Installing a second HDD

[jetnine]

Hi I am a bit new to installing hard drives and I need some help. I have installed an old hard drive as primary slave but it doesn't appear on the computer. I checked the "Disk Management" utility in Windows XP but I don't see my second hard drive. There is also no icon for it in My Computer.

Is there something I have to do first to make my computer see the drive? Is the drive dead? I took the drive out of a computer which did need work, when it was plugged in sparks flew everywhere but I don't think it harmed the HDD.

 

[Johnnyboy0056]

first of all, is it on the same ide cable as the other drive. and there is no such thing as a primary slave. its either primary, OR slave. check ur pins in the back of the hard drive. if it is on a separate cable, then both need to be set to primary. if on the same, then the second drive needs to be on slave, unless the other hd (primary one) is set to cables select, in which case u need to set the new hard drive (secondary one) to cable select also. then try it again and see if it identifies it.

 

[Geoff]

As johnny said, the hard drive with the OS needs to be set to primary, and the other one to slave. And when you say "sparks flew everywhere", did they come out near the hard drive, motherboard, or power supply?

 

[jetnine]

My drive with OS on it is set to cable select. I thought the IDE ribbon was called the primary and the setting either master or slave. I have the second HDD installed as slave on the primary IDE ribbon. I used to have them both set as cable select but it didn't find it then either. Both HDDs are on the same ribbon; primary.

The sparks came out of the wall plug but only when the computer was plugged in, anything else plugged into the socket and there was no sparks. Is this just a faulty cord?

 

[Trizoy]

As johnny said, the hard drive with the OS needs to be set to primary, and the other one to slave. And when you say "sparks flew everywhere", did they come out near the hard drive, motherboard, or power supply?

There is a primary and a secondary ribbon, on each is allowed a master and a slave... plz use the correct terms as it confuses the people who are learning this stuff..

My drive with OS on it is set to cable select. I thought the IDE ribbon was called the primary and the setting either master or slave. I have the second HDD installed as slave on the primary IDE ribbon. I used to have them both set as cable select but it didn't find it then either. Both HDDs are on the same ribbon; primary.

The sparks came out of the wall plug but only when the computer was plugged in, anything else plugged into the socket and there was no sparks. Is this just a faulty cord?

Was the HD working before? Has it been formatted and partitioned in the past?

 

[jetnine]

I pretty sure it had an old version of Windows on it (95 or 98). A friend gave me their old computer which I took parts out of including the HDD but I have never witnessed it working in the past.

I was going to use the second drive as a place to store my music since the drive is only 6GB. Do you think that my music may take a while to load off of the HD as it is old?

 

[Trizoy]

Is your regular HD a Sata drive or IDE?

 

[HDR]

Set the original drive to MAster on teh primary (1st) IDE cable and set the drive you are testing on the secondary cable as Master. When the machine spins up, see if it detects it in BIOS.

 

[jetnine]

Sorry I didn't reply sooner, I've been busy. Now I just need to find some time when I'm not using my PC to take it apart.

 

[newbee]

I would think you could just set each jumper setting to cable select. Then plug the primary master HDD into the master slot of the IDE cable and then plug your old HDD into the slave slot of the same IDE cable. That's what I did and it worked for me.