HD Replacement (used)

[rmacc]

I just replaced my dead HD with a "new-to me" HD that was in a networked computer. The HD cannot see my CD drive. I have run hardware install w/o success. The CD drive has no identifying marks to indicate who made it.

This is an older Pentium with Win95 used primarily for word processing and email so it may not be worth investing much time or money in it. Even if I end up giving the machine away, I would like to fix this problem first.

I am an amateur at this; any consrtuctive advice would be welcomed.

[dewah]

hi rmacc,
remove your 'new' hard drive ,and check the jumper settings on the back. theyre probably configured wrong . set it as 'master'
let us know if this helps at all
dewah

[ReddDogg]

My experience is that the hard drive doesn't recognize the cd rom, either bios or windows does. Could be a conflict in the jumpers... do you have primary and secondary ide, or do you just have primary? Did the old hard drive completely fail? Or can you access some files on it by making it secondary drive? If so, maybe you can go though it and see what driver it was using for the cd rom.

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Joe Redd
MCP

[rmacc]

Thanks for your reply.

The old HD died and could not be resurrected. Therefore, i just have a primary IDE. I am not sure how to check the jumpers (I said I was an amateur). I disconnected the cable, took the old drive out, plugged in the new one and after a bit of minor trouble, it worked, except for its failure to "see" the CD drive.

Another issue is this: because the new drive was on a network (which is now gone) there are many program icons, etc. for applications that are not on the drive. Can these just be deleted?

Originally posted by ReddDogg:
My experience is that the hard drive doesn't recognize the cd rom, either bios or windows does. Could be a conflict in the jumpers... do you have primary and secondary ide, or do you just have primary? Did the old hard drive completely fail? Or can you access some files on it by making it secondary drive? If so, maybe you can go though it and see what driver it was using for the cd rom.

[der King Mongo]

Hey rmacc, what exactly did you do with this new (used) drive? Did you basically just pull it out of some other machine, plug it into yours and try to make things happen?

What I mean is, did you reformat the drive, reinstall Windows, fdisk, or any of that stuff? If not, I would do so--you don't want to just delete all the left-over icons, you're going to have a ton of crap on there that points to this or that (and this or that won't exist). It's sort of like "solving" a Rubik's Cube by peeling off all the stickers then putting them back on. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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***He who eats when he is full, digs his grave with his teeth***

[Paleo Pete]

My neice did that!! We wondered how she solved the Rubik's Cube in a half hour, and my sister caught her in the bedroom with stickers all over the bed...

Anyway, I thought I had posted here this afternoon...Check my link below, you'll find plenty links to hardware sites, Trish's is one of the best. Look up the hard drive manufacturer's site and you can usually get jumper setting diagrams for about any drive you can think of. They are usually pretty easy to understand. Jumpers are mostly located at the back of the drive beside the ribbon cable, but some older Seagates were underneath the drive.

I would agree with Mongo here, I usually try not to recommend the format/reinstall routine, but I think it's the best option in this case to remove all the leftovers form the networking setup. And don't worry about being unfamiliar with computers, that's what we're here for.

Check the jumper settings on the hard drive and CD ROM. Hard drive should be Master, I'd put the CD ROM on Secondary IDE and set it as Master. Usually putting it on Primary IDE and setting it as slave to the hard drive will slow down the entire system. You'll also need to install drivers for it. Somewhere on the CD ROM should be some sort of markings with a model number, I've never seen one without them.

Again, check my site, plenty references there on hardware, building your own, and some sites have detailed instructions. I'll also be adding more links very soon...

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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[rmacc]

Thanks for the help. I will try this over the weekend and post a message on my progress.