OK, trying to breath easy. Finally got a new drive (only 6Gb but it was free) but I get this...

hda: UOSHIBA MK9113MAU ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: UOSHIBA MK9113MAU ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !, 6312MB w/128kB Cache, CHS=13680/15
/63

and the "Contact Support No Harddrive Found" I have changed the IDE cable (already had one ready) But still get the same problem, same with both drives.

Help Please !!!

Cheers
Cris.

Don't panic, if you remove the newly added hard drive, does everything work? If so you probably just have some jumper issues going on, I can't remember exactly how I configured my jumpers (I think one without any jumpers and one with jumper in the slave position) but I ended having to make my added drive the master and the old good drive the slave before it would work properly.... just play around with the jumpers.

Firstly, are you adding a second drive? If so, have you done the usual - checked that both drives have the header cable correctly aligned on the pins so that it is not "off by one pin" or "off by one row"? Is the second drive correctly jumpered so that it knows it's a slave?

Is the other end of the cable correctly onto the header on the main board, again, not OBOP or OBOR? Is the cable correctly orientated on both drives and the main board connectors? Is the cable in good condition? Do you have a pale grey with red stripe cable, or dark grey with black? Can you hear them spin up?

What happens if you remove the cable from this new drive, does the system function correctly again?

What are the types of your two drives - are they the same manufacturer?

Right, I have tried all the things I can think of.

It does not work if I go back to the first drive only.

I'm trying to add a 2nd Toshiba 6Gb drive. It worked up to the point where I put the 1st drive back in. It booted up ok from the Toshiba, I thought it was a jumper isse too but it doesn't work with the IBM in on it's own now.

Really pissed off with myself, why couldn't I just leave it alone.

I have checked all pins are aligned etc... over and over again. Tried with the original cable and still the same. What confuses me is that it can see the drive but it Uoshiba not Toshiba when it boots.

Do you think I have fried the drives ??? They do spin up ok ???

Cheers

Cris.

mmmm, Had a cup of tea, turned it on with out touching a thing, and it worked with the 1st drive on its own, added the 2nd and that worked too ???

Not too confident about it though. Hardly worth all the bother it's only worth 15Gb now, but I suppose 50% extra for free ???

Cris.

Cool... I'm glad it's working...

Me too, I goind to leave it apart for a few days to make sure its all ok.

Cheers

Cris.

Sometimes it is a good thing to just step away for a few minutes. Glad you are back in action.

Seems to be a bit iffy (technical term) with the 2nd drive, sometimes doesn't find it. I'm going to try it foe a few days, then maybe contact support for another IDE cable.

Cheers

Cris.

Seems to be a bit iffy (technical term) with the 2nd drive, sometimes doesn't find it.

You could be looking at cable or IDE header problems. Check the stuff in the FAQ under "No hard disk found".

I think you're right Tony, but I do have a new IDE cable from support. I had been having intermittant HD problems, but it went away and I never changed the cable over.

But it won't work at all with the new cable, I'm using the old one again, but it still aint right.

Sure put the wind up me, I'm now thinking again about doing the button hack my self.

But for now I have a smile on my face.

Cheers

Cris.