for both controllers and secondary as none.
4. Save and Exit Cmos.
5. Boot up your WIN98SE/ME/2000/XP CD and format the drive and test it to be bootable.

Many times ESPECIALLY new LARGE drives do not like to be on the same cable as a smaller older drive.

You need to figure out if the drive is ok before you declare that its bad.

Haukster · Answer

thx for such quick reply.

tried what u proposed, but didn't help. cannot format a hdd that hasn't been found by the computer:

"Primary hard disk drive 0 not found"

i was able to boot via win xp pof cd,

but couldn't format the hdd, because it hasn't been recognized by the system

speedstep · Answer

primary not found means its hooked up wrong or jumpered wrong or the drive is bad. Drives must be set cable select Not master Not slave Cable Select

Haukster · Answer

i hope the drive is not bad... as alrdy written, tried every single jumper combo, als both hdds on cable select

Haukster · Answer

the weird thing is, when i wired up the new, 2nd hdd the system won't boot at all, only via dvd/cd. and sometimes it recognizes 1 hdd, other times 1 hdd with correct capacity and the 2nd hdd with 0mb capacity, or it won't recognzie any hdd. and  it never boots, until i pull the plug of the 2nd, new hdd...   also tried the alt+f and alt+d options in the setup...   both hdd are set on cable select. the hdd with windows xp prof sp2 on it is wired as master, the new/2nd/empty hdd wired as slave.   formatting the 2nd/new hdd didn't work out also.

Haukster · Answer

could it be the cable's fault?

peterfelgate_ce40d3 · Answer

You test this theory by putting the drive onto the secondary IDE where the CDROMs are connected.  Jumper for cable select, then reset the NVRAM.  If the drive still isn't detected by the BIOS, then unless you have two faulty cables (and just  the slave connectors are faulty), then you have a faulty HDD....

Haukster · Answer

2 short questions: what is NVRAM? how do I reset the NVRAM?

Haukster · Answer

i reset the nvram now, put the 2nd hdd on the secondary device cable as slave with cable select jumper config.   but same prob as before, won't recognize either the hdd or the dvd burner...

Karts4Kids · Answer

Am I misunderstanidng something here.....initially was not the cd rom being detected?  You did previously state that you were able to boot into the os disk correct?  When you reversed the drive order to be ran as cable select prior to both not being found did you put both on the primary controller or on the last known good controller that was recognizing the cdrom device?  If you add it to your secondary controller (the controller that at one point saw your cdrom device) can it be recognized now?  It may be a bad controller on the board and if you keep connecting to it then nothing connected to it is going to work.

Galdor7 · Answer

Cable Select can be hokey. Try swapping the drives on the cables. Leave the jumpers alone, but put the 'bootable' drive with your OS on the last plug on the cable, and the new drive on the second one (closest to the board). That should help...   Galdor

Storage, Drives & Media

Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility

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