I've just been given about 10 hard drives of different makes and sizes, I want to use one of them as a slave drive to give my current system more space. Im running a gateway celeron 2,0 ghz 256 RAM and I dont know what kind of hard drive I have except that its your stock 30 gig hard drive. the drives given to me are, and please excuse me if I give the incorrect name of the manufacturer or make, some are hard to read, (Maxtor) DiamondMax Plus 60 7200 RPM 30 gig at Disk drive, (western digital) 8.4 gig 5400 RPM, IBM deskstar 20.5 gb RPM 5400, Samsung 40.gb, Barracuda 7200.7 80 gb, hell this one even has set directions printed on it and shows compatible with windows XP SP 2, that Im running. There are more, but this last one is the one I want and I've never done it before, Im looking for advice and tips before even thinking about touching my only computer and tinkering with it. Along with these hard drives, I've been given about 30 sets of jumper cables assorted sizes and shapes.
2006-06-13 04:31:38 · 4 answers · asked by Mestropil the Wizard of Daytona 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
On the rear of the hard drive(s), the is a small piece of plastic in a recessed slot, this is a jumper. Etched in the metal above the slot are letters; MS,SL, and CS. MS=master jumper setting, move the piece of plastic to this position for the "master" setting. SL=slave jumper setting, move the piece of plastic to this position for the "slave" setting. CS=cable select jumper setting. Turn the power off, unplug it and remove the cover. Examine the first drive , insure that the jumper is set to the master position. With that out of the way, set your second drive to the "slave" position. Mount the drive in the case below the first hard drive. Leave a space between the two, if possible, to cut down on heat related problems. Plug the second (middle) IDE ribbon wire plug into the drive. Then plug the "molex" power plug into the drive. Leave the cover off for now. Plug the computer in, attach the monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Turn the computer on, right click on "My Computer" and select "Manage", in the left pane select "Disk Management" and see if the new "slave" drive appears in the right pane with a new assigned drive letter. Right click on the new drive in the right pane and select "Format" after the drive is formatted it will be ready to use. I would select the largest capacity (most GBs) hard drive out of the bunch to install into your computer.
2006-06-13 15:01:49 · answer #1 · answered by mittalman53 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some drives only will work as a slave on a system after selecting the correct jumper on the end of the drive where the IDE cable plugs in. There is usually a legend printed on the hard drive that will help with this. Some IDE cables have a section that is sectioned for secondary drives as well.
2006-06-13 11:37:47 · answer #2 · answered by rlee 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The easiest way...set the jumper to slave and plug it in. When windows comes back up check your My Computer and see if you have two hard drives. If your running XP then it stands to reason that your computer will recognize it.
2006-06-13 19:26:57 · answer #3 · answered by jcr3_2002 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Providing your computer is hooked up via IDE they will all work just fine....if you are using SATA you are not going to be able to use them. If you have a wide cable plugged into your hard drive you are set...a small thin red one you cannot use them.
2006-06-13 11:34:50 · answer #4 · answered by Sam F 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