OS won't load with 2nd HDD installed...

[The Great Destroyer]

right now i have a 6gig HDD running XP that i only use for music. i picked up a 40gig for free today to use as a secondary, but it won't work. when the 40gig is set as slave on IDE1, it won't read either HDD. when the 40 gig is on IDE2, it just won't read it. anyone know the proper way to install a secondary drive?

[silverdemon]

are you sure it is working? maybe the drive is just broken?

[The Great Destroyer]

ive tested it before, worked fine before

edit: i went here (http://72.14.221.104/search?q=cache:K-dQT54bM84J:www.pcmech.com/show/harddrive/43/+installing+a+secondary+hard+drive&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2) and did everything, but the Initialize Disk Wizard didnt pop up.

[nil8]

Are your jumper drivers set properly?

[Cevinzol]

Quote:
"6gig HDD running XP"
"I picked up a 40gig for free " ... always look a gift horse in the mouth.
"when the 40gig is set as slave on IDE1, it won't read either HDD." is 6Gig set to Master? If its set to CS or jumperless, change it.
"when the 40 gig is on IDE2, it just won't read it." Is it set to master? is there another device on IDE2? CD/DVD?

was it detected in the bios?

[The Great Destroyer]

Quote:
"6gig HDD running XP"
...actually that was a typo...its a 4gig...

"I picked up a 40gig for free " ... always look a gift horse in the mouth.
yeah...i know. it was from the schools computer club. we basically use scrap computers and teach people how to build em and run em

"when the 40gig is set as slave on IDE1, it won't read either HDD." is 6Gig set to Master? If its set to CS or jumperless, change it.
"when the 40 gig is on IDE2, it just won't read it." Is it set to master? is there another device on IDE2? CD/DVD?
4gig is set to master, 40gig was on slave, but then i changed it to CS

was it detected in the bios?
neither of em were detected when the 40gig was on IDE1 Slave. didnt think about checking it when the 40 gig was on IDE2
as soon as i find my XP cd, im gonna try and format the 40 gig and see if itll run by itself.

edit: i think it might be bad after all. ubuntu wasnt registering it when i tried to install it, and neither was XP. i'll try to get another HD tomorrow.

[CanaBalistic]

Your running XP on a 4gig drive and you use that for music aswell? My music folder is 6.98Gb all by its self.

My solution would be to run XP off the 40Gb drive and set the 4Gb drive to slave. The problem might stem from the file system used. I imagine the 4Gb drive is FAT32 at best. Windows XP doesnt use this file system anymore and might be the cause of the problem. (correct me if im wrong)

You should also try to run the second drive on your other IDE channel.

[cheztir]

Close canabalistic. FAT32 is supported but very pourly. NTFS wont even go on something as small as 4GB. The problem would probably be access mode, i had an HD that for some reason hated LBA, so i had to use CHS access. Play around with settings. also, XP won't boot unless it's on the first partition of the first drive (boot drive). You can get around that using GRUB or another bootloader, but it's slightly tricky.

Really the only things i'd make sure of are that it is:
- receiving power (properly)
- has a good IDE cable
- jumpers are set correctly
- is using a compatible access mode
- has the proper Partition Table and MBR data

If all else fails put it in the computer that could use it. Format it, and run a disk checking app.

Hope this helps.

[The Great Destroyer]

the 4gig hs been working fine for over a year now. what i just did was swap the 40 gig for a 20 that im 100% sure works. so when i get home i'll see if it was the drive after all

edit: the drive ended up being broken, and i had no trouble installing the new one.

[CanaBalistic]

Im glad to hear you resolved your issue. I would check into bigger HDD's. you can get IDE drives for next to nothing nowdays. My mom just got a 250GB IDE drive for $120 at an expencive retail store. Ebay has them for pennies on the dollar.

That 4gb drive might have worked for you for a year but it was probly manufactured over 10 yrs ago. Time to replace it with somthing shiney and new.

[The Great Destroyer]

yeah, this is just basically my test/tinker pc, so im not worried about upgrading it. i'm gonna try and run windows vista on it in a few days.

[CanaBalistic]

I didnt even know vista was available yet... Man i am outta the loop :)

Is vista for 64bit procs or did microsoft do the smart thing and make it for every proc?

[silverdemon]

it's only beta right now, and it's available for normal 32bit systems...
and I think it is obvious that there's also a 64 bit version...

[Omega]

How about you put Windows on the larger drive....


Anywho, kind of what kana said, my music folder is 11.29gb here.