> I've got an aging PIII 800 MHz Windows XP Home SP2 system that isn't
> recognizing the new HDD I'm trying to install...  The new drive is a
> 120 Gb WD, intended to replace a 6-Gb Maxtor as Secondary-Master
> (slave is a DVD-ROM).  Primary-Master is a 20-Gb Maxtor with DVD
> burner as slave.  On booting, the system reports "Secondary Master
> drive failure."
>
> Suspecting that a BIOS upgrade will be required, I did a bit of
> searching and found that Award doesn't provide upgrades, rather they
> are available from eSupport.com -- anybody dealt with them before?  I
> ran their BIOS Agent to get the following info:
>
> BIOS:            Award Modular BIOS v4.51PGN,
> 05/08/2000-693-596-SMC-2A6LGX3JC
> Chipset:         VIA 82C691 rev 68
>
> Before I go any further with this (contacting eSupport),  I'm
> wondering whether it's worth it -- what does it typically cost for the
> upgrade, and how risky is the operation?
>
> Thanks,
>
> BW.
>

> I've got an aging PIII 800 MHz Windows XP Home SP2 system that isn't
> recognizing the new HDD I'm trying to install...  The new drive is a 120
> Gb WD, intended to replace a 6-Gb Maxtor as Secondary-Master (slave is a
> DVD-ROM).  Primary-Master is a 20-Gb Maxtor with DVD burner as slave.  On
> booting, the system reports "Secondary Master drive failure."
>
> Suspecting that a BIOS upgrade will be required, I did a bit of searching
> and found that Award doesn't provide upgrades, rather they are available
> from eSupport.com -- anybody dealt with them before?  I ran their BIOS
> Agent to get the following info:
>
> BIOS:            Award Modular BIOS v4.51PGN,
> 05/08/2000-693-596-SMC-2A6LGX3JC
> Chipset:         VIA 82C691 rev 68
>
> Before I go any further with this (contacting eSupport),  I'm wondering
> whether it's worth it -- what does it typically cost for the upgrade, and
> how risky is the operation?
>
> Thanks,
>
> BW.

"Paul Murphy" <p_murphynothanks@tospamhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:4233418c$0$553$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net...
> "bwesley8" <bwesl***@cox.net> wrote in message
> news:MwEYd.16633$2s.3997@lakeread06...
>> I've got an aging PIII 800 MHz Windows XP Home SP2 system that isn't
>> recognizing the new HDD I'm trying to install...  The new drive is a 120
>> Gb WD, intended to replace a 6-Gb Maxtor as Secondary-Master (slave is a


> I'm going to go against the grain of common opinion and suggest the
> problem is more likely another issue as 120 GB is just under the maximum
> capacity that most boards of that era can handle without problems. I have
> 3 slot 1 Pentium III  boards and all (including 2 VIA chipset items) will
> cope with 120 GB drives and the Intel 820 chipset based one even allows
> Windows XP Pro SP2 to install on a 250 GB HDD setup as the primary master
> and all of the drive is usable.
>
> Did you correctly jumper the drive? Have you used an 80 conductor cable -
> not that this second point should cause the drive to not work at all? Have
> you tried unplugging other unnecessary drives to make sure its not a power
> shortage from the PSU that's responsible - or used another Molex HDD power
> cable from the PSU? Finally, have you tested the HDD in another machine?
>
> Paul
>

> Paul,
>
> WD provides its own installation wizard which I ran prior to installing
> the new 120-Gb drive. It analyzed the system and (correctly) recommended
> installation as Secondary-Master; I'm sure the jumper was correct.
>
> I did not use an 80-conductor cable -- rather, I just unplugged the old
> drive from the existing cable (and power) and used the same connectors for
> the new drive. When I gave up on the installation, I simply replaced the
> old drive with the original connections, and it still works fine -- seems
> to verify functional cable and adequate power.
>
> As for testing the drive in another PC, that hasn't been done -- it's a
> new drive (I know that's no guarantee, but it seems the likelihood of DOA
> is pretty low), and I don't have another PC available to test it with.
>
> Your comments are encouraging and I plan to try the installation again
> later this week when I have some extended free time to play with it.  It's
> probably unrelated, but there's now no sound (System indicates sound card
> working properly); something else to sort out.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bart
>
>
>
>
>
>
> "Paul Murphy" <p_murphynothanks@tospamhotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:4233418c$0$553$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net...
>> "bwesley8" <bwesl***@cox.net> wrote in message
>> news:MwEYd.16633$2s.3997@lakeread06...
>>> I've got an aging PIII 800 MHz Windows XP Home SP2 system that isn't
>>> recognizing the new HDD I'm trying to install...  The new drive is a 120
>>> Gb WD, intended to replace a 6-Gb Maxtor as Secondary-Master (slave is a
>
>
>> I'm going to go against the grain of common opinion and suggest the
>> problem is more likely another issue as 120 GB is just under the maximum
>> capacity that most boards of that era can handle without problems. I have
>> 3 slot 1 Pentium III  boards and all (including 2 VIA chipset items) will
>> cope with 120 GB drives and the Intel 820 chipset based one even allows
>> Windows XP Pro SP2 to install on a 250 GB HDD setup as the primary master
>> and all of the drive is usable.
>>
>> Did you correctly jumper the drive? Have you used an 80 conductor cable -
>> not that this second point should cause the drive to not work at all?
>> Have you tried unplugging other unnecessary drives to make sure its not a
>> power shortage from the PSU that's responsible - or used another Molex
>> HDD power cable from the PSU? Finally, have you tested the HDD in another
>> machine?
>>
>> Paul
>>
>
>

