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Connecting IDE Drive Cables
Last updated: 11/3/01
Hard Disk Drives, EZ Drive, and
Recent Motherboards
Last updated: 9/8/01
Q. The EZ Drive floppy that came my new hard disk
drive appears to be able to format, and under "check bios" it
searches for the drive and hangs... I've tried auto, large, LBA and the
maximum... How do I install the drive?
A. The answer applies to many recent
motherboards... You do not need, and should not use the floppy
that came with the hard disk for the recent motherboards (unless you are
going to use EZ to copy stuff from an old drive to the new one). Disconnect
the CD-ROM from the motherboard and power until the hard disk is detected. Pull
all boards except video. Reload defaults in the CMOS Setup to get rid
of all of settings that have been attempted. That should set the CMOS
to Auto for the drive, which is the correct setting. The motherboard
should detect the drive if everything is working, the drive is jumpered correctly,
and the cables are installed properly. Smartdrive should be enabled
in the CMOS Setup (the default is disabled), but the drive will work fine
if it isn’t. Western Digital drives should not be jumpered for Master
unless another drive is attached to the same cable as a slave. Remove the
jumper altogether or put it in the default position, the one it was in when
the drive was new. That position should be marked on the top of the drive
and it is the position where the jumper is horizontal when the drive is horizontal. I
presume the drive is an ATA/66 (or ATA/100) drive and you are using the ATA/66
cable that came with the motherboard. That cable has an end that is marked
“System,” or something like that. It goes (must go) to the motherboard
IDE1 interface with the Blue (may be red) stripe towards Pin 1. The other
end (the far end, marked “Master,” or something like that, not the connector
in between the two ends) must be attached to the drive with stripe towards
the power connector. If the drive is not an ATA/66 drive, the ATA/66
cable will work if connected as just prescribed. Make sure both ends
of the cable are fully seated. And, of course, the power connector
must be fully seated. Check the pins on it to be sure one isn’t pushed
out. If you can hear the drive spin-up, power is probably OK. If
the drive still does not work, you could have a bad motherboard IDE interface,
bad cable, bad hard disk (most likely), or a screw of or standoff shorting
the bottom of the motherboard.
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