I installed a new 40G HD last nite When I re-started my machine, it would say something like: C: Drive 28,0868, (you know almost 30gigs, which is what the old HD is) and then D: Drive 0! When I would go into MY Computer, it wasn't there! Just the C drive (Master) and my two CD-Rs! Made sure it was the slave and the other original 30gig was the master, checked to make for sure I had the little peg thingies in the correct pegs for Slave/Master etc... Checked the cables in the machine, re-installed the driver for the damn thing like 3 times, it would have to erase each time like there was already something there but it always said it was succesfully formatted and was ready to go?! Has anyone exprienced this? Oh I'm running win98 also I had to edit this message cuz when I wrote Crive....see what it did?! Once again, as always, thanks for your help.
I'd run FDISK and make sure you have created at least one partition on the new drive. You can't format it until it's been created...
You need to go into the BIOS Setup and see if it is recognizing there first... Warning: If you don't feel comfortable messing with this, find a tech-friend to at least oversee u...cause you CAN screw up things but good in the BIOS Setup... At boot up...you should see a screen with all sorts of writing (unless you have a Compaq,HP,Packard Bell) look for a line that says something to the effect of " Press (different buttons for different BIOS's) to Enter Setup" or something to that effect... It would really help if you could tell me what kind of machine/BIOS you have... but if you succedd in getting into the BIOS setup...look for an option to Auto-Detect Hard Drives... Also, most manufacturers have floppy disc based setup/diagnostic programs included with their drives...maybe you should use that... Give me some more detailed info, and I'll help as much as I can...
Yeah, we went into BIOs and it isn't recognizing it for some odd reason. I have a buddy doing this for me thats pretty knowledgeable and builds machines and fixes them but it baffled him until after midnite last nite. They're both WD HDs so we thought it would be a snap. Apperantly not... We're gonna try again after I get outta work. As far as what kinda bios, geez, I couldn't say. I'm at work and don't have the machine infront of me. I do remember when he was in there and tried changing some settings, he told me my motherboard was kinda sucky in that it doesn't let one change settings in bios? Also, that next time to get a mother board with "soft" settings or something or other. One that lets you change these things. Perhaps this is a problem, but they are both Western Digitals. Maybe my motherboard won't take 70gigs? ya think? If this makes any sense...if not, thanks anyhow. I'll keep going when I get home. *as if 30 gigs weren't enough!
ok...WD does have the setup disk included, I have installed tons of those.. try this... Disconnect everything off of the primary IDE...set the new drive to "Single" drive...and then boot to the setup disk and see if it recognizes it... I'll be back on later this evening...so I'll check back on this thread to see how your doin... G/L
We tried making the new HD the primary and.... It turns out, the New Hard dDirve I got from Best buy was bad! I took it back and they gave me a new one without a problem! Formatted it (Uh, thats what we're doing, right?) and this time it went through the floppy without a single problem. Said it was ready to be read or whatever. Plugged it back in and the computer still doesn't recognize it! It just baffeled my friend who was helping me. In BIOS it doesn't even recognize the primary SLAVE, rather just sits there and does nothing... I dunno! Maybe I'll just say skrew it and put my new 40gig HD in and take the old 30gig out. I'm all backed-up on CDRs so thats not a worry. SOOO, can I just make this 40gig the MASTER, install it and boot up with my windows floppy, install windows etc...? thanks for the advice Rockets2K
Ok...one last thing.. I had a problem similar to this b4.. and I'm sure yall have already double-checked this but, WD drives are real picky when it comes to jumper settings. Have you made sure that the jumpers are on right? Because WD drives have 2 different settings...the jumper needs to be installed sideways when it's the only device on the cable...and then it needs to be changed to the vertical position when it is sharing the cable with another device.. More info to be found here btw, yea..you couls always just install the new one and load it, and then maybe later try to get the other one to recognize.... maybe you shoud figger out what BIOS you have and see if there's a update for it...(this only matters if the machine is more than a few years old)...anywho.............
I had a problem when my newly reformatted computer couldn't read my CD-Rom drive even though I used a WinME CD to install from a start up disk. When I went online, Windows Update had some new IDE drivers for me to install, and after installation it installed drivers for my CD Rom drive. It could be a problem of outdated drivers from either your motherboard, your Windows, or even your BIOS. It could even be a conflict because your motherboard is old. I'd also try making your new harddrive the master and the older one the slave. But because it works as a primary, I think it's an IDE conflict. If you have two CD rom drives, try unplugging one of them and see if that works.
Rockets2K, Yeah, we made sure those jumpers were correct. I think its an old BIOS thing since my machine is more than a few years old. I'll just try installing windows on my new HD and be happy with 40gigs for now. Aaah what the heck, I plan on getting a new comp next year anyhow. thanks for your help man!
