IDE hard drive not working in my PC

[twisted4000]

I have a PC with a 750gb SATA HDD with the OS on it. I have one IDE port in my mobo, so I figured I would just use it up. My friend has this old IDE hard drive with 160gb on it, so I used that. Plugged everything in correctly, but when I turn the computer on, I get a message like this:

Restart your computer and select proper boot device.

I don't get it, my SATA HDD is plugged in right, and the IDE hard drive has its jumpers set to "Slave". Am I doing something wrong? The jumper settings it has is "Slave", "Cable Select", "Master/Single", and "Master w/ Slave Present". Why won't the computer start up when it's plugged in?

 

[Paperdoc]

OK, you need to make a few changes.

First, "Master" and "Slave" are only labels relevant to the particular IDE port you are using. They have NOTHING to do with other HDD's in your system. Any IDE port can support TWO devices, so each needs a unique identifier to keep them straight. The method is to use jumpers on pins on the back edge of the devices to identify one as the Master of the IDE port, and the other as the Slave. The Port MUST have a Master. Since you are using only one IDE device on this port and ribbon cable, its jumpers MUST be set to Master. (Oh, some HDD's have slightly different jumper settings for Master with No Slave, or for Master with Slave Present. Set yours appropriately.)

Next, the cable. It has 3 connectors on it. The Blue one on one end goes to the mobo port. The Black one on the other end goes to the Master device (your HDD). The Gray one in the middle is for the second (Slave) device IF you had one - in your case it will be empty. And, of course, there's a power supply (4-pin Molex) from the PSU to connect.

OK. With those set up you turn on power and immediately go into BIOS Setup. Many machines have you hold down the "DEL" key for this, but check your screen boot messages to be sure. When Setup comes on, look for where the IDE port is managed and make sure it is Enabled. Go back to the screen that shows you the HDD's installed and verify that both the existing SATA HDD and the new (well, old, really) IDE drive are detected properly. Now look elsewhere for where you specify the Boot Priority Sequence. I am betting it defaults to setting the IDE drive as the boot device when one exists, and that is not what you want. Make sure it boots from your original SATA HDD and there is NO reference to the IDE drive in the boot sequence. Maybe you want it to be: optical drive first, SATA drive next, and NO other device to boot from. Once these are set, Save and Exit, and the machine ought to boot from the SATA drive as it always did.

Now look in My Computer. Does the IDE drive appear there as a new storage device? If so, you may see all its old files and want to do something about that. If it does NOT appear there, let us know so we can advise how to Partition and Format the IDE unit so you can use it.

 

[twisted4000]

Thank you so much, I completely understand how to set it up now, yes, it must be at Master because it's the only IDE HDD connected to the IDE port, I'll go ahead and try it out.

 

[twisted4000]

OK, you need to make a few changes.

First, "Master" and "Slave" are only labels relevant to the particular IDE port you are using. They have NOTHING to do with other HDD's in your system. Any IDE port can support TWO devices, so each needs a unique identifier to keep them straight. The method is to use jumpers on pins on the back edge of the devices to identify one as the Master of the IDE port, and the other as the Slave. The Port MUST have a Master. Since you are using only one IDE device on this port and ribbon cable, its jumpers MUST be set to Master. (Oh, some HDD's have slightly different jumper settings for Master with No Slave, or for Master with Slave Present. Set yours appropriately.)

Next, the cable. It has 3 connectors on it. The Blue one on one end goes to the mobo port. The Black one on the other end goes to the Master device (your HDD). The Gray one in the middle is for the second (Slave) device IF you had one - in your case it will be empty. And, of course, there's a power supply (4-pin Molex) from the PSU to connect.

