Converting your Parallel to IDE for HD use...

[fingr]

I bought an External CD-RW and I took it out of its casing and turned it into an Internal CD-RW. I guess the casing was to convert your Parallel Port to IDE. I was wondering if I could use that for my HD. I hooked up my HD to the converter, power supply, IDE cable, etc. Now I dont know what to do from there. I turned my computer on and nothing changed. Windows didn't detect it. Help!

[MR COMPUTER]

This trick should work. There are a bunch of pp port external hard drives out there. Did you change the hd jumpers to cable select?Find a manufacturer of external hard drives cases. Go to their site and check the FAQ's/Troubleshooting section. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[fingr]

What/How do I change the jumpers to cable? Do know any sites? Also, this isn't going to be used for the main C: HD. Im using this as my second HD. Do I have to change it to a slave or something?


[This message has been edited by fingr (edited 05-24-99).]

[MR COMPUTER]

Most hard drives can be set three ways;Master(C),Slave(D),or Cable Select.The jumpers are located on the cable end of the drive or on the bottom.They may be marked or have a diagram on the top of the drive.Put"external hard drives"into a search engine to find manufacturers. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[800XL]

Unless I miss my guess, I think you are going to need some kind of driver for this. Windows doesn't know to look for a hard drive hanging off of a parallel port. If someone has a link to a manufacturer of parallel port hard drive case makers, check them out for driver files. Odds are you can get their driver to work for your home brew porta-drive. That is a good idea BTW. Those parallel port drives are not that much more expensive, and you could get a cool gadget in the deal. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[fingr]

Ok, I changed the hard drive to Cable. Now what do I do? Do I have to do any BIOS settings or drivers of any kind?

[fingr]

I found a couple sites but no drivers.