Cannot get DELL BIOS to recongnize new master hard drive

[SpeedFreakMATT]

I cannot get Dell BIOS to recognize my new hard drive in the computer, the hard drive in hooked up to the master cable. i have both ATA/100 strip cable in and power cable but it still says: "primary drive 1 not detected"
i've been working on this for a week now and need help!!!

 

[wolluf]

Is the drive definitely working ok? (ie, have you connected it elsewhere)?

How old is the machine/how large is the drive (eg, if machine is quite old and drive is > 128GB, may be too large - need bios upgrade or controller card).

Presume you have it jumpered correctly!

 

[SpeedFreakMATT]

im not sure if the hard drive is working i got it off ebay and the listing doesnat say if it is working or not

my computer was made in 1998

the hard drive is a 60GB

and i have no jumper cables but everything else is plugged in corectly

 

[satrow]

Hi Matt, your best bet is to checkout Wolluf's suggestion - get the Bios of the Dell machine upgraded first - it may then be able to support a 32Gb drive.

If it will (you should be able to tell this by checking with the Dell support site), there's likely to be a jumper setting on the drive that will limit it to 32Gb so the BIOS will recognise it - check the jumper settings on the drive manufacturers site.

If you give us the details of your Dell machine - serial number, etc., we may be able to find out more details for you.

Generally, '98 PC's would have 6 - 20 Gb drives fitted as standard - you'd be lucky to use more than a 32Gb with them!

Any of this supposes that the drive is in a useable state.

 

[SpeedFreakMATT]

ok well come to find out from my tech friend these hard drives do not work....so iam ultimatly screwed! unless i can get them to work but i do not know how to fix hard drives so yea...

 

[smah]

Are you sure the jumper is set correctly?

 

[millonater]

you have to reset the NVRAM ... enter the BIOS setup make sure all your lock keys are lit up (caps, scroll, and num). hold down alt and press the F, then the E, then the B and it will restart and that should take care of it. it will just reconfigure what is on the IDE cables. i had the same problem. but of course first make sure all the cables are connected and the jumpers set correctly (usually for dells its set to CS)

 

[Sival]

Go into the BIOS and load default settings.

 

[ProfessorP]

You might try going into BIOS and checking the settings for the hard drive. With a DELL you may have two settings, one for the primary drive 1 and one for primary drive 0. If so, try setting the Primary Hard Drive 1 to 'OFF' instead of 'AUTO'. Then, reboot and see if it works.