Hdd installation

[lolastars]

hi new to forums, wondering if anyone can cause it seems everytime i try to install a bit of hardware it never runs smoothly. Plz bare with me and not up to speed on certain terms. My pc came with a 40gb hdd which i quickly filled up so i bought a 250gb hdd,but am having extreme trouble getting it to work.

The new one i set to master and the old one i thought i correctly set to slave. I put in the appropiate ide cables and power supplies but when i reboot system gives me error messages i dont know if this helps

primary master detected but disabled
primary slave detected but disabled

Novell Netware Ready Firmware v 1.00 (940809)
SIS 9007016 PCI adapters DOS oci Driver v1.09 (001030)

RPL-ROM-ARR : 0007 95CB AF1D
RPL-ROM-IRQ: 3
RPL-ROM-P10: CC00

RPL-ROM-TFC: 5

Bootfailure
Insert BOOT in diskette A:

All replies much appreciated

 

[IBMan]

check your jumper settings again, how old is your computer, make sure your bios will support the drive.

 

[lolastars]

ok will do but how do i check if my bios will supoort this drive
The pc is about 3 years old
i mean when i set the old hdd as master and this new one as slave it will at least boot but the new hdd wont show in my computer

 

[Nitestick]

2 things. it wouldn't boot because you swapped the boot drive from master to slave which is a no-no. you need to partition and format the drive for it to show in my computer. sorry i normally would type an explaination but i'm about to fall asleep so if you could google that or search the forum you will find what you have to do.

 

[shdwsclan]

Ok..
Your 40gb was your master.
Your BIOS was set to look at the master drive for primary boot..for a boot sector to boot windows using NTLDR.....

Now, you put the 250 as master with no operating system and therefore you get a boot disk error because there is nothing to boot.

Either change them back tot he origional configuration.
40gb = Master
250gb = Slave

or
Go into your bios and change the boot order so your 40gb slave is the first drive that the BIOS tries to boot.....assuming that is where your operating system is/was.

Another solution would be to set both drives to cable select...
and then setup up the bios to boot the 40gb(which the hard drive with your operating system on it)

If your a noob, then press either F2 or delete when the machine boots, and then find something called boot order.....
Under that , there should be a 4 devices....
Set the one that resemble your old HD as the first one, use the +/- keys to move drive types up and down....
If your drives are missing from the BIOS setup, then they are improperly connected...

 

[shdwsclan]

ok, sorry for that reference post....above....
OK,
The drive IS probably detected in your computer, its just not formatted or partitioned....

1st, make sure you have SP1+ installed so that XP/2003 can actually address the full size of the drive...

There are a couple ways of doing this..

1. Use the drive installation software that came with your hard drive. If you dont have a floppy drive, and no cd came with the drive, then go to your manufacturer's site and get a cd version...
In the menu, setup the drive, it may ask your cluster size, choose default...and hit format.....
Since the drive is new, choose quick format.....

2. Go into "Control Panel" -> "Administrative Tools" -> "Computer Managment" -> "Storage" -> "Disk Managment"
In this menu, there should be a bar with Free space, or unpartitioned space, or unknown, next to your new hard drive.
Either 2a., Partition your drive, format your drive with NTFS with default cluster size, and then assign a drive letter to said new partition(s).
OR 2b., Assign a drive letter to the unpartitioned space, and it should appear in my computer. Then either try to open the drive, which it will then ask you if you want to format the partition, or right click on the drive and hit format....make sure you select NTFS.....also, if possible, hit quick format....since this is a new drive...

3. You can use a commercial partitioning tool to like partition magic, which is very similar to option 1..

Im assuming that you are using NT5+ (2000,XP,2003,MCE,VISTA), and that the drive is detected in the bios, but no partition is mounted because none exists...

Option 1 and 3 will run much, much faster, than option because they are running without an operating system underneath it, which basically makes them faster......
When you format in windows, especially if its 250gb, i recommend going to the store, or somewhere for a while.....

If option 1 does not detect your drive, disconnect all drives, and connect the 250 as master. After format is complete, reconnect the drives to the origional configuration....40gb being the master, and 250gb being slave..

 

[lolastars]

ok thanks shdwsclan and all for the replies am it could take a while but according to what u all said it seems easy. i will let you know

 

[lolastars]

i went for option 1 onlt took 2 mins ...easy enough thnx