hp a310n can't recognize hard drive?

[ZortMcGort11]

I bought a $20 computer at the goodwill... the sticker said "needs a hard drive." Okay, that sounds simple enough, I thought.

Anyway, get it home, put in my Western digital 40gb hard drive (IDE), turn it on, the BIOS keeps saying no hard drive detected. It doesn't appear in the BIOS under primary master or slave.

I tried moving around the jumper and plugging into both the slave and master cables. But can't seem to get anything to work.

Anybody have any ideas what I'm doing wrong? I'm going to try another hard drive in a second, but if that doesn't work, then I'm pretty sure it's not my spare hard drives. Because they were all working last time I used them.

I popped in my Windows ME floppy boot disk, then I typed in "C:" and it said drive letter not recognized, or something to that effect.

Anyways, every time I turn the computer on now, it says Operating System Not Found.

Here is the HP specifications page:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00040494&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en

Edited April 14, 2014 by LostInSpace2012

[jumper]

1) Make sure you're using an UDMA-rated cable (with more/thinner wires)

2) Google: "site:www.msfn.org udma cable-select"

[ZortMcGort11]

Thanks, Jumper! It works.

After googling what you posted above, this is the thread that came up:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/75629-pata-cable-select/

Quite an informative read. Even though I'm no expert on these types of things.

I put the "jumper" on CS, cable select position, and on the first try the BIOS recognized the drive. Windows 2000 is now loaded on the "HP a310n."

When I was playing around with the jumpers, I kept going back and forth ONLY between master and slave. But this seems to have solved the problem, putting it on CS. What exactly does this tell me about the computer? How is it different because it doesn't work on master/slave?

Well, thank you very much for that link... it helped.

UDMA-rated cable (with more/thinner wires)

I will look into this for more info, as I'm not familar with these. Thanks.

It works, that's what counts.

Edited April 15, 2014 by LostInSpace2012

[jaclaz]

My personal advice is to NEVER use/trust, for ANY reason CS (Cable Select) as it is in theory a good thing but has been in practice implemented poorly on a large number of motherboards (and possibly hard disks), of course there are usually no issues if it is the only device on the cable.

If the disk is marked ATA33 you can use a 40 wire cable, if it is 66, 100 or 133 you MUST use an 80 wire cable, and remember that this latter is "colour coded".

See here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/160758-windows-98-on-floppy-disks/?p=1023838#entry1023838

AND links in it.

jaclaz

[ZortMcGort11]

okay thanks :-)

[submix8c]

Western Digital - NO jumper for Master with NoSlave! It only applies IF you have a Slave!

Single on Cable - No Jumper

Slave - Set Slave Jumper

Master+Slave - Set Master Jumper

CableSelect - Jumper it Only (both drives, if two) with appropriate Cable/MoBo

CS will work, but as suggested, it seems to me safe to avoid it (I always do) -unless- it's a silly old Compaq that for some odd reason requires it. (See jaclaz' links..)

I have several of those and the associated docs, so that's how it works. Fools you, don't it?

[ZortMcGort11]

Yes, it is a rather confusing issue...

is this is why they invented SATA? To do away with IDE cables and all this jumper, master/slave stuff?

Or is messing around with SATA stuff this confusing as well?

I hope it's easier :-)

Edited April 15, 2014 by LostInSpace2012