WD 200GB & Dell 400SC Install Problem - Help

nasttcar

Senior member
Apr 11, 2003
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I want to hook my 200gb WD drive on my Dell 400SC as the slave drive, using the Dell 40GB as the master drive. First I installed the hard drive and set the jumpers at 4 and 6 for slave and used the Dell IDE cable and connected the WD200 as the slave on the cable. Rebooted and went into BIOS to indicate there is a secondary drive and selected AUTO. Computer boots up and says a WD 200GB drive is found. System manager shows it, but I only have the 40GB drive in Windows Explorer. I go back to system manager and check the drivers for the 200GB. I try to update the drivers using the floppy supplied, but it doesn't take them. I then deleted the 200gb drive from system manager and removed the drive.

I then reinstalled using the ATA board that came with the drive, again setting the drive as slave and attaching the cable as such. This time the computer says I have a 200GB scsi drive, which it isn't.

I go to WD's support page and they say to reboot the computer with the Data Lifeguard Tools floppy in the drive and install the drive that way. I reboot and get the install screen. The computer has been sitting there doing the install for 30 minutes.

I have probably installed a dozen hard drives and never had a single problem.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks, John
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
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Your drive isn't a SCSI drive, but Windows calls all PCI-based drive controllers (and their drives) SCSI whether they are or not. Don't let that bother you, it's just The Way Things Are. ;)

After installing the drive the first time on a regular IDE controller, you will probably need to go into Computer Management > Disk Management and tell it to use the drive, partition and format it, and assign a drive letter to it. If you're not sure where to find Computer Management, ask Windows Help (Start > Help).
 

RVN

Golden Member
Dec 1, 2000
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I'm using a WD1200JB and a WD2000JB on my PE400SC XP Pro SP1 ...no external controller ...no problem.

Bios is configured to autodetect and the jumpers are cable select. Belarc Advisor shows 320 GB usable hard drive capacity although, it shows it as 137 GB under "drives" when listed separately, and it reads it as 200 GB under "local drive volumes".

I've not had the occasion to use a PCI controller so I can't help you with that ...I thought I was going to have to use one in this application but tried it first without and didn't have to go there. I suggest you try using the onboard controller and see what happens.
 

nasttcar

Senior member
Apr 11, 2003
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I can't get the WD software to format the hard drive.

The WD software shows the DELL IBM/Hitachi drive as the Master, and the WD200 as the slave. The setup software for the WD lets me get to a page to pick the drive to format, and when I click Next, it then goes to a page to Copy from one drive to the next.

This is driving me crazy.
 

RVN

Golden Member
Dec 1, 2000
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What OS are you using? With Win2K or XP, it's advisable to format using Windows and not the hard drive software. Start/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management ...right click on the drive ...select format.
 

RVN

Golden Member
Dec 1, 2000
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Format the drive from ...Start/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management ...right click on the drive ...select format.
 

xizor

Platinum Member
Apr 10, 2000
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unformatted drives will still show up in windows explorer. your drive might not be partitioned, which will make the drive NOT show up in explorer. I suggest you fdisk and format it in DOS.
 

nasttcar

Senior member
Apr 11, 2003
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I would love to FDISK it but you need a drive letter to do that. There is no drive letter showing.
 

nasttcar

Senior member
Apr 11, 2003
335
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71
I got it working using diskmgmt at the run prompt.

I needed to use the ATA serial cable/card that came with the unit for it to be recognized for the full 200gb.