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bios doesn't see hard drive

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13 replies

by agoldstein7

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rebuilding a system, installed new HD, kept old cd rom and cd writter. When the cable for the 2 cd is disconnected, bios auto detects HD, but when it is reattached, bios cant see the HD

13 replies

by dmiles

Check the Primary and Secondary controller cables to make sure that you have the hard drive set up on the Primary cable as Master

Set the cd writer as the Master on the secondary cable and cd as Slave

Set the hard drive pin configuration on the back of the drive to Master

The pin configuration may be set to cable select which does not apply to all systems

Set the bios configuration to Auto for the hard drives,also check to make sure the system supports drive over 10GB

by bkinsey1

Sounds like a master/slave issue to me. Go with answer number 1, although in most cases it doesn't matter which device is master and which is slave, as long as they don't conflict.

by susalt

If you're using a cable select cable, try changing to a standard IDE cable and make sure the pin config is set to master. Also, do you have both cd's on the secondary or is one of them slaved to the hd? Try to isolate the hd as much as possible and get the others on the secondary.

by gw_bergeron

All The previous solutions are correct and are the proper way to start. The other Problem could be that the HDD has Failed. In this case, if you go to the manufacturer's web site, search within their support area, you should find a few utilities that will run diagnostics and even low level format(LAST RESORT). If it's Maxtor you may even still be under warranty and will get a RMA to get it replaced FREE + shipping.

by brandon770

I would personally go with answer 1 one but I would do a little differently.. First off I would put the hdd and the cdrom together and put the cdrom as slave hdd as master ect.. Then the cd writer to the secondary Ide and set it as master. The hdd has to be on the primary IDE though for sure.. Then I would go to the bios and on IDEs I would set every thing to auto and if you press enter then it should detect it and show up exactly what you have on it.. It may take a little while and if it takeslonger than a minute I would just press esc. ONLY once though and that will cancell and just set it to auto.. Do the same for ever one of them and that might help. If its not detecting it there may be a conflict problem. It should show up as the Primary IDE master as the hdd and the secondary as the cdrom and then Seconday IDE should show the cdwrite as the master and then slave as not installed. Alright. Good luck.

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