Solved: What did I do? Install second harddrive. (moved from XP)

Hello....Well I tried to install my other computers harddrive into my good computer using the CD ROM cable(I should have bought a double connector cable,hindsight)and it did not work, so I reinstalled into the computer it came from and now the motherboard does not read it all. What did I do?I have a installation program just for my harddrive,but it's like it's not even connected.

 

Why is your CD Rom Drive not working for the motherboard or something?

 

no.....I just needed a cable so I disconnected it and used to for the Harddrive not realizing it would not work that way(same connector)

 

The cables used to connect the cd-rom and the hard drives to your computer are the same kind of IDE cable. What cause you the problem is probably one of these 2 things:

1: When you used the cd-rom cable to connect your hard drive, you connected the hard drive to the IDE port on your computer that is reserved for cd-roms, and not the alternate hard drive port.

2: You changed your jumper settings on your hard drive.

 

This may or may not be true. Even though there are still only 40 pins, ATA-66/100/133 drives need 80-wire cables to work correctly.

??? I've never seen dedicated connectors for CD devices. An IDE connector is an IDE connector.

 

Agreed. I have never seen this either.

 

Meh...I worded myself wrong there...
ha

Didn't mean to say it like that.

 

The problem could be an 80 pin v. 40 pin problem, but most drives and mobos work fine with standare 40 pin IDE cables. The mobo should have a primary and secondary IDE port, allowing you to connect 4 drives using two cables with double drive connectors.

I suggest connecting the main hard drive as Master and the second hard drive as a Slave to the primary port being sure to set the drive jumpers approprietly for Slave and Master. Note that Western Digital drives make a distinction for setting the jumpers if a drive is Single on that port or a Master with Slave. The secondary IDE ports should be used for your CD or DVD drives.

If you are still having a problem, why not buy an external USB enclosure for your spare drive? You can buy one for about $25.

 

Well thank everyone for your advice. My main concern now is getting it operate in the computer it came from which it does not.