Bartender667 Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Ok, I'll get straight to the point. I've got a hard drive off my friend and I'm trying to fit it as a slave drive on my computer. It has Windows ME and some data on it already so I realise that I need to format it. I'm running XP. I've wired them both up with a Y power cable and a 2 port hard drive cable. Whenever I boot up with both set up, all I get is the message:Drive not ready.Insert BOOT diskette in A:Press any key when ready.What do I do? My drive is set up as a master and my friend's is set up as a slave. This isn't completley nescessary as I could just wipe his drive and install XP there. I'd prefer to have both drives running though. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willl Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Instead of asking in a GNR forum find a computer help forum through Google as they will be able to help more than any of these people Im guessing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamysor Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 as far as I know u can`t install windows when the hard is a slave for the simple reason that the operating system of that hard is not running. u can only see the files on it. and u can`t install windows if your friend`s hard is in your computer. actually u can but it won`t work on your friend`s pc because of the different setting between the two computers that`s what i know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Rose Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Instead of asking in a GNR forum find a computer help forum through Google as they will be able to help more than any of these people Im guessing <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Exactly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaughtInAComa Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 I'm not sure but you need to make a change in the BIOS properties of your machine (i.e hit delete as soon as you turn it on). I've not done this so am NOT even remotely sure as to the accuracy of this, so DO NOT just do this because I said so.But I think you need to access the BIOS, set which drive is the master, which is the slave, and then the boot order. I.E you need to tell the machine to boot from the XP drive first, and ignore the other drive. All being well when you open up windows explorer you will have another drive, given whatever letter you gave it in the BIOS (probably E:\), that you can then format, copy to and from to your hearts content.However, this is probably a very simplified version of what you need to do. If you decide to try it based on this and fuck up your machine, then I have warned you numerous times, so on your head be it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highvoltage Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Bartender, what's your MSN address? Caught In A Coma has the right gist of what to do. I'll add you, and give you some more detailed instructions.Messing with the BIOS is not something you want to do if you're unsure of what you're doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max™ Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 What you are trying to do is boot from another drive. You have to go into the BIOS and change the boot drive to the master drive (aka the one you had in there before). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
santana Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 What you are trying to do is boot from another drive. You have to go into the BIOS and change the boot drive to the master drive (aka the one you had in there before).<{POST_SNAPBACK}>It's not trying to boot from the other drive. The 2nd hard drive already has the OS installed. If it was trying to boot from that it would attempt to boot, and display some sort of an error, as the IDE drivers on the 2nd drive would not work for the IDE controller of the motherboard.Your best bet is to go into BIOS and change your boot order. When you start the PC, you should see something like "Press DEL to enter Bios" or "run setup" or whatever. It might also prompt you to press F2 instead of DEL. Once you're in the BIOS, use the arrows on the key board to get to the "Boot" menu and change your boot order. If you have problems, send me a PM. I'd be glad to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highvoltage Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 You're all wrong. I added him to MSN and sorted it out for him about 10 hours ago.His computer was trying to boot from the floppy, because it wasn't recognising either Hard Drive.Why?Because the genius had no jumpers on either drive, and he had the slave and the master plugged in on the wrong slots on the cable. He actually didn't need to change any boot orders at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
santana Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 You're all wrong. I added him to MSN and sorted it out for him about 10 hours ago.His computer was trying to boot from the floppy, because it wasn't recognising either Hard Drive.Why?Because the genius had no jumpers on either drive, and he had the slave and the master plugged in on the wrong slots on the cable. He actually didn't need to change any boot orders at all.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>That's crazy! I've never heard of that before. How did the computer run before the second HDD was installed, if there were no jumpers on the original HDD? Unless removing the jumper from the original HDD switched it to cable select. Still, that's strange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highvoltage Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 You're all wrong. I added him to MSN and sorted it out for him about 10 hours ago.His computer was trying to boot from the floppy, because it wasn't recognising either Hard Drive.Why?Because the genius had no jumpers on either drive, and he had the slave and the master plugged in on the wrong slots on the cable. He actually didn't need to change any boot orders at all.That's crazy! I've never heard of that before. How did the computer run before the second HDD was installed, if there were no jumpers on the original HDD? Unless removing the jumper from the original HDD switched it to cable select. Still, that's strange.Because he'd taken them off himself then forgotten to put them back on. My old IDE used to work without jumpers, because having no jumper defaulted it to master. I've upgraded to SATA now. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
santana Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Because he'd taken them off himself then forgotten to put them back on. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Classic!BTW, how are those SATA drives? I've been meaning to pick one up for the longest time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highvoltage Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Because he'd taken them off himself then forgotten to put them back on. Classic!BTW, how are those SATA drives? I've been meaning to pick one up for the longest time.To be brutally honest -- I haven't noticed a huge difference in speed, only when transferring large files. I'd wait until you get a board that supports SATA II -- They'll be considerably faster.But the Hard Drive is nice -- 200GB Western Digital. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madison Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Wow.Very impressive Highvoltage and Santana.I now know who to go to when I have a computer problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.