Weird HD problem! HELP!!!!

[Guest]

My best friend has three HDs (I believe two Quantums and a Maxtor) in his PC and whenever he removes one, his PC doesn't power up at all!! He reconnects the HD and his PC powers up again! Why does this happen and how can I repair this problem? Thanks

 

[Guest]

The three HDDs are connected in certain way, I assume - Master-Slave on primary IDE, Master on secondary IDE. When your friend removes one of the HDDs, he breaks this "order" so the PC won't recognize it any more. For example - you remove a Slave drive on primary IDE, but the PC "knows" there should be a Slave drive, so you have this problem.
Try to change the jumpers on the remaining HDD to the new position (Stand alone) and to re-define the drives in BIOS.

 

[Guest]

I don't know if you understood, but I'll try to make this as clear as possible. When the HDs are there, the PC powers up fine. When *one* HD misses, the PC doesn't power up at all! My friend presses on his opwer button and no electricty goes to his machine. It stays dormant. It's a huge paperweight. Lifless. I don't think a computer can detect that when not being turned on. I was always able to swap. He cannot. How can I fix that?

Strat