Can some one explain in small words how to fit my old hard drive to my newer pc. Whats all this masterslave which ribbon cable? Or can some one point me at a web site for help.
On your old hard drive there will be a set of Pin connections that look like this: You'll have one long one like this: :::::::::::::::::::::::: All the dots you should think of as metal pins sticking out of the hard drive. The diagram above is a diagram of the pins at the back of the drive, you connect one end of your "Ribbon" Cable to this - which one doesn't matter, then the other end of the "Ribbon" Cable thats not connected to anything should be connected to your motherboard. Then you'll have another few set of pins like this: .:::: one or two sets of these pings (in the diagram above) will have a plastic cover which covers 2 metal pins at a time. The technical term for one of these is called a Jumper. by covering certain Pins on the diagram above it tells the motherboard that you've set the drive as "Master" or "Slave" depending on what selection of Pins you have covered. A "Slave" hard drive means that your computer will NOT try to load your Operating System from this drive (ie Windows in your case) - your computer treats this drive as "extra storage". A "Master" hard drive means that your computer WILL try to load your Operating System off this drive or "boot" off this drive. "Master" and "Slave" states can be determined by the way you set the "Jumpers" on the second diagram - this depends on your hard drive. I suggest you either look at the manual for your old hard drive, or find one on the internet or there maybe a diagram on the actual drive itself. now.. CDROM, DVDROM, DVD-RW, CD-RW & Hard Drives - obviously need to be connected to your motherboard so that you can use them CDROM, DVDROM, DVD-RW, CD-RW & Hard Drives all connect to your motherboard using an "IDE Cable" this is what you refered to in your post as a "Ribbon Cable", it will have 3 connections on the cable - all exactly the same. On your motherboard you will have 2 IDE Connections (2 places where you can connect your IDE Cable to your motherboard). These connections are labeled or called: "IDE 1" & "IDE 2" On your "Ribbon Cable" you will have 3 "connections" these are the things that you connect to either your motherboard or your CDROM, DVDROM, DVD-RW, CD-RW or HDD (Hard Disk Drive). These cables are colour coded, 2 connections will be black and 1 will be blue. The Blue connection, connects to the Blue "IDE 1" connection on your motherboard.. you are now left with 2 connections, 1 in the middle of the Ribbon Cable or "IDE Cable" and 1 at the other end - both usually black. What ever CDROM, DVDROM, DVD-RW, CD-RW or Hard Drive that is connected using the end connection should be your Main DVD/CD Drive (usually your most powerful drive such as your DVD-RW or fastest drive..) then the conneciton in the middle will connect to your Second DVD/CD Drive. Hence why they are called "Primary" & "Secondary" - the same applies for connecting to hard drives. So to add a new hard drive you need to set the Jumpers on your old hard drive as either Cable Select or Slave, Cable Select means the motherboard will choose for itself which it thinks should be Master or Slave due to the way the cables are layed out. So if your hard drive is set to Cable Select, your cables (Ribbon Cables) need to be correctly installed to the right devices, so your old hard drive would need to connect to a "Secondary" connection on the "Ribbon Cable". If you had a whole IDE Cable spare for your hard drive (your old one), you could have it set to Slave or Cable Select on any connection and it wouldn't matter as long as it was on "IDE 2" (obviously the motherboard looks and reviews "IDE 1" first. Hope this helps.
Thanks for that, I have hooked it all up and when I switch the computer on in bios It says I have two hard drives but in windows only one? Help
I have windows 2000 on my old drive and 98 on my new one. I am trying to get 98 to detect the hard drive. I can get either to boot up but not both together. Mike
