Issues with my new WD HD and my MB

[02Lightning]

I'm really new to building computers and I'm sure this topic has been gone over before, so please bare with me. So I'm trying to install a new WD HD in my mom’s PC, she had a virus and crashed the old one. It was an IDE 160GB WD and the MB is a Gigabyte GA-K8NS.
I bought a new 640GB WD SATA thinking it would be plug and play, but I was wrong. According to Gigabyte the MB is Theta 1 SATA and the HD is Theta 2 SATA. Does this sound right to anybody? WD told me to use the jumper on pins
5-6 to convert back to Theta 1, but this didn’t do anything for me. Now what I’m thinking is it’s cheaper to buy an IDE HD to run the OC and try to use the SATA for a 2nd HD but im not sure if the same issue will prevent me from doing this. Can I please get some input as to what you guys think about doing this?

Thanks

 

[JMMD]

I've never had to set the jumper before but if for some reason yours isn't working without the jumper then maybe it needs it. So what happens when you boot the machine? Does it not see the hard drive?

 

[captaincranky]

I but this didn’t do anything for me. Now what I’m thinking is it’s cheaper to buy an IDE HD to run the OC and try to use the SATA for a 2nd HD but im not sure if the same issue will prevent me from doing this. Can I please get some input as to what you guys think about doing this?

Thanks

Well, I've never heard it called "theta 1 (or 2). So, I'm going to use the more familiar "SATA1 (150Mbs) and SATA2 (300Mbs). At one time Seagate had a jumper on its SATA2 drives that limited them to running at the SATA1 spec. It was intended to be removed when the drive was installed in a motherboard with the higher SATA2 standard.

To the best of my knowledge NO Western Digital SATA drive has ever had such a jumper. They do have a service jumper for factory testing, and if it's moved, the drive will no longer function.

That isn't the problem you're experiencing. There are no SATA drivers installed in the computer you're servicing, since there would be no need. Why would there be, since your OS drive is IDE. Is the drive even being picked up by the OS

Anyway, you need to go into the BIOS of the computer, and set the drive mode to IDE on the SATA controller, then the drive will be usable. You must also change the "Boot Order" to place the new drive first.

 

[02Lightning]

I don’t have the IDE HD yet; I was thinking that getting 1 would be an easier fix then buying a new MB. The SATA HD is recognized and so is the CD/DVD ROM SATA, however when I try to install windows the prompt says, boot from cd/dvd : disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter. I know my OS disk is good because I have used it before. Do you guys think if I bought a 250GB IDE that will solve the problem or are the new IDE HD updated as well and I may have to buy a new MB? And if the new IDE does solve the issues with getting the OS to install will I be able to partition the SATA HD in order to use it as a hard drive?

Thanks,

 

[captaincranky]

Again, this is an issue of setting the BIOS to IDE emulation for the SATA drives. You shouldn't have to buy an IDE HDD, just tell the computer yur SATA drive is IDE.

Simply because the BIOS recognizes the drive, doesn't make it bootable.

Also, the CD/DVD drive must be first in the boot order, or you'll get the error you describe.

When you say "Windows disc", is this a true Windows disc, or is it a "recovery disc"? In some cases a standard Windows disc may not work in a machine that is expecting a proprietary recovery disc.