New hard drive installation problem
Discussion
Due to the failing (but still working when in the mood) HD in my 'main' computer I've shelled out for a new HD.
When I put it in and switch on it doesn't get detected during start-up, so went into SETUP, selected auto-detect and pressed ENTER. Up popped a dialog box saying it was auto-detecting HD, so I waited, and waited but nothing happened.
Tried rebooting with a Windows start-up disc but again it didn't do anything.
There's definitely power getting to it because you can feel a slight vibration through the casing and it gets warm after a few minutes.
Am I doing something wrong here (as an IT dummy that's quite probable) or could it be down to a duff HD?
When I put it in and switch on it doesn't get detected during start-up, so went into SETUP, selected auto-detect and pressed ENTER. Up popped a dialog box saying it was auto-detecting HD, so I waited, and waited but nothing happened.
Tried rebooting with a Windows start-up disc but again it didn't do anything.
There's definitely power getting to it because you can feel a slight vibration through the casing and it gets warm after a few minutes.
Am I doing something wrong here (as an IT dummy that's quite probable) or could it be down to a duff HD?
Have you checked the master/slave jumper has been set correctly? The jumper is located at the back of the HD and it's a little peg joining two prongs together, near some letters saying MA/SL, or Master/Slave. It needs to correspond to the same lettes (ie. master or slave) as your old HD, it's probably the master.
If it's not the above mentioned master/slave/CS
Have you bought a bigger new hard drive? If so it might be bigger than your current BIOS can recognise. If so you will need to check the homepage of your motherboard/BIOS manufacturer to check what size of HDD your system can detect and if needed update the BIOS (there is a danger when doing this, read on the BIOS website). If not you'd need to return the HDD for a smaller one (or same size as the one you took out).
Have you bought a bigger new hard drive? If so it might be bigger than your current BIOS can recognise. If so you will need to check the homepage of your motherboard/BIOS manufacturer to check what size of HDD your system can detect and if needed update the BIOS (there is a danger when doing this, read on the BIOS website). If not you'd need to return the HDD for a smaller one (or same size as the one you took out).
Thanks for the quick reply guys.
Was going to edit original post to say that it was correctly set up as master and plugged to the black connector, so that shouldn't be problem.
Think Fourwheeldrift might have hit nail on the head. New HD is 40gig, while one computer came with was only 2.2gig (current one is 10gig). Don't need 40gig but that was smallest Maxtor I could get at weekend.
Suppose I'll have to see if I can change it for smaller one or else get new motherboard.
Bloody computers...
Was going to edit original post to say that it was correctly set up as master and plugged to the black connector, so that shouldn't be problem.
Think Fourwheeldrift might have hit nail on the head. New HD is 40gig, while one computer came with was only 2.2gig (current one is 10gig). Don't need 40gig but that was smallest Maxtor I could get at weekend.
Suppose I'll have to see if I can change it for smaller one or else get new motherboard.
Bloody computers...
Maxtor offer softare called MaxBlast which enables older boards to see the drives - www.maxtor.com
Also, if you go to the website of the drive vendor they might have a bit of hard drive test software you can download which will tell you if there's a problem with the unit. i bought a drive which my muthabord couldn't detect recently - seemed a bit weird as it should have been fine - so i ran IBM's drivetest software which showed some 'general error' with it. prompted me to have a closer look at said harddrive and it was then that i discovered on of the chips was cracked in half!
>> Edited by big_treacle on Monday 22 September 16:22
>> Edited by big_treacle on Monday 22 September 16:22
WildfireS3 said:
How old is the 'puter? You may be able to update the BIOS.
Not sure how old it (or more accurately the bits it's made with) is as someone I used to work with built it for me about 2 years ago and it was hardly 'state of the art' even then.
Now had a chat with company I bought HD off and they reckon it won't work with my computer, so looks like I'll be returning it and searching for yet another HD of more modest size, which is all I need anyway.
Thanks for all the advice.
grahambell said:
How old is the 'puter? You may be able to update the BIOS.
Not sure how old it (or more accurately the bits it's made with) is as someone I used to work with built it for me about 2 years ago and it was hardly 'state of the art' even then.
Now had a chat with company I bought HD off and they reckon it won't work with my computer, so looks like I'll be returning it and searching for yet another HD of more modest size, which is all I need anyway.
Thanks for all the advice.
I have a collection of old IDE drives that are pretty redundant to me (too small)
I know that small drives are relatively hard to track down these days.....
If you are interested, I can wipe one clean and send it to you for the price of a pint and postage?
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