Bios not recognizing 2nd hard drive? Need opinions

[surreal343]

I think my old computer took a lightning hit or something. I tested the power supply and it was bad and I was also experiencing some of what I think was motherboard problems. So I have a (new to me)m-atx case with a biostar tforce 6100 mb, Amd athalon +3000, Geforce 6100 built in video, 1g memory and a 230w power supply. The computer came with a 4g (toshiba) I think HDD with windows XP installed. I have 2 old HDD's out of my old PC. 1 is a 20g Western Digital and the other is a 40g Maxtor. The only thing I need is some of my wifes pics off of it. I am pretty sure the pics and music are on both of the drives. The thing I am asking is how should I go about it without messing something up? I have tried to hook either of them up with the original still in there and It wont boot or keeps rebooting. It states "Boot disk error" insert disk. I dont have a disk. The computer runs fine on the original HDD. I think I may have the slave and master combo wrong or something. I am not real savvy with Pc's so I need some help. I am going to go buy a new HDD in the morning. I need to know do I get the new drive 1st and copy the 4g over to it and then try to get my old files? Just not sure where to go from here. The 4g is full. Bios is set to auto detect and wont detect the second drive. I dont think it detected either one when the second one was hooked up. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[G0AOZ]

I'll assume that you can detect that the 40Gb and 20Gb drives both spin up when power is applied...

According to my information, this motherboard has two IDE interfaces. My guess is that you have the original 4Gb Toshiba HDD on the primary interface, and maybe a CD drive on the secondary.

Try temporarily disconnecting the data cable from the CD drive and hooking it up to either the 20Gb or 40Gb HDD's from the zapped PC. This will mean that the secondary IDE interface has just one drive attached to its data cable.

Now see if the BIOS recognises it...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[BadBigBen]

addendum - replace the 230w PSU with at least a 400w model...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[surreal343]

What should my jumpers be set on. Both on master since they are on seperate interfaces?

addendum - replace the 230w PSU with at least a 400w model

Where can you find a powersupply for a mini atx in that range? I went to FRY's electronics and the largest they had in a mini was a 230w

 

[BadBigBen]

Where can you find a powersupply for a mini atx in that range?

these boards take regular ATX PSU... and which one to use would depend on the case, which I do not know make and model of...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[G0AOZ]

If you're attaching the drive to the secondary IDE interface with no ther devices on it, then it probably won't matter if it's set to Master or Slave. However, just to be sure, set it to Master or Single drive.

Ben, I'm suspecting this Mini ATX case may not be able to handle the "normal" sized PSU, i.e. 150mm x 140mm x 85mm.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[BadBigBen]

Roger, thanx for the info, I suspected as much after the reply from the OP...

surreal343, ignore my rambling about the PSU, I had missed that it was an M-ATX case... it is probably not necessary...

certain drives not only need to be set as MASTER but as MASTER with SLAVE, if you have a secondary drive attached... I think WD is like that, if I remember correctly... on the corresponding websites (manufacturer of the HDD, e.g. Maxtor or Western Digital) they have install instructions with a little tutorial on jumpering...

here is a sample for both Maxtor and their new owner Seagate...

http://seagate.custhelp.com/cgi-bin...2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9anVtcGVycw**&p_li=&p_topview=1

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[surreal343]

Still giving it hell. Got the system to recognize the drive, How do you transfer the windows boot folder over to the larger drive. The PC keeps rebooting anytime I try. I downloaded Drive Clone and after installing on the larger drive, if I try to open it the computer automatically goes in a reboot cycle?

 

[BadBigBen]

First things first...

Boot with a XP CD, into the Recovery Console, there log on to the installed (drive C:, You may have to try either one if two installs are shown at the menu page) OS...

then run a CHKDSK /R on the drive you just added... this is to ensure that the Filesystem is in working order...

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654

Then I would create a BART PE Bootable Disk that way you can access the drive without the installed OS interfering (which may get confused as there are now two ACTIVE partitions with TWO OS installed, which is indicative of the rebooting etc.)...

Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[surreal343]

Thanks ben for the great info. I will try this and let you guys know. Thanks

 

[surreal343]

All Good new question now, will start new thread