BIOS Doesn't Recognize New AND Old Drives

mark4man · Dec 30, 2007, 02:59 AM

Hello...

Having a pretty serious problem w/ drive replacement & recognition. I’m selling my old Dell 8250 to a friend; & wanted to swap out ROM Drives beforehand. My new workstation (ADK Pro Audio) came w/ an LG DVD-ROM drive; & my old Dell had a Plextor Premium CD-RW drive…which I wanted installed in the new audio machine. In the process of taking the Plextor out of the Dell…the connector at the end of the ribbon cable split apart & ripped completely off the cable itself. I thought…no problem…head down to Micro Center for a new one in a few days. I installed the Plextor in the new machine successfully & went on about my business.

Today, I wanted to clean up old files off the Dell ‘cause my friend wants to buy it now on new Year’s Eve day. I set it back up & turn it on; & the BIOS reads non-recognition of Secondary Drive & CD-ROM Drive.

[Background: My configuration on the Dell was 2 Hard Drives & a CD-ROM Drive…Primary Drive (OS) on the primary channel/ribbon cable…w/ the Secondary Drive (Audio Data) on the secondary channel/ribbon cable (middle connector)...& the CD-ROM Drive on the same channel/cable, at the end connector].

So I thought…fine…I forgot…the end of the ribbon cable is messed up; & even tho the secondary hard drive was still connected to the middle connector of that same damaged cable…I just figured the damaged end was the reason both drives weren’t being recognized.

So…off I go to Micro Center…come home w/ a new ribbon cable…install the LG DVD-ROM Drive…connect the new cable & appropriate power supply connector…

…fire up the Dell…

& the BIOS is reading exactly the same…it doesn’t recognize either drive.

Can someone please help me through this dilemma…I sure would appreciate it. I’m pretty sure I didn’t fry anything inside the tower. Everything looks normal; & everything is hooked up properly. The ribbon cable is an 80 wire…same thing that was in there originally. I’m a little iffy on the master/slave/cable select thing. My primary & secondary drives have the jumpers in the exact same position…nothing’s changed there. The new LG is set to cable select, I think (3rd set to the left)…but that shouldn’t make any difference since that drive’s at the end of the cable, right?

Hope I didn't screw anything up...need some help, in a bad way.

Thanks,

mark4man

ChaosMinionX · Dec 30, 2007, 10:00 AM

Did you set the jumper on the back of the drives properly? One should be set to master, and the other to slave.

Dyre Straits · Dec 30, 2007, 11:23 AM

Besides the above suggestion, consider the following as well:

1. I'd manually set the drives using the jumper rather than using Cable Select.

2. Connect one drive at a time to see if each one does get recognized or not.

3. Make sure the power connection is secure to each one.

Good luck!

Here's a decent guide on connecting IDE devices:

Mikes Hardware | How To | Connecting IDE Hard Drives

mark4man · Dec 30, 2007, 03:47 PM

Thanks...

...found it...(found it by reading the documentation...it actually helps to read the documentation, yu see). As it turns out, the DVD-ROM Drive was set to 'Cable Select'...that was the 1st part of the problem [it was connected to the end connector (Master) of the secondary channel/cable]. I switched the jumper to 'Master'; & the BIOS then recognized both drives on that channel at reboot...that part's now fixed.

The other problem was (& I have no idea why)...there is no 2nd (Slave) Drive on the primary channel [only the Primary (OS) Drive]...but the BIOS setting for this drive was set to 'Auto Detect'. For some reason...it continued to try & locate a drive; & the error dialog continued to come up at bootup until I switched it to 'None'.

All fixed up now (but a little confused as to why auto detect triggered the BIOS error.)

Thanks very much,

mark4man

BTW - Thanks for that link.

Dec 30, 2007, 02:59 AM	#1
mark4man HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 14 Rep Power: 0	BIOS Doesn't Recognize New AND Old Drives Hello... Having a pretty serious problem w/ drive replacement & recognition. I’m selling my old Dell 8250 to a friend; & wanted to swap out ROM Drives beforehand. My new workstation (ADK Pro Audio) came w/ an LG DVD-ROM drive; & my old Dell had a Plextor Premium CD-RW drive…which I wanted installed in the new audio machine. In the process of taking the Plextor out of the Dell…the connector at the end of the ribbon cable split apart & ripped completely off the cable itself. I thought…no problem…head down to Micro Center for a new one in a few days. I installed the Plextor in the new machine successfully & went on about my business. Today, I wanted to clean up old files off the Dell ‘cause my friend wants to buy it now on new Year’s Eve day. I set it back up & turn it on; & the BIOS reads non-recognition of Secondary Drive & CD-ROM Drive. [Background: My configuration on the Dell was 2 Hard Drives & a CD-ROM Drive…Primary Drive (OS) on the primary channel/ribbon cable…w/ the Secondary Drive (Audio Data) on the secondary channel/ribbon cable (middle connector)...& the CD-ROM Drive on the same channel/cable, at the end connector]. So I thought…fine…I forgot…the end of the ribbon cable is messed up; & even tho the secondary hard drive was still connected to the middle connector of that same damaged cable…I just figured the damaged end was the reason both drives weren’t being recognized. So…off I go to Micro Center…come home w/ a new ribbon cable…install the LG DVD-ROM Drive…connect the new cable & appropriate power supply connector… …fire up the Dell… & the BIOS is reading exactly the same…it doesn’t recognize either drive. Can someone please help me through this dilemma…I sure would appreciate it. I’m pretty sure I didn’t fry anything inside the tower. Everything looks normal; & everything is hooked up properly. The ribbon cable is an 80 wire…same thing that was in there originally. I’m a little iffy on the master/slave/cable select thing. My primary & secondary drives have the jumpers in the exact same position…nothing’s changed there. The new LG is set to cable select, I think (3rd set to the left)…but that shouldn’t make any difference since that drive’s at the end of the cable, right? Hope I didn't screw anything up...need some help, in a bad way. Thanks, mark4man

Dec 30, 2007, 10:00 AM	#2
ChaosMinionX USB 3 dot oh Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Boston, MA Posts: 1,911 Rep Power: 45 System Specs	Did you set the jumper on the back of the drives properly? One should be set to master, and the other to slave. __________________ ::Heatware:: How you can help DriverHeaven by using Digg!

Dec 30, 2007, 03:47 PM	Thread Starter #4
mark4man HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 14 Rep Power: 0	Thanks... ...found it...(found it by reading the documentation...it actually helps to read the documentation, yu see). As it turns out, the DVD-ROM Drive was set to 'Cable Select'...that was the 1st part of the problem [it was connected to the end connector (Master) of the secondary channel/cable]. I switched the jumper to 'Master'; & the BIOS then recognized both drives on that channel at reboot...that part's now fixed. The other problem was (& I have no idea why)...there is no 2nd (Slave) Drive on the primary channel [only the Primary (OS) Drive]...but the BIOS setting for this drive was set to 'Auto Detect'. For some reason...it continued to try & locate a drive; & the error dialog continued to come up at bootup until I switched it to 'None'. All fixed up now (but a little confused as to why auto detect triggered the BIOS error.) Thanks very much, mark4man BTW - Thanks for that link.