Booting problem when adding HD
 

These are ATA drives.
I currently have a few smaller 40 gig Hard drives on my computer, I have a 120 gig I want to use so I can get rid of 3 of the smaller ones. When I add the 120 gig, the computer doesnt boot, it just hangs on the Windows XP loading screen. I can take the HD out and it boots normally. I'm sure I have all the jumper settings correct. I'm sure I am forgetting something important so ask away for anything I have missed.

Assuming parallel ATA?

Does the BIOS correctly identify all the drives? Can you repeatedly autodetect them in the BIOS configuration without strange delays?

Jumper settings can be non-obvious, especially if you're used to one brand of logic. i.e. WD uses no jumper for master without slave. This can vary by mfg and model (especially over time).

If you've looked up the jumper positions on mfg websites yet still can't make it go, what are their brands and model numbers?

I agree with Cyrnel. It sounds like a jumper problem to me, even though you think you've got it right. Misplaced jumpers can cause hangs and delays like that.

-Lasereth

ok cool, ill give that another look, I'll let y'all know.

If you can't get the thing to cooperate let us know the drives and their positions on each cable, and each cable connector's color. True weirdness is sometimes found by mixing jumper positions with the wrong cable position on a csel cable.

-Rube (kick me now) Goldberg,
IDE Target Select Specification Author,
Got Fired From My VCR User-Interface Job,
Now I'm a Goofy-Thinking Project Lead,
Working to Screw up Gizmos All Around You.

Edit: Just to be fair, a csel cable is one with blue, gray, and black connectors. Blue is for the motherboard, gray for the slave, and black for the master.

Wow, there's actually color coding for that?

I always see it as this:

|------------------|----------|

^MOBO--------MAS^TER---SL^AVE

Wow, that's the ugliest ASCII diagram ever. Anyway, the slave and master will always be the two closest, the mobo being the loner. The slave is always on the end. :-D

Set all the jumpers to CS though. Could you tell us more about what's on the drive? Like, was windows already on it??

Not all brands co-exist consistently with CS, especially older models. Also not sure he has CS cables. When in doubt use a hammer, eh?

Ok I rechecked the jumpers, they were all fine, so I swapped my HD's from master to slave and vice versa and that seemed to do it. Not sure why it helped but it worked for me...
Thanks again for all your help.

The problem may have been innocent enough but that kind of makes me pucker here in my chair.

It's important to know the which's & why's on master/slave assignments. No rocket science. Just the things we talked about above: Jumpers, cable type, positions on cable (if blue/black/gray). And hope an old drive doesn't give you grief.

Of course, I understand if you're cruising and want to be done with it.

Good luck with it, confederate!

Well I like to consider myself pretty knowledgable about hardware, I've built computers before and this is the first problem i've had like this. It works just fine now, so hopefully problem solved.