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10084
June 14th, 2004 00:00
dual hard drive problems
Heres what I did:
I decided to make my old 20GB hard drive the slave while installing windows on the clean 160GB drive making it the master. I figured this was easier than formating the old 20GB drive and making the new 160GB the slave. ( I also wouldnt have to burn 20 CD-Rs to backup my data).
Heres what I did to install it and how I ran into snags:
I made the 20GB hard drive that came with my computer (Dimension 4100) the slave and used a new Samsung 160GB hard drive as the master. I put in the startup disk and tried to run FDISK to setup a FAT32 file system. It gave me the error "No fixed disk." Referring to microsoft.com I found that the problem could be many different things: over heated drive (which wasnt possible it was brand new and I had just put it in.), jumpers set wrong (I double checked and they were right) or that the computer was not detecting the hard drive. I figured the later and went into BIOs. At first neither of my hard drives were being detected. I looked over everything in the IDE configuration everything was set to auto so I hit esc. It then took me to the screen right before the BIOs. I waited a bit and a message said that it fixed my drive and gave it name and went back to the command prompt. I figured i should try FDISK again and this time it worked. It went through all the tests and told me I had to restart. As soon as I restarted I tried the command "format c: /s" and got a message that the "Format not supported on drive C: Format terminated." After this i went back into the bios and noticed that my IDE had for a value. At this point im stuck. I can FDISK but after I restart its like I didn't do anything. Should I call dell? Am I missing a step? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advanced.
ATimson
12 Posts
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June 14th, 2004 06:00
Have you tried both while starting from the 20GB drive, and while starting from your Windows CD-ROM? And which version of Windows are you wanting to install? (If XP, why not make the drive NTFS?)
swank2
11 Posts
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June 14th, 2004 15:00
The 20GB booted fine being the only drive there. If you mean trying to make the 20GB the master and the 160GB slave no I have not tried that. Im trying to install Windows ME.
ATimson
12 Posts
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June 14th, 2004 18:00
swank2
11 Posts
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June 14th, 2004 18:00
ATimson
12 Posts
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June 14th, 2004 18:00
Hmm. So while the 160 GB is , the 20 GB is D:? And what are you starting from? A floppy, the ME CD, or the 20GB?
ATimson
12 Posts
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June 14th, 2004 19:00
swank2
11 Posts
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June 14th, 2004 19:00
swank2
11 Posts
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June 14th, 2004 19:00
When I do this would my 20GB become the master? and if so would I risk losing any data on it when trying to run FDISK?
swank2
11 Posts
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June 14th, 2004 20:00
Ok I just switched the drives around and set the jumpers to cable select. Now what do I do? Install windows? I checked BIOS and it looks that both drives are detected but its saying my old 20GB drive is the master and my new 160GB drive is the slave. Now I want to preserve my data on the old 20GB drive. How can I install windows on the 160GB one?
Message Edited by swank2 on 06-14-2004 05:01 PM
Message Edited by swank2 on 06-14-2004 05:08 PM
Message Edited by swank2 on 06-14-2004 05:10 PM
Message Edited by swank2 on 06-14-2004 05:11 PM
ATimson
12 Posts
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June 14th, 2004 20:00
ATimson
12 Posts
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June 14th, 2004 21:00
Ah. Two options:
1) Install Windows on the new drive, since it lets you choose the install path. There should be an option in the BIOS to set the startup disk, IIRC.
2) Switch the drives around on the cable, in case I reversed which position should be master, and which slave. :)
swank2
11 Posts
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June 14th, 2004 21:00
ATimson
12 Posts
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June 14th, 2004 21:00
Message Edited by ATimson on 06-14-2004 06:08 PM
ATimson
12 Posts
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June 14th, 2004 22:00
"So the master drive is in the middle and the slave as at the end?"
Apparently. I'd thought that the master was the end, but since you said that it's currently the drive attached to the middle, apparently not.
Â
"But if I choose not to move the harddrives around I just pick what path?"
Right. But don't switch the drive letters after installing, or Windows'll break down sobbing.
Message Edited by ATimson on 06-14-2004 07:34 PM
swank2
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June 14th, 2004 22:00