HDD isn't recognized as Primary or even Bootable...?

Question

This PC I bought has a no-name mainboard. The hard drives (2) were configured as one primary and one secondary on the same IDE channel.
The secondary HDD was an old 20 GB model; I pulled it without altering anything with the other (primary), and swapped it for a larger 30 GB model. When I tried to boot, the PC went schizo and wouldn't recogize the unaltered primary as bootable!
I messed around with its jumpers and tried the BIOS settings to make the mainboard recognize the primary for what it was - the primary master, to no avail. I think the problem is pretty serious. What about pulling and replacing the CMOS battery to make the mainboard recognize the the primary HDD?

Answer 1

No do not remove the battery. Make sure the jumpers are properly placed (main drive as master and 2nd as slave).
First find out which cable is for the hard drive needing to be booted up. Explanation: Try one of the two wires in the hard drive containing the OS and turn the power off and on to see if it boots from that cable. If not try the other wire and reset the computer again. If from both cables you are not able to boot up your OS then you have another problem. This is just a test for you to to find out which cable is for the primary and secondary. You might have switched them up.

Answer 2

I don't think pulling and replacing the CMOS battery would solve your problem.
Your problem is, obviously, with the second hard-drive. Put its jumper on the "slave" position and also put the jumper of the first hard-drive on the "master" position. Now connect the "master" drive at the end of the IDE cable and the "slave" drive on the connector in the middle of the same IDE cable.
Start the computer and enter the BIOS setup program. On the IDE channel that contains the two hard-drives, select the "autodetect" option for both "master" and "slave" devices, and specify the drive that contains the operating system as the primary booting device. Save the settings and restart the computer.
Now, if both drives are OK, your computer should start with no problems.
If it still doesn't work, turn off the computer, take out the second hard-drive and start the computer again. Now, if the first derive was OK, it should work fine.
If you just bought the second hard-drive, take it to a service centre, you should have a warranty on it.

Answer 3

There is one thing that was new to me. My 120GB hard dirve has a setting for "master multi" instead of just master. It means that instead of master and the only drive, it can be master but with another drive. It may or may not be this for you because yours may be older. Also, this may not be yours, that both drives have to be set to master. Check each one by itself. If they both work as the only drive as master, then leave the one, and change the other. And see if it will work. Also try the autodetect in the bios if you didn't already. You probably did. The power and ribbons should only plug in one way. Make sure the red stripe is ligned up to pin 0.

Answer 4

primary and one secondary on the same IDE channel? r u sure? did u mean "master" and "slave" instade?

do u know the board's controlling chipset name? some old boards (arround or more than 4 years) dose not recognise HDDs more than 20-24 gb. in that case u may try the jumper setting (on the HDD) to "Limit 20 GB".

also try changing the IDE cable.

purdon my spelling

Answer 5

first u carefully cheek the cables&also power connectors. the importan thing is chek the jumpers(primary,slave) are correctly fits.if all the things just ok u put on u PC&cheek whether all insallation are completly ok in bios IDD configaratins(cheek Primary HDD,Secondry HDD) if there no item shows from bios u have cheek one by one installing 2 u PC&If there shows each one in bios.so u have 2 install the hare disk by 2 cables

Answer 6

Remove new HDD. First check whether your system can support that volume of capacity. then check datacables, powe cords. then check jumper locations. If all OK, pull the CMOS up, then turn on and off the sys, then after 1/2 min, put it back, go to bios, choose optimum default config. then if it boots, add that 2nd HDD.

Answer 7

I think this had nothing with BIOS. You mentioned that you change a new 30GB HDD. Why don;t you try to removed that, and rebooot the PC. If you can boot up, then the new disk is causing problem.

Also, can you confirm that you removed the data disk, and not the disk with OS installed in it?

Answer 8

Try this:Set jumpers base on figure on your HDD. then check for cables and make sure they're connected.set this in BIOS as primary if it doesn't work. contact an hardware specialist

Answer 9

check that the data cable's on the hard drivers are right in dont remove them just push them right in then follow the data cable back to the mainboard and push that in also same when the cd/dvd rom drive data cables do not remove then just push them in
in BIOS settings set them to auto detect
CMOS battery dont tuch that

Answer 10

pulling the battery wont work either....

are you sure that the windows is installed on your primary hard disk? if the windows is in your secondary hard drive which you have swaped, then you need to install another windows..

another try to connect the two hard disk on separate IDE cable, if you have IDE cable on your cdrom, you can disconnect it for a while and you can use you it... for your two hard disk...

another try to reconnect your primary hard drive to IDE cable and also to the POWER SUPPLY.. make sure that they connected properly....

i believe that it is not a serious problem...