Setting H.D. to master

I want to set my new H.D. to master so that I can slave the old one and take data off this old drive. This old drive has bad sectors. Question, the new drive (40GB 7200 rpm Winchester) will only work with pin setting CABLE, when I try to use MASTER pin setting, the system will not detect it. BIOS is set to auto. Any suggestions what to check/change