Here's the problem:
I have this computer a friend dumped on me. She wanted me to replace the 5.25 floppy drive (which was screwed in but the wires were all disconnected anyway), with a 16x CD-ROM. I said I'd see what I could do.
It's a 486 with two harddrives (C and D, one 203MB and one 81MB), running Win95.
After a quick run to see if the thing at least worked (which it did, and flawlessly, too), I opened it up to see what I was facing. Quickly upon inspection, I noticed the absence of a secondary IDE connector, and that both Master and Slave were the two harddrives. I know that I'd need a IDE controller card in order to have the CD drive connected seperately, but...
I was wondering if it would be possible to take the Slave harddrive out and hook that connector into the CD-ROM drive. I tried this, but it didn't work. It was as if the computer required the second harddrive (it would either give me an error message in BIOS upon boot and not let me continue, or simply not let me continue) and wouldn't recognize the CD-ROM drive (which was whirring away as happy as could be).
I may be a fool for trying that, but I've never worked with stuff this old.
I never could get past BIOS without both harddrives hooked up.
Does anyone know how to make it so that it doesn't try to look for the second harddrive? Or is the IDE cable for the harddrives not the same IDE cable for the CD-ROM drive (they are both REALLY old harddrives after all)? I don't think my friend would be willing to shell out $30 for a IDE cable AND an IDE controller card. Any help is appreciated.
I have this computer a friend dumped on me. She wanted me to replace the 5.25 floppy drive (which was screwed in but the wires were all disconnected anyway), with a 16x CD-ROM. I said I'd see what I could do.
It's a 486 with two harddrives (C and D, one 203MB and one 81MB), running Win95.
After a quick run to see if the thing at least worked (which it did, and flawlessly, too), I opened it up to see what I was facing. Quickly upon inspection, I noticed the absence of a secondary IDE connector, and that both Master and Slave were the two harddrives. I know that I'd need a IDE controller card in order to have the CD drive connected seperately, but...
I was wondering if it would be possible to take the Slave harddrive out and hook that connector into the CD-ROM drive. I tried this, but it didn't work. It was as if the computer required the second harddrive (it would either give me an error message in BIOS upon boot and not let me continue, or simply not let me continue) and wouldn't recognize the CD-ROM drive (which was whirring away as happy as could be).
I may be a fool for trying that, but I've never worked with stuff this old.
I never could get past BIOS without both harddrives hooked up.
Does anyone know how to make it so that it doesn't try to look for the second harddrive? Or is the IDE cable for the harddrives not the same IDE cable for the CD-ROM drive (they are both REALLY old harddrives after all)? I don't think my friend would be willing to shell out $30 for a IDE cable AND an IDE controller card. Any help is appreciated.
