My pc does not see my HDD

[Novel8]

I am trying to use my old HD as storage. Its was an IDE type. I bought a IDE controller card, cause my MOBO does not have any IDE connection. At first I had set it up with my IDE DVD Burner, and all went well. Now I added the HD as a slave ( no jumper ) and bios does not see it...but the DVD is still working. The HD is connected to the grey connector which is usually used as a slave. Aside from the grey connector, I have another IDE cable, where all 3 connectors are black. How does one know which of those to use as a slave? just pick the middle One? But the gist of this post is to get the bios to recognize my ide HD.

 

[TVeblen]

Have you tried jumpering it as Cable select? Or Master? Try it - can't hurt, might help.

Boy, it's been a long time - the connector at the END of the ribbon cable is the MASTER connection, the one in the middle is the SLAVE.
IDE cables also come in a legacy 40 wire configuration or a (newer) 80 wire configuration. IIRC, Cable select does not work on the 40 wire cable.

By convention, a hard drive should always be the MASTER to an optical drive SLAVE. You should try that configuration too to see if it will work that way.

 

[Novel8]

Bios does not see my HD

I tried cable select...didn't work. i was considering making it a master and the dvd slave, but the location of the dvd and the length of the cable might not make it possible. BTW, never heard of making HD a master, just for storage...i could be wrong.

 

[TVeblen]

Don't get hung up on the words. The MASTER is simply the primary drive, the SLAVE is the secondary. It does not matter what you are using the HDD for, to the system it is just a hard drive.

The reason it was important to make a HDD the Master was that the IDE controller will always recognize try and boot from the primary drive first. It is a convention, not a hard and fast rule. We follow convention just to rule out any complicating factors.

Again, my memory is failing me, but I think that with an 80 wire cable you can place the HDD on the SLAVE connector and jumper it MASTER and it will read as the Primary drive (as long as the optical drive is jumpered as SLAVE).
This will not work on a 40 wire cable.
If you jumper Cable Select then the system will recognize the drive dependant on where on the cable it is connected (80 wire cable).

 

[Novel8]

My Bios does not see my HD

I came across my Maxtor instruction booklet...you remember those good ole days when manuals came with each device you bought..and it suggested just as you suggested and I was wavering. I made the HD master and my dvd slave and it worked. It also said not to connect the dvd as slave until you see if the Bios sees the HD...so as for now i have not tested the dvd...It was a miracle that I even had some success...the cable had to be tinkered with to make all fit and the unfortunate thing is that cause of my case layout where hd's suppose to go I had no choice but to put it into an empty area above my dvd and its loose as a whore. LOL There is no screw openings to attach a screw and seems the only way is never to turn my case upside down. I guess I have to find some weight to keep in place...any suggestions? Aside from that, all those power wires got in the way and in the process I lose a couple of fans cause the wires which are piggybacked into one of the molex plugs keep coming out. I even had to electric tape them hoping to keep them from falling out.. One snag after another. Thanks

 

[TVeblen]

I remember needing to buy some extended ribbon cables to use in one of my tower cases (back in the last century!). These were 6 inches longer than standard cables and allowed me to get from the motherboard to the optical drive in the top 5.5" bay on the Secondary connector, then the Primary connector could fold underneath and into the HDD in the top 3.5" bay. There was no way to do this with the standard length cable.

 

[TVeblen]

Oh, and they do make caddies to install 3.5" drives in 5.5" bays.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...iption=5+5+to+3.5+bay+adapter&N=-1&isNodeId=1

 

[DocBrown]

They also make Y splitter power cables that will give you some extra length. And yes there are extension ribbon cables & extra lenght ribbon cables available. Check eBay, NewEgg, TigerDirect, Amazon, etc.

 

[Novel8]

Well i wonder if they are around any more I got about a half dozen hanging around, including a rare ide connector with 2 floppy drive connectors, but only 9" long. I still have my old internal floppy in the case. I was wondering if one can attach the ide end to say another HD or DVD and connect the other end to the floppy, if that would give it power to work .

 

[TVeblen]

I think this was the length here:
StarTech Model IDE66_24 - Newegg.com

I do not think the floppy connector idea will work. The floppy connector port is different than an IDE connector port.

 

[Novel8]

Oh, and they do make caddies to install 3.5" drives in 5.5" bays.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...iption=5+5+to+3.5+bay+adapter&N=-1&isNodeId=1

I know I have one for the HD and one for my old dvd, and they are just fine, but too many wires made me decide to see if I could install the HD to eliminate all those wires...that is why I wanted to install internally...no more wires...except for those that are at least inside the case.

 

[DocBrown]

IDE cable & floppy ribbons cables are different number of pins.

Full size IDE HD's use Molex power connectors

 

[Novel8]

IDE cable & floppy ribbons cables are different number of pins.

Full size IDE HD's use Molex power connectors

I do have an extra one just like that...are you suggesting that i could use that for my 2 fans that i have piggybacked into existing Molex power connectors? Not a bad idea, but would those thin fan wires black and red stay in those connectors without falling out? I don't know how those are installed , probably soddered..I had to snip a couple of those fan wires to get the old power supply out and I pulled but nothing happened, so I snipped them.

 

[DocBrown]

Is you old IDE HD a full size desktop HD ? or a laptop small IDE HD ?

There are molex to fan wire adapters also. I don't have a pic stored here right now.


Edit: Found one

 

[Novel8]

Is you old IDE HD a full size desktop HD ? or a laptop small IDE HD ?

There are molex to fan wire adapters also. I don't have a pic stored here right now.


Edit: Found one

A full size HD for desktop. My case came with fans installed into those Molex connectors...never heard of the one your describing.

 

[DocBrown]

Normally replacement case fans come with the 2 wire (Red & Black) and a small connector on the end that would connect to the molex adapter or to a connection on the motherboard. Sounds like yours was wired directly to the PSU leads. Poor planning on the PC Mfg for doing replacement PSU & fans if needed.

Can you take & upload any pics of your problem areas ? That way our team of members can throw more ideas at you.

Here are some more pics for refference:

 

[Novel8]

pictures of what? The attached fans are covered with electric tape. The loose HD...I could send that the first chance I get...possibly some suggestions on how to stop it from moving around in this non bay area, not meant for any device.

 

[TVeblen]

You could cut some pieces of Styrofoam to wedge them into the space on each side snugly.
You can get some Velcro pads that have adhesive on both parts - one part on the case, one part on the HDD.

 

[Britton30]

For reference, a floppy connector is 32 pin, IDE is 40 pin, not interchangeable.

 

[Novel8]

Refer: TVeblen excellent ideas, thanks.... Refer: DocBrown: If you could identify each one of those pics you kindly showed it would be appreciated. So I would know what to ask or look for. Thanks