Trouble connecting slave hard drive

My old hard drive had a lot of error messages which I found in device manager. It all of a sudden would not load windows so I then bought and installed a new hard drive. The new hard drive works perfect and I have Windows XP Pro as my operating system. I am wanting to attempt to recover some of my data off the old drive and transfer it to the new one. The problem I am having is getting my computer to power on with the old hard drive set to slave. Whenever I plug in the power connector to the slave hard drive my power light starts blinking and my computer will not power up. The moment I insert the molex connector it starts blinking. Whenever the slave is unplugged and I am only using the new master hard drive everything works fine. I have tried to rearrange the jumper settings on both drives to a number of different positions but have no luck. One other thing that might be of some importance (but probably not), is that whenever I am only using the new drive and everything works, the ROM BIOS page appears. Once I hit F1 Windows loads up and everything runs perfectly. I have went into F2 and changed the order of the boot sequence so that the C: is the first thing in the list but it still shows up. My ROM BIOS page never came at all with my old hard drive when it was working. It only started to show up once the old drive started to have problems. I was getting the diskette seek failure message with old drive, and it now says that primary drive not found (but once I hit F1 everything boots up fine. Does anyone have any idea what is causing my computer to not power up when slave drive is connected? I am also wanting to know why my ROM BIOS page continues to appear even with a new hard drive and operating system installed? Any help or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

To start with you wont see "errors" in the device manager, not in that way anyhow, what it shows you is conflicts\driver issues and the like< basically it reports if any hardware has an issue, so if you go back into that and check there are no reported issues we can make sure that side of things is OK. Now the drive sounds like it has gone faulty, the fact a new drive is working fine supports this, and assuming you are setting the jumpers correctly on the drive, and are connecting it to the middle connector of the ide cable, then again it supports the drive failing, possibly so much so you wont be able to access it, you could try it on another system to be sure though. Sometimes drives\systems are fussy about the jumper setting, so try the alternate method and see if that helps, eg if you have it set to CS (Cable Select) then change it to slave, and vice versa, also ensure the power cable is connected properly, you shouldn't be able to put it in the wrong way, the plug is shaped to only fit 1 way, but it can't hurt to check. The last possible thing that comes to mind is your PSU, it may be possible thats turning bad, it may also be what caused the drive to go, because when one goes bad it can take other components with it, so if you could list your system spec, especially the PSU (you will need to read this from the label by removing the side, so pull the power 1st for safety), then we can see if it has known issues or anything, I don't suppose you have a PSU tester do you ?

Hi Stevie d,

Just a couple of points for clarification please.

Whenever I plug in the power connector to the slave hard drive my power light starts blinking and my computer will not power up. The moment I insert the molex connector it starts blinking.

I hope the statement in your quote above is not "literally exactly true".
Specifically, what I mean is that components such as hard drives should not be connected "while the computer is powered on".

You probably didn't mean it that way, but I want to make sure.
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Next, as 8210guy requests, we'll need additional information about your machine to get a better understanding of what may be occurring.

When two HDs are connected with the same IDE ribbon cable their jumper settings must be coordinated.
Newer systems have an 80wire IDE ribbon and like to use Cable Select.
Therefore if you bought a new HD, it is most likely set to Cable Select by default.

If you then set your "old" HD to "Slave", it will not be recognized since the combinations need to be:

Cable Select - Cable Select (for both HDs)
or
Master - Slave (with Master connected at the end, and Slave connected at the Middle of your IDE ribbon)

If your machine is "older" it might still have the older 40 wire IDE ribbon cable.
If that is the case, Cable Select jumper setting might not work properly.

Upgrading to a newer 80 wire IDE ribbon cable will make it easier for your HDs to work as both in Cable Select.
More than likely, you received a newer 80 wire IDE ribbon cable when you bought your new HD.
If not, they are relatively inexpensive and worth the upgrade.
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Again as 8210guy points out, you may have a failing PSU Power Supply Unit.

