can't install new WD hard drive

Hi,

I have an old Gateway with AMD-K6 300 processor. Am trying to replace
an old 750 MB hard drive that had WIN95 on it with a Western Digital
40gb 7200 rpm. Have followed all instructions but end up stuck on the
boot-up screen at the line:

"Detecting IDE Primary Master ... [Press F4 to skip]" and at the
screen bottom
"Press DEL to enter SETUP" Pressing F4 does nothing, and anyway I want
the new drive detected and labeled as Master (I guess). The pc also
has a 1.4 floppy drive and a very old cd-rom.

The new HD is properly jumpered.
When I enter SETUP, I am unable in CMOS to type in the info for size,
cylinder, etc. Also, though I set the drives to AUTO and LBA and save
the settings, the computer does not detect the new hard drive anyway.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks -- I see that there are thousands of postings on this
general topic, but I am so new to this territory that I wouldn't know
how to whittle them down to the relevant ones.

Bob H.

Hi Bob. Be sure you are using the No 1 IDE slot on the mobo and be
sure the no 1 pins are aligned. Have the jumper on the hard drive set
at Master, do not use the Master with slave or CS for Cable Select.
Older boards like yours do not recognize that.

Your computer's BIOS is too old and doesn't know about high GB sized
harddrives. You'll need to find an old smaller harddrive.

--
DaveW



"Bob Higgins" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> Hi,
>
> I have an old Gateway with AMD-K6 300 processor. Am trying to replace
> an old 750 MB hard drive that had WIN95 on it with a Western Digital
> 40gb 7200 rpm. Have followed all instructions but end up stuck on the
> boot-up screen at the line:
>
> "Detecting IDE Primary Master ... [Press F4 to skip]" and at the
> screen bottom
> "Press DEL to enter SETUP" Pressing F4 does nothing, and anyway I want
> the new drive detected and labeled as Master (I guess). The pc also
> has a 1.4 floppy drive and a very old cd-rom.
>
> The new HD is properly jumpered.
> When I enter SETUP, I am unable in CMOS to type in the info for size,
> cylinder, etc. Also, though I set the drives to AUTO and LBA and save
> the settings, the computer does not detect the new hard drive anyway.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Many thanks -- I see that there are thousands of postings on this
> general topic, but I am so new to this territory that I wouldn't know
> how to whittle them down to the relevant ones.
>
> Bob H.

(oldcomptrguy) wrote in message news:<. com>...
> Hi Bob. Be sure you are using the No 1 IDE slot on the mobo and be
> sure the no 1 pins are aligned. Have the jumper on the hard drive set
> at Master, do not use the Master with slave or CS for Cable Select.
> Older boards like yours do not recognize that.

Thanks olcomptrguy. But no go after checking your suggestions. I am
definitely on the No 1 IDE slot on the motherboard, and #1 pins are
aligned -- there is a groove on the slot and a bump on the jumper plug
that lines everything up, also on the HD itself. And I have set the
jumper on the hard drive as instructed by Western Digital: across pins
4 and 6 as in:

00000
00xx0

Western Digital says of their new jumper cable that one end (blue
plug) is for the motherboard, and the end plug (black) is for the hard
drive. I am using those two plugs. Also that the middle plug, which I
am not using and which is grey, is for the slave. But no go.

Any suggestions for how to do the CMOS setup manually? I can change
one selection from user to auto etc, and also can make changes on the
LBA cell. So I have this set now to auto and to LBA, and have tried
both LBA and Normal. However, I can't fill in the information for
cylinder heads, etc. And when I go into the CMOS option of Auto-Detect
IDE Hard Drive, I get no response -- just a blank screen saying
"Auto-Detecting Primary Master ..."

Thanks for any other ideas anyone can suggest.

> I have an old Gateway with AMD-K6 300 processor. Am trying to replace
> an old 750 MB hard drive that had WIN95 on it with a Western Digital
> 40gb 7200 rpm. Have followed all instructions but end up stuck on the
> boot-up screen at the line:

Your computer's BIOS does not support 40GB drives. What you have to do
is to find the manufacturer of your motherboard, and check if they
have an upgrade for your BIOS. And then make sure that the upgrade
actually will fix this problem. Then you have to download the latest
BIOS, and the flash utily and flash your BIOS!!! Now, this can be
deadly to your computer, so be careful!

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Bob Higgins wrote:

>
> Western Digital says of their new jumper cable that one end (blue
> plug) is for the motherboard, and the end plug (black) is for the hard
>

Replace the 80-conductor cable that you are using with an 'older'
40-conductor cable.

Older motherboards aren't always able to deal with the newer cable.
- --
Ron Cook n1zhi

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