Topic: computer stupid

[Rocking-M]

I decided to upgrade my ram, easy. And my Hard disc drive, a nightmare.

I thought I could just put in the new faster HDD and set my old one as slave. Their both IDE drives.
But noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Put the os on the new drive, set it to master and the old to slave (yep did the jumpers to) and
the computer freezes on the bios start up page. I was hoping to set them both up and do
a files and settings transfer but it doesn't look like it will happen.

So, should I buy the kit to make the old HDD a usb external? Will that solve my nightmare?

oh yea, I had to reset my password to get on here. 

[mlinder]

Put the old drive on CS, new drive on master. Give that a try.

[Rocking-M]

hey milinder, I'm thinking that since both drives were set up alone they both now have active partitions.
Should I start my old drive alone and boot from my xp disc and set the partition as inactive?
If so just how do I do that? That is how do I start fdisc (i think that's what I want?)

A computerphobe.

[MötleyRöx]

If you've already reinstalled an operating system on the new drive, it should be pretty easy for you, just give reinstalling it a try.
obviously set the cd to boot 1st then install to the hard drive of your choice.
take out one or the other... work on getting the computer to run first.

[oldfett]

Are you connecting both hard drives via the same IDE cable? I assume so but just checking! Would you mind posting the model numbers of the hard drives? You may have one of those earlier Quantum Fireballs (shudder) or an early Maxtor that has about 15 different jumper configurations.

[Alan F.]

It might just be that your Bios isn't compatible with the new 250?GB drive.

[Rocking-M]

The new 250GB drive is up and running, it's a western digital with only 5 jumper settings. I set it to be master with slave.
The old drive was one I took out of an old compac computer (did I say i was stupid) it's a 49gb with 5 jumper settings as well. But someone told me that if both were originally set up with active partitions that could be my problem. They were.
The old drive is a seagate. Oh yea, I'm running with one ribbon cable with two connectors.

Anyway, as it stands now, I'm on the new drive and downloading updates etc....
I've got most of the hardware back up and running smoothly. I'm still trying to figure a way
to transfer my files and settings I'd like to use from the old HD. It may be the simplest fix
is to convert it to an external HD with usb and go from there.

[Alan F.]

Cool!  Do you happen to have a second IDE port? jumper the other drive as master and give it a shot with another cable on the second port maybe?

[oldfett]

It doesn't matter how many hard drives you have with however many active partitions you have. The computer designates which hard drive to boot from by either the master/slave settings or through the BIOS hard drive priority settings. If it is hanging on the POST screen it is having trouble detecting the drives configuration, such as the master/slave settings. So from what I am reading I see the problem as thus...
1) the ribbon cable is upside down on one of the hard drives (generally the IDE cable has a red stripe and this should be facing/right next to the power (molex) connector.
2) The jumper settings are not correct (I doubt this one but it is possible, my hands are big and those jumpers are tiny!)
3) Something on the motherboard may not like this configuration for whatever strange and absurd reason. Maybe check to see if there is a firmware update?
4) The old hard drive is somehow damaged and is having problems.
5) Not enough juice to run everything ( doubtful but possible)

Possibly try removing the newly installed RAM to see if that makes a difference. That is the only other thing that has changed on the system. Although the PC works with just the new hard drive installed so I really doubt this will make a difference, however I have seen stranger things happen.

I also agree with Alan, that is worth a shot. Unplug the CD drive and hook the second hard drive up that way. Boot to windows and drag and drop everything to the new hard drive. Away you go!

[MötleyRöx]

I've converted a number of laptop hard drives with the casings available on ebay for about 5-10 bucks including shipping.
Easy to carry and a whole lot better than a measly little thumb drive. 

[333]

I have found that there is more to booting a computer than the operating system.  Computers or motherboards need drivers and bios info to correctly boot a computer.  My suggestion would be to use the old HD as the master, as it has all the drivers and stuff, and set the new HD to slave(CS).  This will give you the room you want, and your computer should boot like it always did.  Except faster because of the new RAM.

BTW, Mlinder taught me that CS vs Slave trick.  It has changed my life.  People actually think I am trained in IT!

[Inigo Montoya]

Another option is to boot the old drive and transfer the whole profile from the old drive to the new drive. Then switch things around and boot from cd to format the old drive.

[oldfett]

Another option is to boot the old drive and transfer the whole profile from the old drive to the new drive. Then switch things around and boot from cd to format the old drive.

True but its hanging at the post screen. Meaning something isn't right or it doesn't like one of the drives or both together.

[jkidd01]

Check the jumper on your CD drive. Even if it's on a different cable. Try setting it to slave, and stay away from CS, when it works it's magic, when it doesn't everything stops working.