OK. With those set up you turn on power and immediately go into BIOS Setup. Many machines have you hold down the "DEL" key for this, but check your screen boot messages to be sure. When Setup comes on, look for where the IDE port is managed and make sure it is Enabled. Go back to the screen that shows you the HDD's installed and verify that both the existing SATA HDD and the new (well, old, really) IDE drive are detected properly. Now look elsewhere for where you specify the Boot Priority Sequence. I am betting it defaults to setting the IDE drive as the boot device when one exists, and that is not what you want. Make sure it boots from your original SATA HDD and there is NO reference to the IDE drive in the boot sequence. Maybe you want it to be: optical drive first, SATA drive next, and NO other device to boot from. Once these are set, Save and Exit, and the machine ought to boot from the SATA drive as it always did.

Now look in My Computer. Does the IDE drive appear there as a new storage device? If so, you may see all its old files and want to do something about that. If it does NOT appear there, let us know so we can advise how to Partition and Format the IDE unit so you can use it.

Well, I have a problem.

This is a factory-made PC, the eMachines ET1831-07... I moved it to a new case and upgraded it a little bit, but the BIOS seems to have a password... ugh... when I go into the BIOS, it says "Enter CURRENT Password", and I have no idea what it is. :/

Unfortunately, I bought this PC back when I didn't know about building them, but now I understand how to do it. Dang... I should probably get a new mobo and then get another Windows 7 CD (yes, it didn't even come with the CD).

 

[Paperdoc]

Well, there's a way around that, too - at least on some mobos. I just checked my mobo manual to be sure.

ALL mobos have a procedure for completely resetting the BIOS. On mine, at least, when you do this you reset its password to nothing, too, so there is no password. If yours works this way, you can do this to get into BIOS. The only problem is that you MAY have to change a few things in there to suit what you have, but you can't look at the current settings first so they can be restored later. We'll just have to trust that the default settings are right.

On the mobo there will be a BIOS backup battery. It is about the diameter of a quarter and quite flat, mounted in a plastic circular holder. Very near there should be a little set of three pins marked something like "CLRTC" (for Clear Real-Time Clock), or "Clear BIOS" or something similar, and there will be a jumper on two pins. The process is to remove the battery, move the jumper, move it back, re-install the battery, then boot immediately into BIOS and restore its default settings. Here we go:
1. Shut down, disconnect the power cable and open the case. Locate the battery and reset jumper pins. Remove the battery from its holder, noting which way it goes back in.
2. Move the jumper from its pair of pins to the other side. Leave it there for 10 to 15 seconds, then restore it to its original location. (The part of the BIOS system that stores user settings must have power at all times to retain its information. It has a backup battery for when power is off that will keep it alive for a couple of years. This procedure deliberately removes that battery and discharges any capacitor that is helping, so the BIOS memory section gets NO power and loses its data.)
3. Re-install the battery. Close up the case and connect the power cord.
4. Turn on power and boot into BIOS Setup. It should NOT ask you for a Password this time. (When the BIOS starts up and its first checks disclose that it has no user settings in its memory, it will try to restore a factory default set of parameters. Sometimes these are OK, sometimes not completely.)
5. Look on the last menu screen (it may be the exit screen) for an option to Load BIOS Defaults. You may have only one choice, or there may be a few sets of "default" settings. IF there's a choice, choose the Optimized Defaults, and they will be installed. This makes SURE that the BIOS gets a complete set of reliable settings after being Reset. Save and Exit. The machine will try to boot, but don't let it - push your front panel Reset button to force a complete reboot. AGAIN, go immediately into BIOS Setup.
6. IF you believe there are BIOS settings you must change, do that now. In particular, you should verify that your HDD's are all detected correctly and then set your Boot Priority Sequence as I posted before. Any other changes you are sure are needed, make them. Then Save and Exit once again, but this time let it complete its boot process. It OUGHT to boot from your original SATA HDD if you set it that way.

 

[twisted4000]

Best answer selected by Twisted4000.

 

[kf2328]

OK, you need to make a few changes.

