I recently tried to install a 500mb hard drive in my computer to give it a little extra space. Currently there are two ports…my hard drive is plugged into one, the other one had my CD Burner plugged into it. I unplugged the Burner and put in the new hard drive and the computer read it fine. I then decided to take out the 500mb drive and put in a 3.5 Gig drive. When i turned my computer on, all i got was a black screen…windows will not load. So I unplugged the drive, took it out, plugged the burner back in, turned the computer on, and still got the same black screen. I then unplugged the burner, turned on the computer and it worked fine…now all i get when something is plugged into the second port is a blank black screen.
Does this make any sense? Any suggestions as to what I did or what i can do to fix it?
ok, this is how it works.
you have two ports (called controllers) on the motherboard.
on the actual hard drives, are “jumpers”. usually, on the hard drive itself is a diagram of what to set the jumper settings to if you have multiple drives. on controller one, i suggest keeping your original hard drive, and setting the jumpers to “master”, there are two connectors on the cable leading from the first controller on the motherboard, the end connector not attached to the motherboard is connector one, the other closer to it is connector two. on the second connector on the cable that is leading from the “controller” to the first drive you just set to “master”, place your second 500MB drive, with the jumper settings set to slave.
that should fix the problem of why your comp is not reading the drive correctly.
on the second controller, attach another cable and set your burner to master with the jumpers, then connect that there.
this will only work provided your computer is ATAPI, and your drives are all EIDE.
follow me? any ?s you can email me.
or i’ll just recheck the post.
hope this helps.
Solution is simple. Stop plugging things into the second port.
When you do, do you get nothing but a blank screen? Do you see anything relating to the POST (the bits of info about your computer before it gets to windows)? Can you hit delete / F2 / whatever to get to your CMOS setup screen? Or does it quietly sit there, blankly staring at you with muted disdain? Did any of the pins break off / get jammed into one of the cables?
I am not a tech person (I just have one of those rare moments of free time here at work) but I have built my past two boxes, and have had some success troubleshooting it and other’s computers. Some failures too, so read on at your own peril. First, I’d check that CMOS setup screen. Look for how it is handling the IDE ports. Is it autodetecting all channels? Is there something in there that does not match the configuration of your system? That is, is it expecting a slave where there is none, etc… If all looks hunky-dory, next I’d strip your computer down to the bare essentials. Make sure that it will boot up fine with just a self-bootable floppy. Then add part by part. Inch by inch. If you have two drives that you want to use, make one a master and one a slave on the same port. Look up the manufacturer on the web to see what jumper settings you need, and make sure you tell the computer in that ol’ CMOS screen that you are doing so. Put the CD back in the second slot only after the first slot is up and working. Then, add it, adjust CMOS accordingly, and voila, you’ll be back to square one. Maybe. Or wait until more qualified people get here and tell you what you should do. Good luck!
Rhythmdvl
Gawd,
thought that was what i said…
oh, woops. sorry Athorita.
i rushed through my explanation.
it’s like this.
two controllers on the motherboard.
one is primary, the other secondary.
two connectors on the cable from the controller.
the end one is primary usually, the second one in is secondary.
the main drive, with your system on it is to be set at “master” on the primary controller.
the 500MB drive should be set to “slave” on the primary controller, second connector.
the CD-R or RW, Burner, what have you… set to “master” on the second controller, primary connector.
again, this will only work if all 3 drives are EIDE, in which case you must make sure you have an ATAPI set up.
so perhaps if you mention the specs on your system, we could help you better…
