No Hard drive found, but

[corvettedoctor]

The hd works as a slave just fine, switch the jumpr and no-go. The HP is WD cav.2.0, old, used wipe to format.. did the fdisk and format c:/s ,no good, force fed it ms dos and WD drivers and still it's not found in bios. same cable or diff, no change.. hook up as slave, works. Also, previously had NT loaded new on it, then formated and wiped, then , uh-oh! thanks.

[Target]

I'm betting this is simply a jumper setting issue. I have experienced the same problems with several WD caviar 2gig drives.

They were manufactured in both a 10 pin and 6 pin configuration for setting jumpers, and there are two different ways to set it up as a single drive. Knowing which one works for your drive is almost like guesswork, but if you have the diagram, at least you know all the different jumper options and can try them out.

Go to the Western Digital site, and get this file http://www.westerndigital.com/acrobat/jumper.pdf

Download that, it should explain all.

[This message has been edited by Target (edited 12-06-1999).]

[welsh wizard]

If I got htis right it work fine till you want it as a master, are putting your other drive to slave, if so jumper may need setting for master on 2 drive sys and this can be dif to master only. follow Targets advice and check jumpers also if two drive sys check out settings for other drive, I have come across a sit where Seagate 4 gig won't work as master with quantum 6gig as slave but will work the other way round.
WW

[Target]

Yeah, that drive incompatibility thing is rare, but it does exist...... I am still betting that its a simple jumper setting issue though. Make sure that the jumpers for both drives (if you are using two) are set correctly. If its just the WD drive alone, you still need to make sure the jumpers are set correctly in order for the bios to recognize it. If reading the PDF file on the WD site did not help, I have listed the actual jumper settings for the WD 2 gig drives in another post. You can check it out here:
http://www.sysopt.com/forum/Forum2/HTML/003637.html

Strange that there were two fairly identical issues with the same drive posted so close together. Sounds like an X-File <lol>.

Best of luck.

[corvettedoctor]

Dang if I grab the wrong kbd 1 more time, oh yea, the w.wiz may have something there, an thanx to Target fur th response, but the HD worked fine as a master before the bc-wipe to rid x-stuff from the prev. owner. The jumpers are clearly marked as ma,sl,cs, cs I guess is cylinder selection with jumper on the reduction, maybe? anyway, the wipe seems to have removed something vital that ms/dos drivers and WD virtual disc don't help, provided I've installed them correctly

[corvettedoctor]

errr, the vette doc being somewhat brain damaged from childhood, just now saw the other post regarding this prob. plz forgive the ignorant sir highnesses,,

[Target]

No worries about the other post....I was just being lazy and didn't want to either re-type it or do a cut and paste. Thought maybe too there might be something in that other thread that would help you out.

Lets keep after this until we get it figured out.

Things to check in order to get the bios to recognize a drive, and then proceeding with install:

1) Make sure the ribbon cable is a known good cable.

2) Make sure that ribbon cable it attached correctly to the hard-disk and the motherboard (ie: pink/red strip on ribbon cable should be on the #1 pins on the hard-disk and mobo)

3) Make sure that the drive(s) are jumpered properly for the configuration you want to use (ie: master, slave, single, cable select, etc). ALSO CHECK to make sure that the jumper itself is good. Have heard of some that were damaged, and could no longer provide the pass-through as they are designed to.

4) In standard CMOS setup, set all IDE device settings to AUTO, including the drive mode if you can.

5) Run the Hard-Disk Auto detection routine in bios to see if it can be detected at all. Some will provide both the setting it thinks your drive is, and some others that are close. Usually it will provide you with (Y) to show which one it recommends. I would go with that by choosing the corresponding number and continuing until the auto-detect is complete. NOTE, CD-ROMS are detected, but will not show any size, sectors, clusters, etc., and that is normal.

6) If detection is successful, save bios settings and exit setup.

7) Boot with DOS diskette (or Win98 boot disk) and run FDISK to partition the drive according to your needs, then reboot. The FDISK.EXE file will need to be on your boot disk.

8) Using boot diskette, format partitions created in step 7. FORMAT.COM will need to be on the boot disk.

9) After format completes, load software you wish to use.

I don't really believe the drive is bad if you can recognize it as a slave. Its likely going to be a jumper setting, or bios detection issue, or a combination of the two.

Let us know if these steps work, or if we have to keep thinking on it.

[corvettedoctor]

Is this considered a multipile post if I respond here also? Anyway, thanks Target, the info regarding "master" and "single" were what it took, removed the jumper and away we go,, working fine.. thanks crew