Jumpering CD drives on a secondary IDE channel (Dimension 4400)

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news.rcn.com - 24 Mar 2008 03:09 GMT

Trying to install a laptop hdd in my Dimension 4400 to copy contents to
another drive: It will only install as a master because there is no space
for putting a jumper conector with the 2.5 to 3.5 adapter in place

The problem is that when I disconnect my primary IDE CD on the secondary IDE
channel and put the 2.5 inchdrive in as the master, the OS cant see the
drive at all! It sees the slave CD but not the disc drive. I have tried
jumpering the CD as a slave, as a Cable select (and obviously stupidly as a
master) but nothing will let the OS or BIOS see the HDD! Obviously when I
try to put two masters on the cable, it causes problems but I cant
understand why the computer cant see the HDD as any sort of hard drive on
this secondary IDE channel? Is there something I am missing here? I have
even tried upgrading the BIOS from A02 to A06 but the computer still cant
see the HDD on this secondary channel.

I have tried booting into windows, booting into the BIOS (which isnt
particularly good at identifying which drives are actually there) and
booting into UBCD4WIN.

Nothing will let it see the drive! Is there some sort of jumper on the mobo
which needs resetting on a Dimension 4400?

(I might add that it wont now see the drive as a Master on the primary IDE
with the primaty 3.5 inch IDE unconnected but I thought I would ge tto that
later while I am trying to copy one drive to the other with Partition
Commander.)

Yes, the power IS connected to the 2.5 inch adapter.

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Christopher Muto - 24 Mar 2008 14:33 GMT

when you connect it to the secondary controller, the one with the optical
drives, are you using the same ide cable that the optical drives are
connected? you probably need a higher quality ide cable than what the
optical drives have. also, it is possible that you have the ide cable
connected backwards. most of these 2.5->3.5 ide adapters do not have
polarity fixed and so it is easy to connect the adapter incorrectly to the
drive or the cable to the adapter. finally, if you are really stuck you can
always purchase an external usb type ide hard disk enclosure that should
make easy work of this.

> Trying to install a laptop hdd in my Dimension 4400 to copy contents to
> another drive: It will only install as a master because there is no space
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
>
> Yes, the power IS connected to the 2.5 inch adapter.

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Ben Myers - 24 Mar 2008 15:16 GMT

In addition, every 2.5" drive I have handled recently has two jumper pairs right
there on the drive itself for setting either IDE slave or IDE cable select. The
default setting is IDE master, with no jumper at all.

One must pay attention to the IDE drive cable. Dell has almost always used
cable-select cables, where the drive's master-or-slave setting is conditioned by
the the position where it is connected to the cable. If the drive is attached
to the most distant cable connector, it is a master. If connected to the
middle cable connector, it is a slave. This presupposes that the drive itself
is jumpered for cable select.

Unless the drive is incorrectly attached to the 2.5->3.5 adapter, I would bet
that the drive is not being seen by the system because it's master-slave-cable
select orientation is not clear... Ben Myers

>when you connect it to the secondary controller, the one with the optical
>drives, are you using the same ide cable that the optical drives are
[quoted text clipped - 34 lines]
>>
>> Yes, the power IS connected to the 2.5 inch adapter.

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news.rcn.com - 28 Mar 2008 22:45 GMT

> In addition, every 2.5" drive I have handled recently has two jumper pairs
> right
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
>>always purchase an external usb type ide hard disk enclosure that should
>>make easy work of this.

Thanks guys and sorry for the delay in responding but my NG internet access
is very iffy at the moment

I have noticed that you CAN select master or slave by jumpering the 2.5 inch
drive but I ahve never seen a jumper which is that small and there is no
space to put a jumper between the drive and the pins on my adapter. Plus I
have always used these adapters successfully before. (Yes, I do know which
way to put the drive on it)

I have been fairly careful to make sure that the CD drive is in the middle
of the cable and the Master HDD with adapter is on the end [actually it is
difficult to connect it any other way] but it hadnt occurred to me that the
actual cable marked by Dell to be IDE1 could be different from the one they
mark IDE2?

For my purposes I have always used Partition Commander to copy drives by
booting off their CD. I was never sure that you could copy a drive
successfully by using an external enclosure and trying to copy all the
files. (eg using Linux?) How do you copy things like the Master Boot Record?

>>> Trying to install a laptop hdd in my Dimension 4400 to copy contents
>>> to
[quoted text clipped - 29 lines]
>>>
>>> Yes, the power IS connected to the 2.5 inch adapter.

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