my computer wont auto detect my hard drive

[gcrump6625]

i have physically put the computer together and this is my first one, but when i go to the BIOS menu to auto detect the drive it doesnt detect it, and i cant go any further. Can someone please help me i am stuck and dont know what to do?

[doctorgonzo]

Can you please post your system specs? SATA or PATA hard drive?

[gcrump6625]

Pata

[doctorgonzo]

Brand and model? What are you other computer components, like motherboard, PSU, etc?

[gcrump6625]

ABIT KN8 Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard with AMD athlon 3400+ processor. the hard drive is 200gb seagate ultra ATA/100. my graphics card is BRAND NEW ATI RADEON X600 PRO 256MB PCI-E VIDEO CARD.

[doctorgonzo]

How do you have the drive jumpered? Are you using a 40-wire or 80-wire IDE cable? Does the drive spin up at all when you turn on the computer?

[gcrump6625]

the IDE cable has 19 pins on top and 20 on bottom, but it does spin when it turns on.

[doctorgonzo]

the IDE cable has 19 pins on top and 20 on bottom, but it does spin when it turns on.

Right, but how many wires does it have? Does it have 40 big wires or 80 tinier wires? Are the connectors color-coded (black, blue, grey)? How is the drive jumpered?

[gcrump6625]

it looks like it is 80 wires and i have tried jumering it with master and cable select. Right now it is cable select

[gcrump6625]

it has a red line along the side of it. 1 end is black and the other blue

[doctorgonzo]

If it is cable select, make sure that the blue end of the cable is plugged into the first IDE channel on the motherboard, and the hard drive is plugged into the black end.

[gcrump6625]

what if the cable doesnt fit all the way in the first IDE slot but it does in the second slot.

[doctorgonzo]

Why doesn't it fit? Are the pins bent? Is there any damage to the slot or cable?

[gcrump6625]

i got it in now. now let me try it and see if that was the problem

[gcrump6625]

ok that worked thanks a lot.