After a clean install of xp pro sp3 computer was switched off and back patted.Next day fitted a western digital harddrive only forty gig and now computer wont stop beeping and no harddrives to be seen. Have tried harddrives cable select , slave , master, no jumper ,single harddrive and the best computer can do is count ram memory and ask for some floppy diskette which ive never had.Even shoving the operating system disc in only goes to the three choices and then it wont do anything except beeep continuously.I'm stuck and computer is by window and putting it through it looks likely.If anybody could offer a few tips ,secrets or knowledge I would be very grateful
Computer won't see hard drives
- Thread starter mox
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SNGX1275
Posts: 10,615 +467
I suppose it is possible that you broke something or coincidentally something died when you added a hard drive.
It is far more likely though that you just made an error with the jumper settings on the drives. Each drive should have a label on it that shows you the jumper settings. I never trust Cable Select just because you are letting something else choose for you when you can force it the correct way yourself.
Just to review - if you have 2 drives on one cable one must be set to slave and the other to master. It does not matter where on the ribbon they are located. If there is only 1 drive on the ribbon it must be set to master (again ignoring CS for reasons stated above). You may want to google for the jumper settings if it isn't on the drive..
Another thing that shouldn't matter, but wouldn't hurt to do is to make sure the OS drive is on the Primary IDE channel and not secondary. Then just go through the BIOS and check the boot order.
One more thing to try is replacing the IDE ribbon with another one. There is a chance a wire isn't making good contact or broke inside the ribbon when you were switching things around.
It is far more likely though that you just made an error with the jumper settings on the drives. Each drive should have a label on it that shows you the jumper settings. I never trust Cable Select just because you are letting something else choose for you when you can force it the correct way yourself.
Just to review - if you have 2 drives on one cable one must be set to slave and the other to master. It does not matter where on the ribbon they are located. If there is only 1 drive on the ribbon it must be set to master (again ignoring CS for reasons stated above). You may want to google for the jumper settings if it isn't on the drive..
Another thing that shouldn't matter, but wouldn't hurt to do is to make sure the OS drive is on the Primary IDE channel and not secondary. Then just go through the BIOS and check the boot order.
One more thing to try is replacing the IDE ribbon with another one. There is a chance a wire isn't making good contact or broke inside the ribbon when you were switching things around.
Computer wont see harddrives
Thanks very much for your help .They are connected as you recommend but no joy.When I start computer it counts ram and then gets to stage where it tell you to insert disk in drive A also it mentions stuff like Irq 's and gives a bit about harddrives which reads Hard disks Cyl Headsector Size LBaMode 32Bit Block P10 Mode UDMA
Primary Mstr 0 0 0 0Mb Off On Off 0 Nda
SecondryMstr CdRom N/A
Secondry Slve CdRom N/A
So now its out of my league havent got a clue ??? !!!!!!
Mox
Thanks very much for your help .They are connected as you recommend but no joy.When I start computer it counts ram and then gets to stage where it tell you to insert disk in drive A also it mentions stuff like Irq 's and gives a bit about harddrives which reads Hard disks Cyl Headsector Size LBaMode 32Bit Block P10 Mode UDMA
Primary Mstr 0 0 0 0Mb Off On Off 0 Nda
SecondryMstr CdRom N/A
Secondry Slve CdRom N/A
So now its out of my league havent got a clue ??? !!!!!!
Mox
ucould2
Posts: 258 +2
Have you tried to backwards reconfigure ie disconnect everything and then start adding hardware and each time you add you'll need to open your BIOS selection and view that it is connected manually piece by piece?
beepy
Edit: try this page to help with the indiscriminating beep https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic95391.html beeep
beepysorry to be a pain but I have tried auto select in bios but computer just freezes on that option as soon as it is on it so i cant make any changes otherwise computer is still no go what ever has been suggested has been tried .Have noticed through all this that the reading disc activity light is on ???
any thoughts please.
any thoughts please.
SNGX1275
Posts: 10,615 +467
I don't have anything else to suggest.
Check Cables.
Triple check jumpers.
Try with drives on an individual basis, remembering to set the jumpers properly for how they are connected at that moment.
I've had very similar sounding problems in the past and it has been because I screwed up the jumpers. The last time I saw hd activity light stay on continuously was because of a bad drive - not saying that will always be the case, but trying drives individually will address that concern.
Check Cables.
Triple check jumpers.
Try with drives on an individual basis, remembering to set the jumpers properly for how they are connected at that moment.
I've had very similar sounding problems in the past and it has been because I screwed up the jumpers. The last time I saw hd activity light stay on continuously was because of a bad drive - not saying that will always be the case, but trying drives individually will address that concern.
Have tried the jumper in every position separarately onnce moving jumper to right and then to the left every pin,with a boot didk without a boot disk.I must say since beeen using boot disk i cant access the bios all i can do is f1 that gives picture in words and nummbers and asks about popping boot disk in.
killerjedininja
Posts: 7 +0
You might want to try taking off the second hard drive and connect the original hard drive to the place where the second one was to see if it is the drive or the wire.
ucould2
Posts: 258 +2
new or used
This HDD you fitted was it new or used?
CD/DVD on second wire
floppy on another other
if you have old style keyboard and mouse use them (round DIN plugs)
A genuine XP pro CD should be recognised by the system.
If the HDD is second hand it may have caused your problem :evil: (I've got one of my own, going to turn it into a Book-end)
This HDD you fitted was it new or used?
If it is new then start again with it on one wire
CD/DVD on second wire
floppy on another other
if you have old style keyboard and mouse use them (round DIN plugs)
A genuine XP pro CD should be recognised by the system.
If the HDD is second hand it may have caused your problem :evil: (I've got one of my own, going to turn it into a Book-end)
what do you mean is it ide or sata,its connected to wide ribbon cable which plugs into motherboard.Next thing is i tried getting in to bios hitting del key but could never get anywhere when it came to the harddrives auto config page it just froze at that point and at the last try couldnt get in bios a message in black and white said that harddrive config troubles were the answer but until i tried putting another harddrive in the first was working perfectly well ,nothing went bang there was no smoke and here i am thinking of the window and the line of flight for computer because what ever is suggested or tried is like its trying on fog or its banjaxed.
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