Am i DOOMED or just being melodramatic???

[that_phat_kid]

here is the situation: i recieved a pc from a friend, hp pavilion 7840, his hard drive was a mess, 47 viruses and 17k spyware files. i ended up reformating the hard drive so that is no longer an issue.

the problem i am now having involves my old hard drive which contains all of my music files. i thought all i had to do was connect it as a slave and be ready to roll. not the case. the new os is windows me the old system ran xp. the drive iwish to be a slave has no os on it. when i commect the drive i get a dos promt screen but i have no clue what to do from there. im not even sure i can enter anything from the dos prompt screen. is this a normal issue and im just being impatient not waiting long enough for the pc to recognize the new drive?

the slave to be is a quantum fireball 20gb. i hope i have given enough info to get some help here. im really missing my music.

[doctorgonzo]

Let me see if I have this correct:

Primary HD now has Windows ME and it works fine
Slave HD has no OS

When you turn the computer on in this configuration, Windows ME does not start, instead it goes to a DOS prompt.

Is thic correct?

[that_phat_kid]

this is the situation IF THE SLAVE IS INSTALLED . WITHO UT the slave i run just fine.

[Cricket]

Is the old hard drive with your music formatted to NTFS? I'm not sure if WinME can see NTFS partitions.

Cricket

[that_phat_kid]

wow i have no idea im not very versed in computer lingo how would i be able to know?

[doctorgonzo]

Originally Posted by that_phat_kid wow i have no idea im not very versed in computer lingo how would i be able to know?

Was the old drive with the music used in a Windows XP machine? Or was it used in a Windows 98/95/Me machine? If it was used in a Window XP machine, it may be in NTFS.

Are you sure you have the slave drive jumpered correctly? It should either be set to CS (Cable Select) if you are using an 80 wire IDE cable, or slave if not.

[that_phat_kid]

yes it was in an xp machine. i am using the flat cable from the main with the "slave" on it to connect and the only other power cable which has a 5 on it . the small black bit on the back of the hd is set on third from left, but there are no indications of what setting is for what on the hd. i really apreciate all your help, even if it makes me feel like an idiot lol. i really need to learn more about these new fangled machines.

[doctorgonzo]

Do you know the brand and model of the drive? You may be able to find a diagram of the correct jumper settings for the drive. It sounds like it should be jumpered to CS; it may be jumpered incorrectly.

[that_phat_kid]

yes it is a quantum fireball 3.5 series i justr found on the top where the jumper needs to be for what and i do believe it is set to cs

[that_phat_kid]

perhaps i am installing wrong this is what i am doing:

i power down, i plug in the wide gray cable that says slave, i plug in the power cable that has a 5 on it , i power up.

the other settings on the hd are
master
park
along with the cs

[doctorgonzo]

Is the flat ribbon cable keyed so it can only go in one way? If not, have you tried flipping it over?

You said it goes to a DOS prompt. Is it really a DOS prompt, with a "C:\>" prompt, or is it a black screen with a blinking cursor?

[that_phat_kid]

black screen with blinking cursor. yes only goes in one way.

[rjfvillarosa]

That slave sounds like it still has remnants of the old XP installation still on it.
Do you know how to access the BIOS of your machine?

[that_phat_kid]

i do not know how to accesss bios or am not familiar with the terms you are using. i did however didsconect teh master drive and otry to boot with only the slave set to master and i got the prompt of no OS on drive.

[doctorgonzo]

Are any of the pins bent? Can you stick the music HD in another computer to see if it works?

When you don't have the music HD in there, it boots just fine to Windows ME, right?

[rjfvillarosa]

Dr g.. it looks like ME is not picking up the NTFS tables, any chance he could slave it to an XP machine and convert the NTFS to FAT32 with something like partition magic? other than that he would have to move it all over to a master in an XP machine reformat that slave to FAT32 and then transfer it all back again.

