i tried adding a second hdd, now the pc is FUBAR!

double b26

double b26

New Member
i tried to add a second hard drive to a friends computer. ever since i unplugged the original drive to switch the ribbon cable, the computer wont boot beyond the bios, no matter what i try.

the computer is an older dell, and the drives are ATA.

i had to use a different cable that came with the new drive. the original cable only had one device connection. the cable that came with the new drive had two connections.

i switched the cable, and set the jumpers to master and slave, respectively, instead of the default 'cable select' setting. all the cables are connected properly, and i even read through the instruction manual to double check everything after things weren't working. everything is hooked up just like it says it should be (and ive done this before... its not rocket science, ya know?)

the bios loads, but then it will set on that screen for a a short time. then it says that it cant detect the secondary drive. you can press a button to continue, or a different button to enter bios setup. if you try to just continue, it wont do anything. if you hit the other button, it will go to the bios menu. i tried running the utility disc by switching the bios to boot from the cd drive, but it wont work either.

so, i unhooked the second drive and swapped the old cable back in. now, with the factory setup, the pc still wont boot. it says it cant detect the primary drive. i double checked the bios to make sure the hdd was the first boot device, and it was.

throughout all of this, the drives are powered up and spinning. i dont know what to do here. ive double checked all the cables, jumpers, bios settings, and everything checks out. id at least like to get it up and running with just the old hard drive... and im sure my buddy would too :eek:

any ideas?
 
ive been googling all day, and i may have found something.

according to a post i read, dells work better when using the cable select setting. is there any truth to this?

according to one person, i should set the drive jumpers to cable select. then enter the bios, light up the numlock, scroll lock, & caps lock lights on the keyboard. then hold Alt+F, then hit Alt+E. when the beeping stops, hit alt+B and the computer will restart, and reset the bios and force it to redetect the drives.

im going to go over to his house in a little while, and i guess ill give it a shot. anyone else have any ideas?
 
Did you make sure BIOS is booting to the right Drive? You might have to set the Boot Order to the old Drive.
 
yes try cable select its just simpler im not sure about the other stuff you said in the bios but you should check your bios to see if its even recognising your drives and check your boot settings
 
What kind of IDE cable is it? Is it the older 40-wire or the newer 80-wire? If it's the older 40-wire type (usually white/pale with a red wire on either side, and all connectors black), Cable Select may not work properly. If it's a 80-wire (usually all connectors are different colors [black,blue,gray commonly] and sometimes labeled), the problem's something else (it could still be a faulty cable).

I would try manually setting one drive as Master (the one at the end of the cable) and Slave (the one that goes in the middle connector), even if your IDE cable is the newer type.

Also, what size is the first drive? Some very old motherboards had problems detecting 32GB+ HDDs, if your old HDD is bigger than 32GB then that can't be it but if not, I would try setting the "Limit drive capacity to 32GB" jumper if possible.
 
thanks for the replys.

the computer is about 5 years old. the original hard drive is an 80gb. the dual connection ribbon cable im using came with the new drive. im not sure if its a cable select-compatible ribbon or not... i didnt bother taking notice since i was trying to set the drives to master and slave.

i guess ill head over there and try it again. i was getting pretty drunk towards the end of the operation. things werent working out, so i just put it down until i sobered up and could try again. thanks for the replys. if i cant get it up and running tonight, i will let him borrow my other tower and bring his home with me. that way i can give some more details and try to get this thing fixed.
 
okay, i got it back up and booting xp last night. i ended up just putting all the original stuff back in, for now.

bios does recognize the old and new drives, and shows them as primary master and slave, respectively. i had the old c drive set as the boot drive, but it still wouldnt boot. instead, it would just load bios and go on to a solid black screen, with a blinking underscore in the top left corner. i tried playing with some settings, and when i turned off "IDE Drive UDMA", it would boot into windows... but it took a very long time to do so. once in windows, the new drive doesnt show up at all.

so, it was getting late and i had to work this morning, so i just put the original cable and hard drive in it, turned off IDE Drive UDMA, and it boots into windows. it still takes longer than it used to, but not as long as it took when the new drive was connected.

thats where im at right now. as for the cable, i dont think its cable select capable. its a pale grey w/ a red stripe, there is not notch missing from the ribbon (i read that the cable select ones do), but the connectors are grey and black on the drive ends. i had it hooked up by master/slave, so i dont think it really matters.

i tried the alt+F, alt+E, alt+B thing... it didnt make any difference that i could tell.

i wrote down the service tag, and you can view the technical specs by clicking HERE.

thanks for the help!

EDIT: can anyone tell me what the IDE Drive UDMA thing is? should it be off?
 
Make sure that the IDE header is not damaged in any way, and see if there are any bios updates available for the motherboard.
 
imsati said:
Don't do it while drunk this time. Honestly, that was a huge not-wanting-to-help-anymore turnoff for me.
Click to expand...

lol come on man getting drunk aint that bad


and to the dude askin the question you may not wanna do it drunk this time and if you are ever drunk workin on some ones computer always tell them so and tell them your not liable for damges lol i have to do that one all the time
 
bomberboysk said:
Make sure that the IDE header is not damaged in any way, and see if there are any bios updates available for the motherboard.
Click to expand...

all of the ide stuff looked good... no damage on the cable, drive, or the board. i didnt check for any bios updates though, so ill look into that.

imsati said:
Don't do it while drunk this time. Honestly, that was a huge not-wanting-to-help-anymore turnoff for me.
Click to expand...

not to be a dick, but if my drinking bothers you that much, dont bother to reply. i went over there to drink and hang out, not to work on his computer, but he asked me to mess with it. its not like i was saying to myself, "self, you'd better get good and drunk before you try to work on his computer."

even if that were the case, it still should have been a quick and easy upgrade. by the time i was 'drunk', id already been messing with the thing for at least 2 hours. the problems im having apparently arent normal, or someone would have given me a definite answer to the problem within the past week.
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anyway, ill look into the suggestions, and read around a bit more. if all else fails, ill just tell him to fork out the ~$20 for an external enclosure, and be done with it.

thanks to all!
 
nope there are two. the hard drive chain is connected to the 'primary' one. the cd & dvd drives (one of each) are running from the other one. last time i was over there, i tried removing the slave cd drive and connecting the new hard drive to the secondary ide chain (thought there might have been a conflict with the two hdd's on one chain). that didnt make any difference though.
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i didnt get the chance to make it over there this weekend, so i have some more time to read up on the problem.... if i get some short days at work this week.
 
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not to be a dick, but if my drinking bothers you that much, dont bother to reply. i went over there to drink and hang out, not to work on his computer, but he asked me to mess with it
Click to expand...

O...K... :confused: so if you walked into a bank to get a loan, and while you were filling out the paperwork someone handed you a gun and said 'hey, can you help me rob this place', would you?

It doesn't bother me; binge for all I care. I'm fine with helping people and offering advice - that's the main reason I'm on CF. If a novice makes a stupid error because they didn't know any better, that's one thing. But to play on a system while impaired is something completely different.

Whatever the case, you were drunk and you were working on his system. The events leading up to you drinking and how you came to working on his system are irrelevant. Six to one, half dozen to another I suppose. But in any case, bigons...

I'm done with this Thread. FWIW, I hope you get it up and running again.
 
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