"Paul Murphy" <p_murphynothanks@tospamhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:423439f9$0$18710$ed2e19e4@ptn-nntp-reader04.plus.net...
> Some HDD manufacturers (not sure if WD is one of them), release their
> drives to the market jumpered for cable select mode and some motherboards
> can't cope with this (especially if an 80 conductor cable isn't used) - it
> may need to be changed from the factory default to work properly in your
> machine. The new drive may expect different power requirement tolerances
> to the old (or may be more fussy about the power which is supplied). Just
> because the other one works in this setup is far from confirmation that
> the new one should without a few changes. A dodgy or underpowered PSU can
> be responsible for many faults (including other hardware malfunctioning -
> such as sound cards). If you remove all other devices from the PSU load
> for testing purposes e.g. CDROM/DVD Drives etc, then it would be more
> likely to confirm or deny the PSU as being the cause - likewise trying an
> 80 conductor cable. I agree that a DOA drive would be very unlikely.
>
> Paul
>
> "bwesley8" <bwesl***@cox.net> wrote in message
> news:IfWYd.17474$2s.9954@lakeread06...
>> Paul,
>>
>> WD provides its own installation wizard which I ran prior to installing
>> the new 120-Gb drive. It analyzed the system and (correctly) recommended
>> installation as Secondary-Master; I'm sure the jumper was correct.
>>
>> I did not use an 80-conductor cable -- rather, I just unplugged the old
>> drive from the existing cable (and power) and used the same connectors
>> for the new drive. When I gave up on the installation, I simply replaced
>> the old drive with the original connections, and it still works fine -- 
>> seems to verify functional cable and adequate power.
>>
>> As for testing the drive in another PC, that hasn't been done -- it's a
>> new drive (I know that's no guarantee, but it seems the likelihood of DOA
>> is pretty low), and I don't have another PC available to test it with.
>>
>> Your comments are encouraging and I plan to try the installation again
>> later this week when I have some extended free time to play with it.
>> It's probably unrelated, but there's now no sound (System indicates sound
>> card working properly); something else to sort out.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Bart
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Paul Murphy" <p_murphynothanks@tospamhotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:4233418c$0$553$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net...
>>> "bwesley8" <bwesl***@cox.net> wrote in message
>>> news:MwEYd.16633$2s.3997@lakeread06...
>>>> I've got an aging PIII 800 MHz Windows XP Home SP2 system that isn't
>>>> recognizing the new HDD I'm trying to install...  The new drive is a
>>>> 120 Gb WD, intended to replace a 6-Gb Maxtor as Secondary-Master (slave
>>>> is a
>>
>>
>>> I'm going to go against the grain of common opinion and suggest the
>>> problem is more likely another issue as 120 GB is just under the maximum
>>> capacity that most boards of that era can handle without problems. I
>>> have 3 slot 1 Pentium III  boards and all (including 2 VIA chipset
>>> items) will cope with 120 GB drives and the Intel 820 chipset based one
>>> even allows Windows XP Pro SP2 to install on a 250 GB HDD setup as the
>>> primary master and all of the drive is usable.
>>>
>>> Did you correctly jumper the drive? Have you used an 80 conductor
>>> cable - not that this second point should cause the drive to not work at
>>> all? Have you tried unplugging other unnecessary drives to make sure its
>>> not a power shortage from the PSU that's responsible - or used another
>>> Molex HDD power cable from the PSU? Finally, have you tested the HDD in
>>> another machine?
>>>
>>> Paul
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

