Author Topic: need help with a 'slave' hard drive (Read 2181 times)

gavkiwi · « **on:** October 19, 2006, 10:09:37 am »

soo,

got a 120 GB hard drive that basically I am using to store my music, was in my old pc, put it in my 2 week old new pc yest, its set as a slave drive.

Hooked it into my new pc and got msg 'error loading OS', so removed the HD, and pc booted up properly without my music in it using the pc's own HD

.

Soo does this secondary HD have to be empty/formatted for windows to accept it, I had just formatted it, put some music on there, and thought it would be recognized by windows relatively easily, unfortuantely that was not the case, any ideas?

thanks

Gav

ChadTower · « **Reply #1 on:** October 19, 2006, 10:13:20 am »

It means that you didn't do it right, probably. You can set that drive to slave but that will likely only work if you set the OS loaded drive to be a master. You may have it set to cable select.

gavkiwi · « **Reply #2 on:** October 19, 2006, 10:23:49 am »

yeah, im a bit of a noob when it comes to opening PC's, kind of feel like I am performing open heart surgey or something

, dont wanna mess anything up, so do i need to alter the jumper settings of the master, or goto the bios and alter some HD settings there, my know it all 'PC guru' Father in law says the drive needs to be formatted and clean to work with my new computer ( - my music), I beg to differ, please help me prove him wrong!

Gav

ChadTower · « **Reply #3 on:** October 19, 2006, 10:29:43 am »

You don't have to format the slave drive. It certainly wouldn't cause an OS not found error. That means it's trying to boot from something other than the master drive.

Take the master drive out and verify its jumper setting. You probably don't have to change the BIOS but on some machines you may have to specify autodetect on all IDE channels.

fredster · « **Reply #4 on:** October 19, 2006, 11:47:11 am »

I had a problem with a new 80 GB HDD. It wouldn't accept the Win98 OS. Something about the firmware. I had to get a different brand HD.

What OS are you using?

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #5 on:** October 19, 2006, 12:17:31 pm »

If it's a two-week old PC, I doubt he's running Win98.

Chad has the right idea - listen to him.

First, I think Cable select may over-ride the jumper settings. Make sure the blue HD connector is plugged into the mobo, the black (end) connector to the master (OS) drive, and the gray (middle) connector to the slave (data) drive.

If that doesn't fix it, you can either:

1) Set the OS drive jumpers to master and the data to slave and see if that works.

2) Set the OS drive to cable select and the data to cable select and see if that works.

3) Plug the OS drive into IDE channel 1 and the data to IDE channel 2, and I don't think jumper settings matter at all. (You MIGHT have a problem here if the OS was set as slave and the data was set as Master, not sure.

shmokes · « **Reply #6 on:** October 19, 2006, 01:03:50 pm »

Yeah . . . your PC is seeing the slave hard drive as the master so it's trying to boot to that instead of the original drive. Since it sees no OS on it, you get your error message. Make sure the true Master drive is plugged into the end and that either BOTH drives are set to cable select, or the primary drive is set to master and the secondary drive set to slave. I'm guessing that you set the new drive to slave, but didn't make changes to the original drive and it is almost certainly set to cable select.

Of course, all that assumes that the drives are sharing a single IDE cable. If each are using their own cables make sure the master drive is plugged into IDE 0 on the motherboard and the slave drive is plugged into IDE 1.

gavkiwi · « **Reply #7 on:** October 19, 2006, 01:21:53 pm »

I'm running XP, both drives are sharing the same IDE cable...how do I set both drives to 'cable select', im a bit of noob lol

ChadTower · « **Reply #8 on:** October 19, 2006, 01:27:01 pm »

It's a jumper setting. I don't use it, personally, unless I'm working with a setup that has a lot of IDE devices or swap drives frequently.

If they're on the same cable:

Set the master to master and slave to slave, plug them into IDE0, set IDE0 in BIOS to autodetect.

You will be good then.

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #9 on:** October 19, 2006, 01:33:00 pm »

I thought you said you already set it as a slave.

You're probably going to have to physically pull the drives out of the PC.

Newer drive will probably have a six-pin jumper block labelled CS, MA, SL.

CS is Cable Select.
MA is Master.
SL is Slave.

Put the jumper on the set of pins below the label.

Older drives will have more like a 20-pin jumper block. It may have the jumper settings labelled on the drive sticker.

If not, you will need to write down the model number and check the manufacturer's website.

For example, here are the settings for Seagate (that I found b/c I couldn't remember which was the master for Cable Select): http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/faq/ata_cable_select.html

shardian · « **Reply #10 on:** October 19, 2006, 01:33:39 pm »

Here is a picture of what you should expect on the hard drive to set it.

shardian · « **Reply #11 on:** October 19, 2006, 01:34:25 pm »

Aggg you beat me to it.

ChadTower · « **Reply #12 on:** October 19, 2006, 01:37:34 pm »

Can't be that old... it's 120g.

gavkiwi · « **Reply #13 on:** October 19, 2006, 02:05:58 pm »

ok, it is set to the last setting 'limited drive capacity', will change the jumper settings and try again...is it normal to get nervous when opening up the case of a PC when doing this type of thing?

