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Connecting 2 HD's

Discussion in 'Computers & Technology Forum' started by preacher, Jan 15, 2006.

  1. preacher

    preacher New Member

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    Ok by now you all know about my sad old puter...but it's all we got so I make the best of it. In my junk excursion a week or so ago I salvaged a Western Digital HD 2.2Gb, the same brand in our puter now,8.?Gb. I was thinking with us starting this new business I could install the other Hrad Drive to save documents & such on. There is a seperate harnesss already in the tower but I need to know how to keep the 8.1 Primary, & hook up the second, plus will I need to do anything different with the CD since it reads as slave drive on start-up. Thanks!!
     
  2. natters

    natters New Member

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    On the back of the HDs and the CD drive will be little "jumpers" that connect two pins together. The placement of a jumper on a HD or CD drive determines whether the drive is configured as a master, slave, or if its status is instead determined by its position on the cable ("cable select"). The actual placement of the jumper varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, so you'll either have to (hopefully) find info on the drive sticker on the top, or (not hopefully) google for the drive model number and see if you can find the pin information online somewhere.
     
  3. standingfirminChrist

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    Two hard drives can be hooked to the same IDE cable. You will need to boot your pc up afterwards and enter CMOS mode by hitting the delete button on startup and continue hitting it until you hear a beep.

    Then, go to Standard Bios Settings and you should find a command there to audodetect hard drives. Do that. then go to boot process, make sure your 8.1 gig HD is the primary boot. Then the 2.2 the secondary.

    As natters said, you are going to have to set the jumper on the back of the hard drive to slave if you do not want it to boot as primary. Put jumper on 8.1 HD to Master. Save settings and exit. Machine will automatically reboot.
     
  4. preacher

    preacher New Member

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    Thanks Guys, I'll get to it tomorrow!
     
  5. exscentric

    exscentric Well-Known Member
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    I'd guess the cd and original hd is on one harness. IF this is correct just plug the other hd onto the second ribbon cable.

    Try the hd you are adding as a slave, if it doesn't work try it as master.

    The cd and original should just function as before.

    You may or may not need to go into bios, I've added drives and xp picks it up automatically. If you are running other than xp, then don't know.
     
  6. preacher

    preacher New Member

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    OK it's tomorrow. so I've got to do the H/D's plus track down an apparent "bug". If I get back fore' next month ya'll know I was sucessful. Oh for those in the "know"...BH will be lending her expertise!!!
    Hey..she can get in the tower a lot easier than me!!
     
  7. standingfirminChrist

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    just make sure the tower is unplugged. I know you and Agee do not want to fry BH.
     
  8. preacher

    preacher New Member

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    Well it's day after tomorrow & I ran into a snag, while BH was in there she informed me that I don't have two sets of ribbon for H/D's. I have another cable for power but thats it. What I do have is one ribbon running from the mother board to the floppy, this one has an extra connector in the ribbon. The other runs off the motherboard to my current H/D & the CD player. There is no other plug on the motherboard for another ribbon. Can I still do this, say off the one for the floppy & go thru bios setup? Or am I hung out to dry???
     
  9. exscentric

    exscentric Well-Known Member
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    Look right beside the connector on the mb that goes to the cd and hard drive. If there isn't another plug the same size you can't do what you want without another part.

    You would have to find a board that plugs into the pci slots, if you have them (like where your modem probably is) that is a hard drive controller. It will have a jack like your cd hd plugs into on the mother board.

    If you don't have another jack on the mother board, pm me and I will dig in my junk, I might have a pci card that would work.

    If you also should check to be sure your system takes pci cards. I hope it isn't so old that it takes the old cards :(
     
  10. Dave

    Dave Member
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    Another thought is that some sound cards have an IDE/ATAPI connector to attach a CD drive. I had an old SoundBlaster card that had this.

    If this computer has such a sound card it would be possible to run the CD drive from that and use the motherboard connector for the 2 hard drives. You would need another cable, though.
     
  11. exscentric

    exscentric Well-Known Member
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    Have never heard of that! Good thought! I've never had a sound card, always had them built into the mb. Love learning new things every day!!!

    [​IMG]
     
  12. preacher

    preacher New Member

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    OK guys thanks again! I'll open'er back up & look for the other slots. I DO know I have 2 remaining pci slots, but I also DO hace a sound card so I'll look at it too. Been so busy with work & still doing stuff for this new business hace'nt had time to continue on it. I'll let ya know tomorrow what'sup!!
     
  13. preacher

    preacher New Member

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    Gone too long to edit so we continue...I looked & no connector on the sound card, nor another jack on the motherboard. I did unhook my present drive & pluged in the smaller one just to see whats on it. Win.95, & whoever had it before dedicated half the drive to DOS, but thats alright I'm gonna wipe it clean anyway.That way I know there isn't any wnwanted critters roaming thru my system. EX..looks like I'll be sending ya a PM!!
     
  14. tfisher1

    tfisher1 New Member

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    Preacher, you might want to double check your motherboard for a second IDE Controller plug. If your computer is an older one they almost all had 2 plugs for IDE cables, usually right beside
    each other. One may be labeled PRIMARY and the other one SECONDARY. If you do find it just run
    to radio shack and pick up an IDE cable for your
    second hard drive, setting the jumper to master.
    You can also pm me if you'd like some furthur help.

    Todd
     
  15. preacher

    preacher New Member

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    Todd,
    Thanks for the info, but there is not a second IDE connection. Even had the squirrel go back in to make sure!! :D
    EX has been so kind to send me some hardware I can use to set this up.So when it gets here I should be up & double runnin!!
    Oh the puter is a 98 CTX, with an Aladdin5 M/B. But it may have been messed with before my wife bought it in 98, because it lists 3 RAM slots & only has 2. It was supposed to have been brand new when she bought it, but then we didn't know each other so she did it on her own from a friend. It's been a good one though to be reaching "retirement age".
     
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