First, "Master" and "Slave" are only labels relevant to the particular IDE port you are using. They have NOTHING to do with other HDD's in your system. Any IDE port can support TWO devices, so each needs a unique identifier to keep them straight. The method is to use jumpers on pins on the back edge of the devices to identify one as the Master of the IDE port, and the other as the Slave. The Port MUST have a Master. Since you are using only one IDE device on this port and ribbon cable, its jumpers MUST be set to Master. (Oh, some HDD's have slightly different jumper settings for Master with No Slave, or for Master with Slave Present. Set yours appropriately.)

Next, the cable. It has 3 connectors on it. The Blue one on one end goes to the mobo port. The Black one on the other end goes to the Master device (your HDD). The Gray one in the middle is for the second (Slave) device IF you had one - in your case it will be empty. And, of course, there's a power supply (4-pin Molex) from the PSU to connect.

OK. With those set up you turn on power and immediately go into BIOS Setup. Many machines have you hold down the "DEL" key for this, but check your screen boot messages to be sure. When Setup comes on, look for where the IDE port is managed and make sure it is Enabled. Go back to the screen that shows you the HDD's installed and verify that both the existing SATA HDD and the new (well, old, really) IDE drive are detected properly. Now look elsewhere for where you specify the Boot Priority Sequence. I am betting it defaults to setting the IDE drive as the boot device when one exists, and that is not what you want. Make sure it boots from your original SATA HDD and there is NO reference to the IDE drive in the boot sequence. Maybe you want it to be: optical drive first, SATA drive next, and NO other device to boot from. Once these are set, Save and Exit, and the machine ought to boot from the SATA drive as it always did.

Now look in My Computer. Does the IDE drive appear there as a new storage device? If so, you may see all its old files and want to do something about that. If it does NOT appear there, let us know so we can advise how to Partition and Format the IDE unit so you can use it.

I done exactly what is said in the reply above but my computer booted into Window and then just a blank screen. The Win XP start up logo came on and then went blank as usual. But windows did not continue & complete the start up.

The HDD lights flickered occasionally and even after half an hour Window XP still cannot get started. What did I do wrong?

Thanks
Kf

 

[Paperdoc]

I gather you succeeded in getting into BIOS Setup - hooray! But now you can't get it to finish booting from the SATA HDD. Let's do things one step at a time to help narrow it down.

1. Disconnect the data ribbon and power connectors for your IDE drive, so only the SATA unit is connected. Boot into BIOS Setup and check a few things. First, I'm assuming you did the Load Default Settings thing I mentioned before. That could have set the SATA port wrong, and you may not have changed it back. Win XP does not know how to use SATA devices unless a driver is installed. To boot XP from a SATA drive, you have to Install it in a special way using the F6 key and a floppy disk, and I'm betting you have never done that - maybe you machine came with XP already installed for you. BUT there is a neat way around this built into most BIOS'. Go to where the SATA port is Enabled. Check that it is. Now look close by to a line to set the SATA Port Mode. It usually has options like IDE (or PATA) Emulation, SATA, AHCI, or RAID. To avoid the special installation requirement with Win XP, you should set this to the IDE (or PATA) Emulation. This makes the BIOS fool Win XP into believing it is dealing only with an IDE drive type that it fully understands, and you CAN boot from it. Set it this way. Now, look for where you set the Boot Priority Sequence. IF you have an optical drive like many people, the common way to set this up is to have the optical unit as the first-tried boot device, then the HDD that has the OS already on it (your SATA unit), and then NO other possible boot devices. If you have no optical drive, then the SATA HDD is the first and only device. Save and Exit from here to store these settings and reboot. Your machine should be able to boot completely this way.

2. If all that is working OK, power down. Re-connect the power and data ribbon to the IDE drive. Power on and go into BIOS Setup again. First, check that the IDE drive port is Enabled. Then re-check the Boot Priority Sequence to be sure it has not changed. If your machine has tried by default to make the IDE unit the first boot device, change that so it is as before. Do NOT have the IDE unit anywhere in the boot sequence. Save and Exit again, and we hope it boots up cleanly AND the IDE drive is seen in My Computer.

Let us know how this goes. If it does not work, tell us exactly what screens appear, and any messages it shows.