[that_phat_kid]

i do have my old pc still and when i took it apart a week ago it worked fine no pins seem to be bent. yes the music hd is out right now and we are fine. but my it is quiet in here.

[that_phat_kid]

Originally Posted by rjfvillarosa Dr g.. it looks like ME is not picking up the NTFS tables, any chance he could slave it to an XP machine and convert the NTFS to FAT32 with something like partition magic? other than that he would have to move it all over to a master in an XP machine reformat that slave to FAT32 and then transfer it all back again.

i do still have my XP machine. but i donnot have this partition magic? my Xp machine has a mater fo only 6 gb where as i have 18 gb of music im trying to salvage.

[rjfvillarosa]

Tell me something, why do you wish to slave that hard drive into the ME machine? and is this hard drive the only hard drive that was fitted to the XP machine?

[that_phat_kid]

i wish to slave the hd into the Me machine because it has a lrge quantity of my music on it, some 4k files. no this music hd was a slave in the XP machine also. im just trying to give it a new master

[rjfvillarosa]

Is the XP machine still working and does it see the music on the slave drive when the slave is installed in it?

[doctorgonzo]

First, just FYI, if you have some more information to add to a post, click on the "edit" button and add it, don't post another message right after a message you just posted.

Since Windows ME won't even boot when the slave drive is connected, it doesn't seem like a Windows ME problem, but a hardware configuration problem. Double-check the jumper to make sure it really is in the CS position; sometimes, it's easy to be one off when counting those tiny pins. Check the master HD to make sure it is jumpered to CS too.

Do you have any CD drives in the computer? The motherboard should have two flat ribbon cables (plus a floppy cable if it has one). If you do have a CD drive, try disconnting the CD drive and plugging the music HD into that cable. You may have to change the jumper to master.

[that_phat_kid]

ok .. i have found BIOS, ihave installed the music hd, i am now online with the music hd connected BUT i cannot access the drive . it is not being recognized by the system. any help on this new problem?

[doctorgonzo]

If it is now not being recognized by the system, then it is probably because it is formatted in NTFS. The only way to get it back to FAT32 without destroying the data is to use something like Partition Magic.

[rjfvillarosa]

As Dr g says the file system on the music hard drive is probably not being recognized by Windows ME.
Windows 98 and ME used the FAT file system whereas XP uses the NTFS file system, 98 and ME can only see the FAT file system and XP can see both.
If I were you I would reinstall the music hard drive into the XP machine and get it all working, from there you have two choices, you can either use third party software to convert the NTFS file system to the FAT file system and then reinstall the music hard drive into the ME machine or you could network the two machines together and if you have enough room on the ME hard drive transfer all the music files across, after that you would have the option to format the music hard drive and then move it to the ME machine as a slave.

[glc]

Partition Magic cannot reliably convert a NTFS drive back to FAT32, so please don't suggest it. You run a strong risk of losing all your files if you try.

Your best way out of this dilemma is put the drive in a XP machine to get the files off, or upgrade the ME machine to XP.

[that_phat_kid]

ok new situation: it was recognized, however, when i restarted the ME machine it was no longer recognized.

i do have the room on the Me machine to put all the files, however i only have one monitor, do i need two in order to network the two machines? would i need to convert the files in order to transfer them to the ME machine? and i remember hearing something about bundleing the data to make it smaller and fit more on 700Mb disks and transfer that way. this is something that i would like to spend as little money on as possible as important as this music is to me i have very limited cash to play with. i know if i try to transfer all the music as mp3 files it will take many many disks 16Gb/700Mb= too many disks.

also if XP reads both formats, isn't there a way to reformat the data within the Xp package?

[glc]

The only way you are going to get the files onto the ME machine is through a network with the drive in a XP machine, because file system does not matter then. XP cannot convert a NTFS drive to FAT32.

[that_phat_kid]

WELL thank you all for you help i have managed to get it back. i got ahold of anXP disk and fixed my problems . now lets hope that when i restar5t the machine istill have it all. lol (cough)