Setting my old WDC WD600BB drive as the slave 1

[p1981]

Hi,
I just bought a new seagate ultra ata/100 HD. My old HD on the dell dimension 2350 was WDC WD600BB-75CAA0. I managed to copy my files from the old drive to the new one. Now I want the new one to be the master. So I connected the new one at the end of the cable (the black connector) and the new one at the middle (the gray connector). Now I have tried both the cable select and master/slave config. But either:
1. My BIOS only recognises just the new drive (actually, in this case, the name of the drive does not show up properly)
2. It recognises the new one as slave and old one as master (in this case, both names show up correctly).
3. OR, if I disconnect the old one from the power supply and mark the new one as master OR cable select, BIOS detects the new one correctly.

I think it is because I don't know the correct jumper position to mark the old drive to be in slave or cable select mode. Can anyone help me out? To be precise, can someone tell me how to indicate to the WDC drive to use (1) Cable select mode, and (2) Slave mode.

Thanks!

 

[Freestone]

Western Digital EIDE jumper settings:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...GV4dD1qdW1wZXIgc2V0dGluZ3M*&p_li=&p_topview=1

 

[p1981]

So I was doing the same thing mentioned on that figure. But it is not working (neither in CS mode nor master/slave mode). Do you think there is some other problem then?

 

[Freestone]

Have you tried a different IDE cable?

 

[p1981]

Nope! I am using the one which came with the new HD. The old cable has place for only one HD on it. But why do you think it has to do with the cable? I mean, as such I can get both drives to work correctly, but just not in the config I want. And BTW, I was planning to swap the positions of the 2 HDs and see if it helps. But I am not able to get that stupid IDE cable to disconnect from my new drive (it doesn't have a good grip like the ones that came with dell). I am scared I will break something if I try too hard.

 

[johnbullas]

Is the old drive visible ok if it is the ONLY drive connected to the MB by the NEW cable

I assume the new drive is set to MASTER?

I have always** used master/slave settings as I am uncertain how "Cable select" works

**Except for the IDE drives in my new hightech network toaster....

 

[rvnguy]

The master needs to be attached to the end connector and the slave to the middle connector. Insure the correct jumpering and correct position on the cable.

Also, the middle connector is actually closer to one of the end connectors and these 'closer' connectors are connected to the HD's with the longer tag connected to the MB.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[johnbullas]

ARGHHH!

I hope you didn't bend a pin on the IDE socket drive fitting the new cable that will do a lot of damage but make it a nice SNUG fitting

 

[p1981]

To reply some of the questions people put up:
* The "closer" connectors are the ones I connected to the drives.
* The new drive is at the end of the cable as I want to set it as the master.
* If I remove the power connection to the new drive, the old one works fine even though it is in the middle of the cable.
* I have tried setting the (new, old) HDs as (Master, Slave) and (CS, CS) respectively. But in both cases, the bios recognises only the new drive. But its name does not show up correctly. When I select its name in the BIOS, the bottom few lines of the screen go black (as if it is trying to display some invalid/unterminated string)!

 

[Freestone]

Not knowing the history of your system, I suggested trying a new cable. I've seen bad IDE cables cause strange symptoms such as you describe too many times to count.

Try GENTLY pulling one side of the IDE connector, then the other, in a sort of rocking motion, to remove ir from the drive.

And for completeness, here is a link to Seagate jumper settings:

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/ref/jumper_settings.html

 

[wolluf]

Have you tried the Master with non-ATA compatible slave option on the Seagate?

 

[p1981]

No! In this case, what should I set the old hard drive as? Just a slave? Will it affect the performance of either drive?

 

[wolluf]

yes - old one as slave. I don't know if it will affect performance (normally a non-ATA device attached to same IDE cable as ATA device will slow both down to non-ATA speed. Perhaps that setting is to get round that limitation. Haven't looked round Seagate site to see if it says anything about that). And in this case, old drive is ATA anyway (when I've seen this setting before it hasn't mentioned non-ATA at all - just master with slave present setting - as opposed to single master).

 

[p1981]

Tried it. Didn't work either. I will probably just have to live with my new one as the slave Trying another cable seems to be a good idea. But I am left with no enthusiasm to buy more stuff. This new drive already cost more than what I expected. May be I will leave the new one as a slave drive.

 

[rvnguy]

You could always use the new onthe pri IDE as master, and connecting the old HD to the secondary IDE with the original cable.

If you do this both would be set to master , one on each channel. Or do you have other drives on the secondary??

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[p1981]

I have two on the secondary IDE. A DVD & a CDRW, both of which have more utility than having two HDs.

 

[rvnguy]

You might still try moving the device on the secondary center connector to the pri center and install the old HD on the secondary center as slave

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[p1981]

I see, that way I will know if the problem is with the old drive. Brilliant!

 

[p1981]

Ok, I tried something a bit easier. I took out my DVD drive and tried to make it a slave to the new HD on the primary IDE. It works fine! So can I safely conclude that it is a problem with the old WDC drive? In this case, what do you suggest? it is not feasible to make both the hard drives the master's of one channel each (Since the laser drives have to go on the top of the cabinet and the hard drives at the bottom, I would have to buy two extra long cable. Just not acceptable to me). Any ideas?

 

[Freestone]

Another thought here concerning the old drive is to make sure the IDE jumper(s) you are using is/are not defective. If this is a 6-pin drive and somehow the jumper is not making good contact with the pins it is jumpering, the drive will be in its default state, which is "Single, Standard Installation". Who knows how a drive requiring dual jumpers would react if one is bad. You should be able to borrow the jumpers off of your CD & DVD drives.