Primary and Slave HDD problems

[Mohammad]

now this is wierd but i cannot use the primary and slave combnied , however if i run the two serperately they run fine. I was actually using both the HDD simultaneously ( QUantum Fireball 7200 as primamry and WD 5200[not sure] as slave ) . Then suddenly the WD went off and when i tried to run it seperately as primary it was running fine. Sam applies to the Quantum Fire Ball ...Any suggestions

 

[TGirl]

This may be a very obvious answer that you probably checked but did you set the jumper settings on the hd correctly? Also, make sure the cable is not damaged. If you keep plugging and unplugging one of the pins could bend or break off.

 

[Topochicho]

Ok not really sure of your tech knowledge level, so I'm gonna start with th basics.
Did you reset jumpers to make the WD work as Solo and then readjust them to work as Slave?

Thing is, most WDs have the jumper on in one position for Slave another for Master and completely off for Solo. If you hadn't touched the jumpers at all, this would sound like you had the drive jumpered for slave and then the jumper fell off and would only work solo.

 

[Mohammad]

yeah i dunno anything about the jumper settings about the hard drive.... i actually haven't touched them... so what should i do with the jumpers...

 

[Topochicho]

WDs tend to be very good about documenting thier jumper positions on the actual drive. on the top of the drive usually at the bottom of the sticker there should be a little diagram showing at least 2 different jumper positions (there may be as many as 6) there should be a listing for slave, there maybe a second listing for slave, but if you read everything you should be able to see one is for special applications and the other is standard, usually the one jumper solution vs two. On the front of the drive where you plug in the ide cable there should be a set of jumper terminals that look like the diagram. Place a jumper as they show and everything should be wonderful. Usually the there will be 6 terminals and the jumper will go on the middle two for slave but the drive will tell for sure.

Only one problem... did jumper just loose contact and its still on the drive or did it fall off... any jumper will work if you can find one, but you may have to scrounge an unused on from your motherboard or sound card or modem. the Quantum may even have a spare. As long as the jumper only hooks onto one terminal and not 2, its a spare.


without knowing your model # I can't pull up specifics, but here is a link to a picture of what I am talking about... just have to scroll down a little.

 

[Mohammad]

what about the cable ... i am jsut using one cable ... it has two slots ... one is is in the Quantum and the other in WD... is there another cable that should be used for the Master/Slave combinations or the normal cable is fine ...

 

[dcdomain]

That cable should be fine... but it might be finicky. Do you have the end on the master and the middle slot on the slave? Try messing around with that...