How to format a new hard drive?

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 11:42 am

I'm trying to format a brand new hard drive to use as a second drive in my computer tower, but for some reason I can't figure out how to format it.

When I plugged it in, my computer recognized it as "New Hardware Found".
Then, it showed another message saying "New Hardware Ready to Use"

So, I did exactly what I did last time to format.
I went to this screen:

Then, I went here...

And, then to this screen where I should be able to "see" the new drive so I can format it...

I'm pretty much stumped by now as to find a way to get the new drive to show up here in this third sceeen so I can format it which after that's done it will show up as a healthy drive just like the others.

Anybody got any ideas about what I can do?
(Note: C,G, and E are the drive that were in my box BEFORE I started adding this new drive so none of these ARE NOT the drives that is the new one I just installed)

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 12:32 pm

Is this all IDE drives? (including CDROM) Since I don't think you can have more then 4 IDE devices at once, and I'm surprised there was even some place to plug it in. Try plugging it instead of the CDROM drive just to see if it shows up, but if you do this then you won't be able to use your CDROM drive, but you could always get an external enclosure too, for the HDD. Just be sure to get one that's well cooled if you plan to have it turned on all the time.

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richardj · Post by **richardj** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:01 am

Yeah--something there makes no sense

You COULD plug it on the same cable as your CD (actually, you'd have to) but this may degrade the speed of your hard drive.

They say that the transfer speed on any one IDE cable is only as fast as the slowest drive.

You can get a PCI card that will allow you to expand to 4 more drives.

Go into the device manager & look for your new drive there

As you see on mine , I have 2 hard drives & 2 CDs.

If your new drive is there, check its status or uninstall it & reboot.

Also, did you set the jumpers on the drive correctly?

It has to be set to slave ASSUMING that your CD is set to master.

Most hard drives come factory set as master.

You say "to use as a second hard drive"--but you now have 3

what does that mean?

WOW_-Yeah I just looked again--what DID you plug it into??

Your drive lettering screwed me up.

You already have 4 drives there, that's all you can plug in--did you plug it in??

That's too screwy the way you have them lettered--

The first cable should be C: & D:

C: should be disk 0 master (Windows operating system) (now where you have G: ?)

D: should be disk 1 slave

The second cable should have the hard drive as the master E: (disk 0)

Then make the CD as a slave & make it F: (disk 1)

It looks like you have your main C: drive as a slave on the CDrom cable---that's screwy & wrong & I'm sure it's affecting the performance of your PC.

Then the one drive is listed as 'drive 2'--how can that be?

It's either drive 0 or drive 1.

You also have to go into the Bios & see that its booting correctly after you iron out these cabling issues.

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MikeDB · Post by **MikeDB** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 4:06 am

night hawk?

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richardj · Post by **richardj** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 4:11 am

MikeDB wrote: night hawk?

Sure

It used to be my CB radio handle, and, as I'm on at night alot----

besides, it's coool

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rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 8:31 am

i believe you hit the nail on the head there.

i looks like they have it set to master and so the cable they connected to
seen it and the cdrom drive as master.

check the jumper pin.

there is only 2 gray cable plugs on the morther board or is only normaly if you got a cutom made one you might get more.

you will need to buy a raid card to get more hard drives if you have a cdrom and dvd player they will take one cable.

also you will need to make sure your power supply can handle the new demand.
you should also put another case cooling fan in the case.

so nighthawk?

i remember shoutin' at a nighthawk when i was doing OTR. been awhile and not sure if it was you or not. i stopped driving in 96.

you know my cb handle.

i use it online too.

rovingcowboy

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richardj · Post by **richardj** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:43 am

They do have raid controllers, but I'm talking about a PCI IDE Controller.

It just gives you plug ins for 4 more hard drives.

I gave up with the 'master/slave' thing on my PC.

I'd set them wrong & have to take everything apart again.

So, I set mine to CS or Cable Select & haven't had a problem since.

PCI IDE Controller

The PCI IDE controller is capable of supporting upto two IDE channels (primary and secondary) with two
devices per channel for a total of four IDE devices. The two channels in the IDE controller are independent
and do not effect each others operation. The control registers for each channel follow the AT Attachment
(ATA) Interface Standard with one exception defined below. The PCI IDE controller (supporting two
channels) is a single PCI function. A PCI device supporting four IDE channels would be a multifunction
device (actually two functions) where each function is a PCI IDE controller supporting two channels. PCI
IDE controllers (like all PCI devices) must implement and respond to PCI Configuration Space

Masters and Slaves
A single IDE interface can support two devices. Most motherboards come with dual IDE interfaces (primary and secondary) for up to four IDE devices. Because the controller is integrated with the drive, there is no overall controller to decide which device is currently communicating with the computer. This is not a problem as long as each device is on a separate interface, but adding support for a second drive on the same cable took some ingenuity.

To allow for two drives on the same cable, IDE uses a special configuration called master and slave. This configuration allows one drive's controller to tell the other drive when it can transfer data to or from the computer. What happens is the slave drive makes a request to the master drive, which checks to see if it is currently communicating with the computer. If the master drive is idle, it tells the slave drive to go ahead. If the master drive is communicating with the computer, it tells the slave drive to wait and then informs it when it can go ahead.

The computer determines if there is a second (slave) drive attached through the use of Pin 39 on the connector. Pin 39 carries a special signal, called Drive Active/Slave Present (DASP), that checks to see if a slave drive is present.

Although it will work in either position, it is recommended that the master drive is attached to the connector at the very end of the IDE ribbon cable. Then, a jumper on the back of the drive next to the IDE connector must be set in the correct position to identify the drive as the master drive. The slave drive must have either the master jumper removed or a special slave jumper set, depending on the drive. Also, the slave drive is attached to the connector near the middle of the IDE ribbon cable. Each drive's controller board looks at the jumper setting to determine whether it is a slave or a master. This tells them how to perform. Every drive is capable of being either slave or master when you receive it from the manufacturer. If only one drive is installed, it should always be the master drive.

Many drives feature an option called Cable Select (CS). With the correct type of IDE ribbon cable, these drives can be auto configured as master or slave. CS works like this: A jumper on each drive is set to the CS option. The cable itself is just like a normal IDE cable except for one difference -- Pin 28 only connects to the master drive connector. When your computer is powered up, the IDE interface sends a signal along the wire for Pin 28. Only the drive attached to the master connector receives the signal. That drive then configures itself as the master drive. Since the other drive received no signal, it defaults to slave mode

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manadren_it · Post by **manadren_it** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:57 pm

anyone else baffled by the screenshots? I mean what do event logs have to do with formating a hard drive, aside form the fact that an unformatted hard drive will generate events?

Well first I'd want to nwo what kind of hard drive it is? IDE, SATA, external Usb, etc.

Second I would want to know how exactly you were trying to format the drive in the first place.

What I normally use to format a drive is disk management (diskmgmt.msc from the run command)

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richardj · Post by **richardj** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:13 pm

manadren wrote: anyone else baffled by the screenshots? I mean what do event logs have to do with formating a hard drive, aside form the fact that an unformatted hard drive will generate events?

Well first I'd want to nwo what kind of hard drive it is? IDE, SATA, external Usb, etc.

Second I would want to know how exactly you were trying to format the drive in the first place.

What I normally use to format a drive is disk management (diskmgmt.msc from the run command)

I don't understand at all.

His original screenshots WERE of the diskmgmt.

Then yesterday, there were no pics at all.

Plus he's never come back to respond to our posts--which is irritating.

So, who knows?

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