I'm not exagerrating when i feel like Im operating on a person in an ER. When I bought the new 512mb graphics card for this new PC, CC said they would charge $45 to install the graphics card, forget that....did it myself, that was quite easy, this 120gb hard disc was used as a secondary drive on my old pc, working just fine, I thought I wouldnt have to change a thing for the new one (PC), thank you guys I have more info, thanks again

Gav

ChadTower · « **Reply #14 on:** October 19, 2006, 02:19:04 pm »

Nah, you're fine being a little nervous. You'll get used to it quickly. Just make sure there is NO power to the machine. Unplug it and I'll often let them sit 5-10 minutes so the power supply caps discharge.

'limited drive capacity' is probably so that it can be used with older hardware that isn't able to support a full 120g controller.

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #15 on:** October 19, 2006, 04:06:22 pm »

Quote from: gavkiwi on October 19, 2006, 02:05:58 pm

ok, it is set to the last setting 'limited drive capacity', will change the jumper settings and try again...is it normal to get nervous when opening up the case of a PC when doing this type of thing?

It may not be set to limited drive capacity. The example that I and Shardian posted was for Seagate drives. If it's a Maxtor or Western Digital or Samsung or Hitachi, or . . ., they use different jumper blocks and you need to check their websites and set accordingly.

We were just trying to give you examples.

gavkiwi · « **Reply #16 on:** October 19, 2006, 05:27:39 pm »

ok, I was not aware of that, yeah I have a WD, so the pins on the right hand side indicate 'cable select', hmmm yet when it was plugged in the PC thought it was a new Master/not a slave.

Should I just set the pins to slave and be done with it, or load the BIOS and alter a setting in that, what to do?

shmokes · « **Reply #17 on:** October 19, 2006, 07:15:47 pm »

You don't have to mess with anything in the BIOS. Just set the jumper settings on the 120 GB drive to slave. But you also need to check the jumper settings of your original drive. Drives are almost always shipped with CS jumpered by default. You need to have the jumpers configured correctly on both drives, i.e., master on one, slave on the other -- not CS on one, slave on the other.

Don't be nervous about messing with the jumper settings. They have no effect on the data on your drive. You can change the jumper settings all you want and in the end, putting them back the way they were will make your computer look like it did.

So do this:

1- Check the jumper settings on your original drive. Most drives have a diagram printed on the label, or above the jumper block. If not you have to get the model # off the drive and check the jumper diagram on the manufacturers website.
2- Make sure the original drive is set to Master. If you've never changed the jumper it is almost certainly set to Cable Select (CS).
3- Make sure the original drive is plugged into the end of the cable and not the middle. Technically this should only matter for drives using Cable Select, but I've always thought it was better to just configure it this way to begin with to be nice and standardized and avoid any problems.
4- Set the 120 GB drive to Slave.
5- Plug the 120 GB drive into the middle of the IDE cable.

You're done. You don't need to alter anything in the BIOS. You're computer will automatically detect boot to your original drive and your 120 GB drive will automatically mount itself and be assigned a drive letter by Windows. Plug and play.

Edit: thanks ~~gavkiwi~~ edit 2: er . . . billf that is

billf · « **Reply #18 on:** October 19, 2006, 08:29:52 pm »

Quote from: shmokes on October 19, 2006, 07:15:47 pm

5- Plug the original drive into the middle of the IDE cable.

Shmokes - I think you mean the "120 GB drive" for item 5 not the "original drive".

Gavkiwi - follow shmokes steps above and you should have it working in no time.

ChadTower · « **Reply #19 on:** October 20, 2006, 08:15:36 am »

Shmokes, not all motherboards are set to autodetect by default. Some PCs ship with the boot drive specified, type and size, on the channel where it sits. Not sure why they still do that but it is possible he'll have to set those IDE channels to autodetect.

NightGod · « **Reply #20 on:** October 20, 2006, 10:00:44 am »

Just set it to cable select (which in many cases means no jumper at all, but check with the manufacturer's web site). If it is a major brand PC (Dell, IBM, HP, etc) and you bought it in the last five years, it will be using cable select, not master/slave jumpers. The go into the BIOS and set the Primary Slave to Auto/Automatic and you'll be done.

If you had a shop/friend build it for you, then you might have to go the master/slave route.

And your PC guru father-in-law is totally off in this case, there is zero reason you should have to format the drive. Sounds like someone with just enough knowledge to utterly hose up your system, double-check any advice you get from him.

ChadTower · « **Reply #21 on:** October 20, 2006, 10:44:10 am »

If he sets it to cable select he has to make sure he puts it on the right connector on the cable... and they're usually not marked.

billf · « **Reply #22 on:** October 20, 2006, 10:50:38 am »

Right, but if he follows shmokes steps above that should take care of it. One end of the cable into the motherboard, the next connector is the slave (middle connector on the cable) and the master on the other end of the cable.

ChadTower · « **Reply #23 on:** October 20, 2006, 10:52:20 am »

That's when his expert walks in and says "you forgot to put the magic cheeto in there".

billf · « **Reply #24 on:** October 20, 2006, 10:57:20 am »

True, very true. Keep the "expert" away while doing this.

NightGod · « **Reply #25 on:** October 20, 2006, 11:01:40 am »

And, actually, most major brand PCs I've ran into the last few years have taken to marking the cables. It's a nice change for inexperienced DIYers.

boykster · « **Reply #26 on:** October 20, 2006, 05:20:51 pm »

3 words:

external usb enclosure

nuff said


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