Dim 8100 Hard Disk Problem

Question

I have a Dimension 8100 which failed the POST.  It had the original 40G hard drive and the system uses XP Pro.  I replaced the original bad hard drive with a WD 120G drive and reinstalled the OS. Everything seemed to be working fine except for the oddity that the hard drive was labeled Drive F vice the normal Drive C.  At any rate after reading some of the comments on the forum over a peirod of several days on how to recover data from a drive that failed to POST I hooked the original drive back into the computer using the original cable select jumper settings.  At boot I got the message 'Primary Hard Disk Drive 0 Not Found.'  I powered the system down and removed the original hard disk from the system and attempted to re-boot - however I get same message, i.e., 'Primary Hard Disk Drive 0 Not Found' - the new hard disk is not being recognized.  I've entered Setup but the system does not recognize that a hard disk is present.  The only options are 'Auto', 'Off', and a variety of hard disk types that are inapplicable to the WD I purchased.  Have I by attempting to hook dual hard disks (even though one was not functioning properly) managed to damage the new disk? I would appreciate any suggestions on how to get the replacement hard drive back functioning.  Thanks in advance.

fenoy · Answer

Thanks for the reply and I will give your suggestions a try.  With the new hard disk I did the initial installation of Windows on the hard disk but it nevertheless came up recognized as Drive F.

ejn63 · Answer

You'll have to reinstall Windows anew to get it on C:

First, remove all but the new drive from the system. Boot, go into setup, disconnect any ZIP drives in the system, and press NUM, CAPS and SCROLL lock so the lights are ON. Press Alt-E until you hear a tone. Reboot to the XP CD and redo the installation.

It sounds like the original drive is too far gone for recovery.

fenoy · Answer

I attempted your suggestion but alas no joy to be had.  The system refuses to recognize that a hard disk is physically present.  Any more suggestions?

ejn63 · Answer

Make sure the drives are jumpered properly (cable select). One other thing you might do is replace the CMOS battery.

fenoy · Answer

The drives are cable select but I had not thought of the CMOS battery. I'll give that a shot as well.

fenoy · Answer

EJN63 - Really appreciate your time and effort. I've solved the hiccup. Apparently while attempting to hook up the original hard drive I managed to loosen the IDE cable so that it wasn't making contact. My failure to check the obvious first.

Now a question if I may - is there any reason why I shouldn't attempt to hook up the original hard disk as a second drive so that I can try and salvage the data on it? Is there anything in particular I need to do other than hooking up the IDE cable and the power cable?

Thanks again.

ejn63 · Answer

No, that's it - it's worth a try.

Storage, Drives & Media

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