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OS XP not recognizing hard drive

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9 replies

by foreking

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I just installed a new IDE hard drive and the OS install disk is not recognizing any drive. Is there a way to troubleshoot this.

9 replies

by thumbsup2

How old is the computer? How big is the hard drive? Some older motherboards won't recognize larger hard drives.

Have you been into the BIOS to see if the hard drive is detected in there?

by himanshumogal143

check the bios first and then check under computer management whether the drive is detected as RAW, if it is there format it and give it a drive letter.
good luck

by oh smeg

That both drives appear there. If they don't pull out the new drive and check the Jumper on it and make sure that it is set to Slave or Cable Select depending on the IDE Lead and your M'Board whichever is required.

If both HDD's are set to Master and on the same IDE Lead neither will be visible to the computer. Also if you have an older computer/M'Board the BIOS may not recognise bigger drives.

To provide more information it's best to provide as much detail as possible so that we can correctly answer your question rather than give general information and hope for the best.

Col

by photogenic memory

Start simple. Is the molex connector(power cable) plugged into the drive? Is the IDE cable damaged? If so then replace it. Also is the IDE cable(flat or round) plugged into the drive nice and snug? If so, when you turn the power on; does the drive sound like it reves up and down? If not then try another molex connector if you have a spare. Also does it register on the black boot screen in POST? Does it register in BIOS? Check these basic things. Remember to turn off the power supply and unplug the power cable before diving into the case.

*Special note*:

Don't forget to ground yourself with a ESD leash or you can place your hand on the power supply occasionally while checking inside the unit. This is to prevent ESD on sensitive components. Good luck.

by john.a.sahl

Also make sure that the jumper pin on th drive matches the connector you are plugging in. If this is a primary drive, make sure the jumper is set to master & the middle connector is plugged in to the drive. If it's a second drive on the same controller, make sure the pin is set to slave & the end connector is used.

by waynerad2000

Well, first of all, is it picking the up the drive in the bios/cmos? if not that would be the problem. If you already have a drive installed and are installing the new one and now neither of them are recognised, the problem the lies with the new drive you installed, check the jumper settings on the drive and make sure that if they are on the same ide channel they aren't both master or both slave. make sure your main drive is master.

by naveen_joshi2007

hi....
please check out that the jumper position is proper. and check the bios settings also. and this problem might be because of cable select option.

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