I need help installing an old HDD into a Compaq desktop. I bought the Compaq new in 2000 w/ a 20GB HDD. I later added another 20GB HDD to the system. My mom's old machine had a 4GB Western Digital Caviar 3400 in it. The machine she had is gone but I pulled the HD in hopes of getting the data off of it for her.

 

I thought it would be no problem to put the 4GB HDD into my Compaq and then burn the data to disc(s). However it is not as easy as I'd hoped. The 4GB HDD is on the ribbon cable comming from the IDE 2 slot on the MB. It is designated as the Master (There is nothing else on the cable). My original 20GB HDD (the one Compaq put in) is designated as Master on the ribbon cable comming from the IDE 1 slot on the MB, with the second 20GB HDD on the same cable designated as Slave.

 

I have tried to designate the 4GB drive as a Master and a Slave without success. When I boot up the system see's that there are 3 HDD's but rather than seeing 2 20GB HDD's and 1 4GB HDD is see's the original Master 20GB HDD twice. When I explore what should be the 4GB HDD (Drive F:) it shows me the same files as the Master 20GB HDD (Drive C:)

 

All 3 drives are FAT32 and I am running Windows XP Home. I've tried every J8 jumper setting I can think of for the 4GB HDD. I'm really stuck and I hope somone can help.

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Bart

 

PS sorry for posting in the wrong forum. Thanks for moving it. :)

What do the drives show up as when only running the 2 20 gigs ?? The problem you describe makes no sense. If the 2nd channel IDE HDD is the only one on the chain, it SHOULD show up as 4 gig in the OS. The only thing I can think of right off hand is that the secondary IDE channel is booting the OS and not the primary, but that shouldn't happen unless you tell the BIOS to do so.

 

What capacity do ALL of the drives show in windows explorer ?

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Hi,

I have a problem maybe someone can help. I have two maxtor hard drives. I had them both on a machine and it was working good. I upgraded motherboard and cpu. Installed one with the op. system and had to install win again. Now I try to plug in the other one, cause I have a lot of data on it, in the Bios it finds it o.k. but in windows it is not there what do I need to do. I have win xp pro.

 

Thank you