New hard drive won't load as Master Drive

[Xad]

I just installed another drive on my 2nd computer, so now it has two drives. I used Seagate diskwizard to duplicate the new drive and format it as a bootable drive. I set the pins as per instruction (master/slave etc) yet when i restart it doesn't load, it just freezes.

If i set the old drive to master everything loads and i can see the new drive as a second drive with all the files duplicated, yet if i try to set the new drive as master and load windows xp from there, it doesn't work...

What have i done wrong? I don't understand why it doesn't load, the drive doesn't seem faulty as i can view files on it if i startup from the old drive.

I've set the master/slave jumpers accordingly, i've even played about with them - even went as far as to only connect the new drive and move the jumper to each location - yet it doesn't load.

Help

[Shambles]

Doesn't sound like the boot record is intact following the ghost.

Set your new drive as master then boot from your XP CD install disk upto the recovery console (option "R"). When prompted (in the dos recovery console box) type "fixmbr" (or "fdisk /mbr"), which should do the trick for your new drive.

[Xad]

I just tried doing that, unfortunately i couldn't even get past the initial start section - the part where it detects the drives/cd roms etc - it freezes on the drive detection of this drive so it doesn't even come close to loading from the CD =\

[chubblies]

Is it an old PC? Some bios's do not see large capacity drives. Also, might be worth trying cable select instead of pri/sec, or unplugging your CDrom/DVD drive and seeing if it sees the drive then, ie put 2nd HDD in place of CD drive

[Shambles]

Is your bios new enough to see the size of your new drive?

Please supply some specs mate, and we can take it from there.

[Xad]

Yes, the PC is about 6-7 years old, however, i tried the drive on this computer that i'm using right now (which is about 3 years old but has a motherboard about less than 1 month old) - and i got the same problem. The drive just freezes when the boot screen tries to detect it.

The PC i'm trying to put the drive in (old pc) is P3 450mhz, 380mb ram or something like that - whereas the other PC i tried it on has a 1.8mhz athlon, nearly 500gb hard drive space in total, largest being 250gb, 512mb ram.

I also thought that it might be a bios thing, however i get the same problem on my more recent PC which handles large drives fine, so i'm guessing that isn't the problem??

[Shambles]

On which machine did you create the ghost?

[chubblies]

I would do a full format on the newer PC using the seagate DU, then try it on the new PC as a formatted drive (ie no ghost)
The old PC probably wont run it, saying that, there is a utility on the seagate wizard that puts an "overlay" on the new drive that allows old bios's to ignore the disk size and load, but it gets seen by windows as per normal, might be worth giving that a try too....

[Xad]

On which machine did you create the ghost?

the old machine

[Shambles]

Then see chubblies post above. Your old machine doesn't, by any chance, have the Phoenix bios 1.5PG ?

[Xad]

I'll try what chubblies said and report back. I just checked the BIOS, and its not the above, instead its:
Award modular bios v.4.51PG

[Shambles]

Yup - that too only allows 32Gb "clipped" drives. That's your problem. Is there a clip setting on the jumpers of the new drive? A setting that clips it to 32gb? Without that, or the overlay "ontrack" software, you're knackered. You won't be able to boot from it or see more than 32gb at best (on the old machine).

You could, however, purchase a raid controller card (£5) which WILL see the full monty, and boot from it.

[Xad]

Yup - that too only allows 32Gb "clipped" drives. That's your problem. Is there a clip setting on the jumpers of the new drive? A setting that clips it to 32gb? Without that, or the overlay "ontrack" software, you're knackered. You won't be able to boot from it or see more than 32gb at best (on the old machine).

You could, however, purchase a raid controller card (£5) which WILL see the full monty, and boot from it.

yep, it has the 32gb pin setting - to enable it do i put a jumper on that AND the master position or just that 32gb pin position?

Also, I tried the drive on my newer PC which loads my 250gb drive fine, yet the new 80gb drive didn't load, just froze when it started the detection sequence in bootup

[Shambles]

This is a tough one. You'll not get 4.51PG to see more than 32gb so the rest of your new 80gb will be wasted. I came across this in my previous-but-one PC which had 4.51PG Award bios and I ended up buying the raid controller card I mentioned, which is unrestricted as it uses its own addressing firmware and sits in a PCI slot.

At the end of the day your old bios will not boot from your new disk nor will it see more than 32gb of it, despite whatever you clip it at. Also, I believe the ghost sequence you went thru has not created a valid boot record, due to the addressing space recorded in the MBR (master boot record)(which is invalid).

However, if you want to see at least 32gb of your new drive you will have to format it using the standard windows methods having set the clip jumpers to 32gb, and not as a master, so you won't be booting from it.

[Xad]

if i leave it as a slave drive instead of trying to set it as a master drive, will that cause any problems? Cause right now i've set it so that the old smaller drive is the master (as it was) and the new 80gb drive as the slave - windows xp loads fine and the larger drive loads aswell and is just used as storage space - the drive also shows the correct free space. Will this cause any problems that i'm unaware of, as i think this would be the easiest/quickest method and i'm not too fussed now about having the new drive as the master

[Shambles]

The way I see it, and from memory, your 4.51PG won't ever see more than 32gb. That's why the clip jumpers are there. I'd either ditch the mobo or get a raid card. Honestly, they're worth the £fiver.

[Xad]

yeh, i think i'll leave it as a slave drive as then i can use the full drive space as storage (no operating system and stuff on it).

Although, where can i get a raid card for around £5? i have one on the new PC but i paid around £12 for it from ebuyer

[Shambles]

£5 from ebay, altho £12 aint too bad a price from ebuyer

[danthescan]

Humour me here, but you say as a slave xp sees 80, gb then if it does, so does the bios mate.do you have both drives in and get it freezing or does it still freeze when in alone as a master.if it works as a standalone and is a clone there may be a conflic of boot sector as both drives are identical, try it on its own and if it works, format the old drive and it should load as a slave with the new one as master.I think thats what i mean anyway.

[Xad]

I tried it on its own but it kept freezing when it went to do the drive detection part during the boot process