Hello everyone! First time poster and somewhat a newbie in working with computer hardware. Please be gentle.....

I have 2 hard drives:
1) 20.5GB IBM 75GXP 7200RPM ATA66 (original when purchased from MicronPC)
2) 60.3GB Maxtor D740X-6L 7200RPM ATA133/100 (currently installed)

I originally had the IBM installed with WinME (still on it) and swapped it for the Maxtor, which I have WinXP Pro SP1 installed. I have found that WinME works for numerous programs/games better than XP, and wish to run both OS's on different drives. I have tried the two partition on one drive for this purpose, but am not comfortable with this setup. Keep in mind that I realize that I need to format both drives and do a fresh install of the OS's, but I can't seem to even get that far.

I have tried to set up the master/slave system using jumper settings, but that doesn't seem to be working. I have had each drive in each role, but when the Maxtor is set to master (IBM slave), neither drive is recognized. When the Maxtor is set to slave (IBM master), only the Maxtor is recognized, but will still boot into WinXP off the slave Maxtor.

I have tried every jumper configuration I can find for the IBM, and nothing works. Am I at the point where I need to set the IBM to cable select (as master), and the Maxtor to just a simple slave.

My knowledge of computer hardware is decent, but only enough to still get into a lot of problems. Please help, and thanks!!!!

Could you post the partition information for both drives. Primary or Logical, FAT32 or NTFS, etc.

What was the HDD and partition configuration when you installed XP?

Presumably you are attaching the master at the end of the cable? You could also try both drives as master on the two ide cables.

And sure - try cable select on both drives.

Does the IBM with WinME work OK when it is installed on its own?

And, finally, when you say recognised - do you mean recognised in the BIOS or in Windows Explorer?

Suggest aiming to have WinME on the C drive of the Primary Master (IBM) and then (as long as you can "see" the Maxtor) install WinXP onto it while booted into WinME.

The Maxtor was configured as a single NTFS partition with WinXP. The IBM was a FAT32 with WinME, and yes, it worked fine in that configuration.

Yes, master at the end of the cable. I have two optical drives set on the secondary IDE, and have heard that this is the preferred arrangement with 2 optical drives.

As far as being recognized, I mean that when both drives are jumpered (correctly I think) and installed on IDE cables, the BIOS only recognizes the Maxtor drive, regardless if I have it configured for master or slave. I read a few reviews on the IBM drive, and I have seen some people mentioning that the master/slave settings as well as the cable select settings on this particular drive don't work very well. I am getting frustrated enough that I am considering just buying another Maxtor drive in a couple of months when I get enough loot to get a new Asus P4PE and a 2.53 P4!

I'll try cable select tonight. Thanks for the comments!

Having the 2 optical drives on the secondary IDE is ok, but many do not think it is optimal and I would try something different in this case. I would put each hard drive on its own cable as Master and the optical drives as Slaves. See if the drives can be recognized by BIOS in that config...

What are your different jumper options on the IBM drive?

Just came across http://www.sheller.com/ibmclassaction.htm which could be related maybe!