[oldfett]

Check the jumper on your CD drive. Even if it's on a different cable. Try setting it to slave, and stay away from CS, when it works it's magic, when it doesn't everything stops working.

This makes absolutely no difference. Its on its own IDE port and its own IDE cable, therefore one will not effect the other.

One thing no one has thrown out is maybe the cable is damaged? One of the connectors on it that was previously unused never worked right in the first place.

[Zaipai]

Sounds to me like the least troubled way to do this is get an external HDD enclosure and access the extra space (and old files) that way (as stated below). Its slower then IDE but its unlikely you will notice it too much unless you are editing videos on it. Its a cheap, quick way to get you up and running.

Yes it could also be the IDE cable, you could pick up a spare since they are cheap enough and if that does not work move to the USB option if it does work then take the enclosure back..

Just a thought.

[Rocking-M]

Check the jumper on your CD drive. Even if it's on a different cable. Try setting it to slave, and stay away from CS, when it works it's magic, when it doesn't everything stops working.

This makes absolutely no difference. Its on its own IDE port and its own IDE cable, therefore one will not effect the other.

One thing no one has thrown out is maybe the cable is damaged? One of the connectors on it that was previously unused never worked right in the first place.

you know, I'm thinking that's it. I was using the one that is working now with the old drive. I never used the other end plug since I didn't have two drives but I'm thinking perhaps I tried it the last time I built this thing and switched to the
plug in the line for some reason.

[jkidd01]

Check the jumper on your CD drive. Even if it's on a different cable. Try setting it to slave, and stay away from CS, when it works it's magic, when it doesn't everything stops working.

This makes absolutely no difference. Its on its own IDE port and its own IDE cable, therefore one will not effect the other.

One thing no one has thrown out is maybe the cable is damaged? One of the connectors on it that was previously unused never worked right in the first place.

It can depending on how old the motherboard and especially the Southbridge are. Since there were a few that had a glitch that would lock up the BIOS if configured with 2 HDD's on the primary channel and a single master CD-ROM on the secondary channel. I can't find the article that had the specifics in it, but if you look up PATA on wikipedia you'll notice under "Multiple Devices on the Same Cable" that normally a CD-ROM is set to slave on the secondary channel when it's alone, and the primary reason for that was to prevent said glitch.

It shouldn't happen, but it did.

[Alan F.]

« Reply #14 on: Today at 07:11:40 pm »

one thing no one has thrown out is maybe the cable is damaged?

Re:Computer gurus I need hep!
« Reply #11 on: Today at 03:45:12 pm »

I'm starting to suspect my ribbon cable is at fault.

 

[oldfett]

« Reply #14 on: Today at 07:11:40 pm »

one thing no one has thrown out is maybe the cable is damaged?

Re:Computer gurus I need hep!
« Reply #11 on: Today at 03:45:12 pm »

I'm starting to suspect my ribbon cable is at fault.

 

Sorry I missed that. Having trouble flipping back and forth between the two threads!

[Rocking-M]

sorry for starting 2 threads on this.

On top of having a cd rom I've a dvd drive set up on here also. My computer is probably as confused as I am.

[Alan F.]

With two threads you get answers from different people who are only drawn in by the title.
-Alan

[Rocking-M]

With two threads you get answers from different people who are only drawn in by the title.
-Alan

I need all the help I can get. 

Here is where I'm at. I unplugged the new drive and plugged the old one up. Copied my address book to cd and
messages also. Then import of the address book went fine but, import of the dbx files has not worked. Any tried this before.
http://tinyurl.com/5e5fw

the link is to the set of directions I used. It wasn't as simple as he stated even for the address book but I finagled it on
my new drive. The directions for the message import isn't cutting it.

[Alan F.]

With two threads you get answers from different people who are only drawn in by the title.
-Alan

I need all the help I can get. 

Here is where I'm at. I unplugged the new drive and plugged the old one up. Copied my address book to cd and
messages also. Then import of the address book went fine but, import of the dbx files has not worked. Any tried this before.
http://tinyurl.com/5e5fw

the link is to the set of directions I used. It wasn't as simple as he stated even for the address book but I finagled it on
my new drive. The directions for the message import isn't cutting it.

I've done it before, I used the 'comma seperated values' setting.  It's all in outlook help.
-Alan

[oldfett]

What we always do at work is to backup by going to the tools menu and down to options. Then select maintanence tab and go down and click on the store folder button. Copy this and either paste it in a windows explorer window or just navigate there. It is in some hidden folders. Copy the whole folder. Move to the new machine and create your account in Outlook Express. Then The same deal of finding the store folder, it will be in the same general location. Just copy over your inbox, outbox, sent, etc. files into this folder overwriting the current files. Restart Outlook Express and there you have it.

Does it take longer? Yes but it works everytime and I like it better that way. The method you are currently using works most of the time also it is just very finicky.