Adding 2nd drive---bios not detecting

Question

I installed a new Seagate 160GB drive on my Dell Dimension 4100, then upgraded to Win XP Pro and then updated it to SP2. Everything runs great....   Now I am trying to reinstall the old drive (WD400) as a slave to use for additional storage. The old drive is unchanged, still has the ME OS on it, but also all of my data on the 'D' partition.   I have read the archives and still cannot get it to work.   I went into the BIOS and checked to see if the master (new drive) was set at auto, which it is, I flashed the bios before i installed the XP...I set up both drives as cable select...the new drive is on the end of the cable and the old drive is on the middle of it. I even disconnected the DVD drive thinking that I had too many drives installed, but still there is no change. I can hear a 'click, whrrrr' every so often, which I don't hear when the old drive is disconnected.   So,I think i've done everyhting i need ot do and my system still will not see the slave drive. I even looked in the BIOS and it isn't detecting it there.   What have I done wrong? What can I do different?   Thanks, Steve

ceri sheeran · Answer

Hi,

Try setting the drives to master and slave as well as cable select

Replace the IDE cables, I have had them go bad on me

New BIOS battery, CR2032 3volt lithium cell.

3-V CR2032 coin cell3-V CR2032 coin cell

Clear NVRAM / BIOS using the motherboard jumper

What BIOS version are you using.

Is the IDE channel set to auto for all four drives.

Check the jumpers on both hard disks, don't mix master / slave and cable select on the same IDE cable. Use one or the other

New battery and cable would be top of my list.

hth

Ceri

ultrastevep · Answer

Hi Ceri....   I actually finally figured it out...I had the jumper on the wrong set of pins.  I thought they were all the same, but I went to the WD website and they had me place the jumper on the 2nd set of pins from the power, whereas the Seagate booklet had it on the 3d from the power. I didn't realize that different companies used different pins, but they do. I switched the jumper to the way WD said to do it, and it immediately recognized the drive.   Thanks, Steve

Storage, Drives & Media

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