I have recently decided to shift some of my focus from applications to maintenance and repair, so I am rally having a tough time with what many of you consider routine. I was given a computer to learn the in's and out's of computer hardware, but this computer only had a 3Gb hard drive. I tried to install a second drive and it worked fine until we took a power hit. Evidently, the protector didn't. Everything else continued to work as normal except the 2nd drive. Since then I have tried various things to correct the situation. I changed the IDE cable and all the other things I was told to do, but to no avail. I brought another 10Gb to install, but the system does not recognize the drive. I have spent the last two weeks working on fixing my problem and I am not getting anywhere. Could you give me help begin from the point after the physical installation. I want to keep 3Gb hard drive because of the data that is on it. If there is a way to get the data to the 10Gb, I need to know that too. I don't have a ghost program right now, so I will settle for just making the 10Gb a second drive till I get up to speed on hardware operations while maintaining what I have learned on the applications side of computer technology. Your help will be deeply appreciated. This is from a true, true novice of hardware.

Hmmm...

If this is an older system (486 or Pentium era) then that would explain its inability to recognize a 10GB hard drive. If this is fairly new hardware, then...

It's possible that the power hit took out the mobo's end of things and not the hard drives. Try your known-working 3GB drive on the other IDE channel. Or if you don't want to test with that one, remove the 3GB drive and try the 10GB drive in its place.

In case you don't know, there are typically 1-2 IDE connectors per mobo. (These can also be called ATA or PATA connectors.) Each IDE connector represents a "channel", where each channel/connector can have up to two drives connected to it. These drives must be properly configured for the channel as a whole to work - one drive must be set to "master" (by the jumper at the back of the drive) and one must be set to "slave". The other option is to leave them both at "cable select" in which case the drive at the end of the IDE cable will default to "master" and the other to "slave". However, I prefer to manually set them, in case I want the drive at the end to be the "slave". (Oftentimes the CD drives are higher in the case and fit better at the end of the cable, but I want the hard drive which is lower in the case to be the "master" on the channel.)

There are many things to consider when setting up your IDE channels and drives. The first thing to remember is that only one device per channel can be active at a time. This is important in case you have a "master" hard drive and a "slave" CD drive, and let's say you're copying the contents of a CD to the hard drive. Well, if both drives are on the same channel, then the copy will take twice as long as if they were on separate channels! :eek: So figuring out the most efficient configuration can take some time. It's best to have the main C: hard drive as the "master" of one channel, and the main D: optical drive as the "master" of the other channel. Then you can space the other drives (if you have any) as you see fit.

The first thing I would check is that both the 10gig drives are recognised in the BIOS setup. You need to press a specific key (usually indicated on the monitor early on) to get into the Setup program during start up.

If only one HDD is appearing there it is likely that the original 10gig drive is caput since it was functioning before the power surge (which should also exclude a BIOS size limitation). It could be a loose or bad cable or the mobo could indeed have been damaged. The latter could well be on the cards since the second drive is also not seen. If the second drive is seen in the BIOS setup then was it partitioned and formatted?

Which Operating System are you running?

I am running XP Pro. I did the same thing the I did when I installed the first (2nd) hard drive. I have replaces cables, so I thought with the new cables and the new hard drive things would be fine. I failed to mention that the first #2 drive has occassionally shown up, but not consistently. All the info is on it when it is recognized, but that has only happened about 4 times. I have not been able to see the new hard drive at all and don't know what else to do. I was thinking of putting the new drive in as the primary drive, formatting it, partitioning it, then making it the second drive. Would that work?

I tried several things and nothing is working. I hooked up the second drive and didn't get anything. The screen was completely blank, like it wasn't getting any video signal. The only way I could get anything was to go back to the original configuration before I could get a signal. I have abandon putting the second drive on, but I have several new problems. I put a new CD drive in, and sometimes while playing a CD the system will reboot, right in the middle of a song. I am getting a little gun shy and will not do anything to my good computer, but I am running out of disk space on my first computer. The other thing is I am unable to burn any CD's or DVD's on either computer. Both get to the point of inserting a blank disk and that's where it sits. i have used several differnt brands of blanks, yet on both computers they say there is no disk in the drive. I have used the media player software along with nero, CDBurnerXP Pro3, and other software, but get to the same point on both computers. I have not been able to burn anything all year.

I was also wondering if I take the chance and put the HDD in my good computer format and partition it there could I then put it in my first computer would that option possibly work? This is starting to make me feel like a real dummy.

What the heck kind of computer is this? It isn't a Compaq, is it?

Ok, try this. Download the manufacturer's diagnostic tools, make it into a bootable floppy (per their instructions), disconnect the main hard drive of your good computer, install the questionable hard drive in its place, boot the good computer with the bootable floppy, diagnose the questionable hard drive using the manufacturer's tools.

I'm starting to wonder about your experimental computer there. What do you know about that hardware?

I think saphalline's idea of testing the drive in the good computer is a good move. Do ensure that when swapping in the "problem" drive that you have it jumpered identical to the one that you temporarily swap out.

There are still a couple of points that are not entirely clear.

I tried to install a second drive and it worked fine until we took a power hit.It's not totally clear if the 10gig drive was working properly until the power hit. And what was the nature of the "power hit". If this was lightning then just about any component could have been fried but it would be surprising if the PSU didn't blow at such a time.

I failed to mention that the first #2 drive has occassionally shown up, but not consistently.By this, do you mean show up in Windows or the BIOS setup? ... and do you know how to get into your BIOS setup? Also a loose molex power connector or a failing PSU could be the source of such inconsistent recognition as well as dodgy ribbon data cables.

If there is a way to get the data to the 10Gb, I need to know that too.If this data is important and you already have a dodgy system because of a power hit I would copy the important data to your other computer's hard drive by slaving the 3gig into the good computer and then just copy the relevant files across - or by creating an image file of the whole 3Gig using a program such as ImageForWindows (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/) running from the good computer. You can then later restore the image to a 10gig drive - assuming that you do have a good 10gig drive - or restore individual files or foders from the image file using terabyteunlimited's small tbiview program.

Okay, I have taken a week away from frustrations of computer maintenance, so I am going to start saturday morning and work all day to get everything working. I am taking the advice I received from all, and I will make things work. I have check that all components actually function before I install them by giving them to 'experts' to check their operation, and now I have them back and was told the everything works, so it is now up to me to get them working in my systems. I thank all for your advice, and will let you all know how I made out. Your help has been of great benefit because I have been able to converse with my 'experts' and not sound like baffoon during the conversations. It must be wonderful to be able to help people with their problems, and finding out that your advice actually worked. I would love to be in that position, and have tried to learn as much as I can, but I find that doing much of the reading to learn the 'basic' operations of the computer many of the authors make a lot of assumptions about the reader's technical knowledge. Don't they know that I don't know anything about what I am trying to learn. Are there any books out there for the true novice? Anyway, I am off to the races, and will let you know the outcome. Thanks very, very much for your patience and advice. Until Monday morning.

P. S. Also, I am not sure of all the function of this site. Where can I go to get the information on the correct procedures, so I don't continue to make foolish mistakes for everyone to see.