>I decided to skip church this morning and go back through the drive
>installation again.  After removing the old HDD, I checked the jumper on
>the new drive to confirm it was for Dual Master -- it was, but I pulled it
>off anyway to make sure the pins weren't bent (they weren't), and then I
>dropped it.  After a few minutes of unsuccessful search (it's always
>amazing to me how physical objects can so effectively disappear), I
>retrieved another jumper from my junk box and installed it, then physically
>installed the drive and made connections.  When I booted the PC, I must
>admit that I was a bit surprised to see all of the drives, including the
>new 120-Gb, properly identified(!)
>
> I'm 99.9% sure that the drive was properly jumpered in the first attempt,
> so the only significant change implemented in the second attempt was to
> replace the jumper -- could the original jumper been defective in some
> way?
>
> Anyway, the new drive is installed, so I'll move on to my next question:
> how do I move the contents of the current "C" drive (Windows XP, SP2) to
> the new "D" drive and make it the boot drive?  I rather expected WD to
> provide some utility to do this, but apparently not.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bart
>
>
>
> "Paul Murphy" <p_murphynothanks@tospamhotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:423439f9$0$18710$ed2e19e4@ptn-nntp-reader04.plus.net...
>> Some HDD manufacturers (not sure if WD is one of them), release their
>> drives to the market jumpered for cable select mode and some motherboards
>> can't cope with this (especially if an 80 conductor cable isn't used) -
>> it may need to be changed from the factory default to work properly in
>> your machine. The new drive may expect different power requirement
>> tolerances to the old (or may be more fussy about the power which is
>> supplied). Just because the other one works in this setup is far from
>> confirmation that the new one should without a few changes. A dodgy or
>> underpowered PSU can be responsible for many faults (including other
>> hardware malfunctioning - such as sound cards). If you remove all other
>> devices from the PSU load for testing purposes e.g. CDROM/DVD Drives etc,
>> then it would be more likely to confirm or deny the PSU as being the
>> cause - likewise trying an 80 conductor cable. I agree that a DOA drive
>> would be very unlikely.
>>
>> Paul
>>
>> "bwesley8" <bwesl***@cox.net> wrote in message
>> news:IfWYd.17474$2s.9954@lakeread06...
>>> Paul,
>>>
>>> WD provides its own installation wizard which I ran prior to installing
>>> the new 120-Gb drive. It analyzed the system and (correctly) recommended
>>> installation as Secondary-Master; I'm sure the jumper was correct.
>>>
>>> I did not use an 80-conductor cable -- rather, I just unplugged the old
>>> drive from the existing cable (and power) and used the same connectors
>>> for the new drive. When I gave up on the installation, I simply replaced
>>> the old drive with the original connections, and it still works fine -- 
>>> seems to verify functional cable and adequate power.
>>>
>>> As for testing the drive in another PC, that hasn't been done -- it's a
>>> new drive (I know that's no guarantee, but it seems the likelihood of
>>> DOA is pretty low), and I don't have another PC available to test it
>>> with.
>>>
>>> Your comments are encouraging and I plan to try the installation again
>>> later this week when I have some extended free time to play with it.
>>> It's probably unrelated, but there's now no sound (System indicates
>>> sound card working properly); something else to sort out.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Bart
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "Paul Murphy" <p_murphynothanks@tospamhotmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:4233418c$0$553$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net...
>>>> "bwesley8" <bwesl***@cox.net> wrote in message
>>>> news:MwEYd.16633$2s.3997@lakeread06...
>>>>> I've got an aging PIII 800 MHz Windows XP Home SP2 system that isn't
>>>>> recognizing the new HDD I'm trying to install...  The new drive is a
>>>>> 120 Gb WD, intended to replace a 6-Gb Maxtor as Secondary-Master
>>>>> (slave is a
>>>
>>>
>>>> I'm going to go against the grain of common opinion and suggest the
>>>> problem is more likely another issue as 120 GB is just under the
>>>> maximum capacity that most boards of that era can handle without
>>>> problems. I have 3 slot 1 Pentium III  boards and all (including 2 VIA
>>>> chipset items) will cope with 120 GB drives and the Intel 820 chipset
>>>> based one even allows Windows XP Pro SP2 to install on a 250 GB HDD
>>>> setup as the primary master and all of the drive is usable.
>>>>
>>>> Did you correctly jumper the drive? Have you used an 80 conductor
>>>> cable - not that this second point should cause the drive to not work
>>>> at all? Have you tried unplugging other unnecessary drives to make sure
>>>> its not a power shortage from the PSU that's responsible - or used
>>>> another Molex HDD power cable from the PSU? Finally, have you tested
>>>> the HDD in another machine?
>>>>
>>>> Paul
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>