Installed new IDE drive to master, invalid partition table, WinXP

[ACBear]

I purchased a new WD 200GB hard drive to upgrade my old IBM Aptiva from college (8GB original BigFoot drive). I wish to use the 200GB as the master and move the 8GB to slave, due to the annoyingly noisy operation of the old 8GB. I'm operating on a recent new install of XP.
I was successful in setting the jumpers and connecting the new drive in position 1, old drive position 0. I partitioned/formatted 10GB of the 200GB drive to act as the system disk and hold the OS and all programs. So far, so good. I did consider copying the entirety of my old drive into the new partition and reversing cables/jumpers. However, my old drive is full of clutter and partial uninstalls and mistakes I made during college with maintenance. I would rather have a fresh install with the new drive, then move programs/files over as needed and eventually wipe the 8GB clean and use for backup storage only.
After partitioning the 10GB of the 200GB drive, I shut off the computer and changed BIOS to look for the XP CD (which is at the first position on the 2nd IDE bus, not sure if this matters) on startup. Then I connected only the 200GB drive to the primary bus (disconnected 8GB drive in case I messed up somewhere in formatting/install).
However, the screen just displays "Invalid Partition Table" at startup.
Any ideas? What am I doing wrong? I'm a mechanical engineer and figured I should be able to complete this myself (?)
Thanks for your help.
-Clare

 

[wolluf]

You're still using the original machine? Which no way will recognise a 200GB drive (would reckon its bios will do 32GB tops). So, presume you used WD's Data Lifeguard tools to partition/format the new drive - which would have installed overlay software to overcome the drive size problem (but I think it will have gone on the old drive as that was primary master - so when you disconnected it, you removed the machine's ability to recognise your 200GB drive).

Options - start again with Data Lifeguard & just the new drive (overlay then on new drive). Personally I hate overlay software (if you do use it, you could have problems if you need to move the drive later/retrieve data from it). Are you intending keeping the machine (given its age)? If so, another option is a PCI controller card for additional IDE connections (with current speeds and size support - the other thing is without this your new HD will run at probably no better than a third of its top speed - ATA33 (probably) interface for an ATA100 or 133 rated drive).