Can't find harddisk!!!

[Apoorva1]

Hey guys,

I'm 15, my dad recently was upgrading the computer and he was just replacing the master hard disk 80GB (2 partitions C/D) with a 160GB hard disk. Then what he did was remove the MBR (Master Boot Record) from C/D hardisk so he could start from scratch. I also have another harddisk, this is also 80GB and was used as a form of backup and storage and was also used along side with the first hard disk. My dad passed the command on DOS:

fdisk/mbr

In order to install XP again on the new 160GB. After installing it without any problems, he hooked up the old drive the 80GB storage and backup drive but the problem is that it wouldn't work, like it wouldn't find it and hook it up with the comp.

He tried changin the IDE channel for both and he also tried them on the same channel keeping one as the Master and one as the Slave... Still didn't work.

A friend of mine says that somehow the MBR record on the storage hard disk might have been corrupted and he was looking for a program but forgot its name.

I would just like to know if you guys have any insight on this problem such as solutions or maybe a program that can help me either restore or create the MBR...

Your help would be much appreciated,
Thanks,
Apoorva

 

[The_Other_One]

First off, you don't need to do ANYTHING with fdisk when you're installing any of the NT OSs(well, maybe NT4.0, never worked with that ^^;; ) But XP for sure has it's own format and partitioning stuff in the setup...

Lets see...first, I'd make sure the jumpers are correct on both. Western Digital drives, in particular, can be very picky about the settings. Check a manual for the specific settings.

Make sure the bios is set up for the drives, or the channels you'll be using are set to auto.

 

[ACES WILD]

IDE Cables

Something like this happened to me, but it was when I built a comp a little while ago, it was such a stupid mistake, you already checked the IDE channels right? If you did, take a look at the end of the cable that goes to the hard disk, you may have put it in backwards, thats what I did, I had mine upsidedown because it was an older IDE cable, and it didnt have any of the pin blocks in it so you cant really tell. that may be the case. Also are you trying to use rounded IDE cables? because if you have a regular flat one, and you round it yourself, if you dont have an electromagnetic net thing around the newly rounded cable, if you did it yourself then the currents from the wires could be screwing woith your signal.