Weird behavior from old HD

[Rhombus65]

I have an old 10GB Western Digital Caviar 2850 (Model #WDAC2850-10F)

I wanted to use it for testing so I formatted it with W2K. It was the only HD in machine. All was fine.

Then I installed a second HD as slave. A fairly new WD400 (model #WD400BB-75AUA1)HD. Set jumper on old HD as Master.

When I booted the computer with the master/slave config the system files from the old HD transfered to the slave drive and the bootup failed saying something to the effect that no bootable disk could be found.

Tried same with jumpers set to CS. Same results

Master/Slave config works fine if I use two new HD's and not the older one.

I reformatted old HD and all is well until I install a slave drive. I need the slave drive as it contains files/docs needed for my testing.

Any ideas why this is happening?

"The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing..." -Albert Einstein

 

[wolluf]

'When I booted the computer with the master/slave config the system files from the old HD transfered to the slave drive and the bootup failed saying something to the effect that no bootable disk could be found.'

No - just booting a machine does NOT transfer system files. Either you've misinterpreted, or you have done something else.

Have you checked out the jumper settings for the old hard drive? Drives often have 2 master settings - one with no slave present, one with slave present. Your old drive might be one of these.

Workround - put the hard drives on separate controllers (pair the new drive as master with CD/DVD drive). If you have 2 CD/DVD devices, just leave one disconnected for your testing if you can't get old drive to function with a slave.

PS. Other option - make new drive master, old drive slave. If you need to boot from old drive, change the boot order in the bios (2nd hard drive (hdd1) first, or D first - whatever format it uses).

 

[Rhombus65]

wolluf:

Thank you for your reply.

I will try your suggestions.

"The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing..." -Albert Einstein