Can't install 2nd hard drive

[Titanic]

Now, due to my recent hard drive failure, I am trying to install a second hard drive to keep a full backup of my configuration and files. Right now I have the ribbon cable connected from the main hard drive to the CD Rom, into a slot in the motherboard.
I have tried two different connections:

1) I disconnect the CD Rom and connect the ribbon cable to the second hard drive. I then attach the CD Rom into the second slot in the motherboard. So that the original ribbon cable has two hard drives into the original MB port, and the second ribbon cable has only the CD Rom and is connected to the second MB port.

At boot-up I receive this error message : non-ATAPI drive press F1 to continue.
In windows I only see the CD Rom and the main drive. The secondary drive is not there.

2) I then re-connected the main hard drive to the CD Rom to port 1 on the MB.
The second hard drive is connected to port 2 on the MB. So that the original ribbon cable has the main hard drive and the CD Rom connected to the original MB port, and the second ribbon cable has only the new hard drive and is connected to the second MB port.

I now see the CD Rom and both hard drives, however the second hard drive has only 1.94 Mb capacity!! I can't copy hardly anything to it since I almost immediately get a
disk full message (this drive is a 1.08 Gb).

Why does the second drive only display 1.94 Mb? Is the BIOS set up to look for an ATAPI device connected directly to the main hard drive? I assume I would have to have both hard drives on the same cable to act as a master/slave. If so how do I re-arrange this?

Thanx in advance.

[CMonster]

Have you fdisk'ed and/or formatted the drive you are trying to add? And if so does it show the correct capacity? Did you set the jumpers correctly on the drive to indicate master or slave?

Jumper settings can usually be obtained at the drive manufacturer's website.

Either way you had it connected should have worked if the Master/Slave jumpers are set coprrectly and the drive is properly formatted. If all the drive settings are in fact correct then the thing confusing your system is probably either a setting in BIOS or a DOS level CDROM driver loading from autoexec.bat and/or config.sys device= line that specifies a port address.

Leave it as you have it setup now - since that is somewhat working for you (i.e. new hard drive by itself on 2nd IDE of the motherboard -should be set as Master); select "Auto" for the drive in BIOS, if you decide to enter a "User Define" make double sure that the values you enter are correct for the drive. Make sure of your Master/Slave settings on the drive and that it is properly formatted.

[Isos]

What HDs & CD drives are you trying to mix? Some of them has some compatibility problems when mixed with others.

[Cristi]

For the easy way, use the 2) setting you did.
You didn't mention what is the capacity of the second HD to compare with the 1,95G you get. Is it a 2,1G? When formated high level (with FORMAT) you get less capacity than low level format (as it is shipped).
It could have worked with 1) setting if the boot HD had the jumper set to MASTER, and the second HD to SLAVE. Also in BIOS both IDE adapters should have been activated, and in their setup, for each HD is better to use AUTO function.
After BIOS sees everything, in DOS partition the second HD and then FORMAT it.
Good luck!