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***glc*** · 02-29-2008, 08:49 PM

If I can't sit in front of your computer, I can't troubleshoot it without asking you specific questions and getting them answered.

You would be surprised how many people misconfigure multiple hard drives, even so-called "professional" technicians and builders. I used to screw them up myself till I learned the proper ways to do things and I've been in this business for 15 years.

Okay, you want "concept"? No problem. You should be using an 80 wire Ultra ATA drive cable. The black end needs to be connected to the master drive, the gray middle connector to the slave drive. The other colored end (usually blue) goes to the motherboard. Both drives need to be jumpered to CS (Cable Select). It is VERY easy to read the jumper chart wrong, as I remember, it's Seagate (or maybe Maxtor) drives where it's not totally intuitive and the chart can be read upside down. When you do this, the jumper may be in the Cylinder Limit position instead of (I think) slave.

The ONLY reason drives still have master/slave jumpers is for backwards compatibility with old 40 wire cables.

Without knowing the motherboard model, I can't tell if it has a 128gb bios size limitation. If it does, a 250gb drive will not be seen correctly.

02-29-2008, 08:49 PM	#7
*glc* Forum Administrator Staff Premium Member Join Date: May 2000 Location: Joplin MO Posts: 37,707	If I can't sit in front of your computer, I can't troubleshoot it without asking you specific questions and getting them answered. You would be surprised how many people misconfigure multiple hard drives, even so-called "professional" technicians and builders. I used to screw them up myself till I learned the proper ways to do things and I've been in this business for 15 years. Okay, you want "concept"? No problem. You should be using an 80 wire Ultra ATA drive cable. The black end needs to be connected to the master drive, the gray middle connector to the slave drive. The other colored end (usually blue) goes to the motherboard. Both drives need to be jumpered to CS (Cable Select). It is VERY easy to read the jumper chart wrong, as I remember, it's Seagate (or maybe Maxtor) drives where it's not totally intuitive and the chart can be read upside down. When you do this, the jumper may be in the Cylinder Limit position instead of (I think) slave. The ONLY reason drives still have master/slave jumpers is for backwards compatibility with old 40 wire cables. Without knowing the motherboard model, I can't tell if it has a 128gb bios size limitation. If it does, a 250gb drive will not be seen correctly. Last edited by glc; 02-29-2008 at 09:00 PM.