Not recognizing Hard Drive.

[Helenihi]

I'm putting together a system for my sister. I reused the mb/processor to save some cash. I got it all together, it posts, it gets to the BIOS, but it won't recognize the hard drive.

The Drive isn't bad, I stuck it in my comp and it recognized it.
It's not the cable, since the I had the cd-rom on the same cable and I could get it to recognize that.

Here's what I've got.

Abit BH6 Motherboard(old)
Pentium III 450 Katmai (old)
Western Digital 40gb
Ati Radeon 7200
Creative 128(old)
Generic DVD

300W PS that was good enough to power my K7S5A/1.4 until I switched cases.

So what's better, something obvious that I feel stupid for not knowing, but is easy to fix, or a complex problem that will cause a big hassle but I don't have to feel stupid for?

 

[HappyPuppy]

WD hard drives have 3 jumper settings:
slave
single
master with slave
Be sure you have it jumpered to single.

 

[ddeder]

If the jumper setting is not the problem, try installing the HD from your computer into your sister's system. If it is not recognized, then you may have a mobo, BIOS problem.

You might also try a different ribbon cable and PSU connector.

 

[Helenihi]

I checked the jumper, and it worked in my comp as master. Guess I'll try my hard drive in the other next. Of course, if mine doesn't work, and it is some sort of motherboard thing, I've got a whole other problem I have to deal with.

Thanks.

 

[Motorheader]

Western Digital drives:

I have used THOUSANDS of WD drives. When there is only one drive in the chain - in this case the WD drive - you can "park" the jumper or even remove it.

 

[AreEss64]

Did you remember to use the IDE cable included w/the motherboard? That's bit me more than a few times when doing mo'board swaps, and a lot of the newer boards seem to demand it. (ie; Can't use 40wEIDE on an ATA66/ATA100 board even if the drive only supports UDMA33. Don't ask.)