Need Help with PC hard drive install

[White Warlock]

Really depends on what he wants to do in the end. I'm assuming he wants to 'transfer' what he has on the 2gig hd to the 20gig hd, and have the 2gig hd sit as a secondary.

 

Running on this assumption, the best way to do this is to set the 20gig hd as the secondary, make sure your bios recognizes the secondary hd (if you have an older pc, it may be tripping up because the bios is stupid and doesn't know how to autodetect).

 

Would help quite a bit if i knew what OS you were using, and what version. I'll assume WinXP.

 

When the 2gig hd boots up, the 20gig hd will likely still need to be made partitioned and formatted. Use Computer Management Properties (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Administrative Tools... is where my link is at. Yours may vary). Use Help if you can't find it (search for Computer Management Properties within Help). From this program, under Storage, there is a Disk Management icon. Click on that and the rest is pretty obvious.

 

After the 20gig hd is formatted, you'll want to copy all data (everything) from the C: drive (2 gig hd) to the D: drive (20 gig hd). You can do this easily enough with Explorer, or two Explorer windows... whatever makes you happy in getting the job done.

 

After this, you'll need to use Computer Management Properties to make the 20gig hd 'active' (right click on the hd partition display).

 

If you have Win98 or worse, let me know and i'll toss in the more convoluted, but oddly easier actions required.

 

As far as the cables are concerned... you can put both on one cable. Master/slave (autodetect is a pain... still)... set the pins correctly (make sure you're not 'reversing' the pin settings. Some hds display the pin settings upside down, and i've corrected many a n00blet technician's efforts with just flipping over their mental map). The main will be the 'active' hd. Please realize that this is an important little detail often missed. The hd has to be Master AND set 'Active,' as i indicated in an earlier paragraph, in order for the OS hosted on it to be recognized on a boot (if it doesn't even show on the bios boot... then you need to enter bios and take care of that, as i mentioned earlier... yeah... i'm repeating myself).

 

Okay... enough confusion.

[JEM618]

Do you have a make and model number for the HDD and motherboard?

 

What OS is he trying to install?

 

Are the jumpers set correctly on the HDD?

 

Some HDD drives have a jumper that limits the BIOS to recognizing only 2GB of the drive, others can be limited to 32GB.

 

On the HDD, the Jumper settings are Master, Slave, Cable Select, Limit the drive. Make sure the jumpers are set correct.

 

How old is the motherboard?

 

If it's an old motherboard, does the drive support that size drive without a BIOS upgrade?

 

You are welcome to post here but you may have better luck with Microsoft Newsgroups. You can post under 'Hardware' under the group for the OS you are trying to install. They will be able to help you based on the OS, motherboard, and HDD specs you give them.

[CanuckMA]

Start the computer and go into the setup. Does the Bios recognize the 20 GB drive?

 

What kind of computer?

 

What OS?

 

Connectors on the IDE cables only have a meaning when both drives are set to 'Cable select'

[Keumgang]

Does he have both drives on the same IDE controller?

 

Also, makes sure that the red line on the IDE cable is lined up with pin #1 on the hard disk.

[RaidenTB]

Set the jumpers correctly (there should be a sticker on the hard drive, with a map on how they should be set)

[Kicks]

Hey gang, thanks for all the advice. I haven't reviewed this thread in a while, but my son has and said he's tried most , or all, the suggestions. He's got the drive working, but not as the primary drive. The other two kids are using the computer and seem not to be having any problems that I know of. I'll check with them tonight and see how things are going.

 

Thanks for all your help!!!