Dell Dimension 3000 HDD issues

O

Optiplex11

New Member
I recently acquired a Dell Dimension 3000 from a garage sale for $5 including the Dell speakers, keyboard, mouse, monitor, and cables. The only issue is that the computer didn't have a hard drive. So, after digging around for a while, I found an IDE drive that I put in the computer. But, after all that, the drive wasn't detected by the BIOS, Linux, or even DOS. In addition, there was an aftermarket CD drive that wasn't being detected either. I'm 90% sure the HDD works but the CD drive I'm not sure. Does anybody know how to fix this?
The HDD is a Western Digital Caviar WD2500BB
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
What'd you do for jumpers? If they're both on the same cable then they could conflict with the same master/slave channel assignment.

Most people haven't jacked around with IDE in at least 20 years :p
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Yes, if you are using the same IDE cable to hook both up then you need to either leave the drives at CS and put the hdd at the end connector and put the cd drive at the middle connector. Or you would have to put the jumper at Master for hdd and Slave for the cd rom and it wouldn't matter what connector you use. Also, you might want to check the bios to make sure the IDE ports are enabled. Not sure when they started doing this but I would check anyway. I wouldn't be spending too much time on this as its most likely shot anyway.
 
C

Couriant

Member
"wasn't detected by the BIOS, Linux, or even DOS"

If this was in the same computer for Linux and DOS, then I would trust the BIOS and it didn't see the drive. It's quite possible that the drive may have become defective (assuming you had power to the drive also). AS John mentioned, I haven't played with IDE in a long time also, so I am not sure if you need to put the drive on a specific cable for Cable Select, or maybe you need to put it to Master... it may need to change a BIOS setting... but then I would also check the IDE ports on the board to make sure it's not damaged.

That machine has a max of 2GB to my knowledge, so if anything Linux should be fun on it :D

Something like this might benefit you if you do not not have one to test your drive: https://www.walmart.com/ip/TSV-USB-...es-Disks-12V-2A-Power-Cable-Laptops/298061943
 
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