If you do not have the ability to test the PSU, you might consider disconnecting the molex power supply connector to your optical drive (CD ROM) and to your Floppy Drive, and remove any other newer components that you may have added to your machine as upgrades.
Then try connecting both HDs.
If you have sufficient power with that configuration to activate both HDs, then you do probably have a problem with PSU.

I suppose you could retrieve your needed data and files by copy/paste from the old HD to the new (while optical drive and floppy are disconnected. And then remove your old HD before reconnecting optical drive and floppy drive.

Still, you will have received warning that your PSU is just barely able to provide power to your system and should be replaced.
Note: When PSU's are failing and/or when they fail, they can cause problems (damage) to other machine components… so you should seriously consider replacing the PSU if it is found to be failing.

For additional information about PSU, here a look here:
http://forums.whatthetech.com/Power_Supply…or_t106420.html

Best Regards
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Just to clarify, my computer is ALWAYS turned OFF whenever I attempt plugging anything in. It was most definitely turned off every time I tried connecting the hard drives (the power was shut down but the cable was still plugged into the electrical outlet). I purchased my computer in 2003 and have not replaced the ribbon cable connecting to the HD, although my buddy just connected a new ribbon cable going from the CD ROM to the mobo. My old CD ROM drive was bad so I had to put in a new one so I could install XP to the new HD. I did have to replace the PSU a few years ago so it is only a few years old, although I'm sure there is the possibility that it needs to be replaced again. I have attempted a few different jumper setting configurations with both HD's but I don't know if they were correct. I even tried connecting the old HD as the master by itself but got the same blinking power light. Have you ever heard of a HD causing the problem with the blinkig light like I am having? I bought the replacement PSU from Dell a few years ago. I just called Dell and after a big hassle and long wait they told me that it is a 250 watt dell PSU model # N2286. They told me that my Dimension 4600 can only take up to 250 watts and nothing bigger. Does this sound correct to you? I am wanting to avoid unscrewing and taking out my current PSU but if it is necessary than I will.

Hi Stevie D,

It's your machine and your own safety, so you ultimately make all the choices.

However, WTT wants to be sure that you get ACCURATE information that will best safeguard the components of your machine, your entire machine, and your personal safety when working inside the case.
Digerati, one of our well-known Techs, and an MS MVP in his own right, has provided good tips regarding Safety and electrical charges during computer service.
http://forums.whatthetech.com/Maintenance_…SD_t103649.html

Please note that turning the machine off, but allowing the power cord to remain plugged in, DOES NOT insure that no power is active in the case. I'm looking inside of an old Dell on my bench right now. It's been turned-off for several days, yet the LED indicating a power trickle to the RAM pre-charge has been burning brightly all of that time.

Please Read Digerati's Post.
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As to Dell's statement that your Dell machine will only handle a PSU up to no larger size than 250 watts….
that's just plain ridiculous.
You could easily fit a 750 watt or even larger PSU into that machine (assuming it was configured correctly for Dell-branded machines) and the machine would still only pull the necessary Watts required for operation. Sure that would still be something less than 250 watts… even if you had a much higher rated PSU.
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The reality of the situation is that Dell is very "proprietary" about their their machines and have taken steps to insure that only their own PSU and mobo products can be used in Dell machines. Give a comparative look at the PSU-MOBO connector. You will probably be able to detect that the Dell connector is different from a standard generic or branded ATX form-factor PSU connector from any other brand or self assembled machine. To the best of my knowledge, Dell is the only one that does this and in some cases, they are also thought to reverse the ground connector to make sure that any attempt to substitute PSU will not be effective…. Buy Dell PSU for Dell machines.
More likely, Dell has designed the Dell Case and the Dell-branded PSU to physically fit your Dell 4600 with physical size/shape and screw patterns specific to that machine.
Bummer.

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Now does it look like your need a new PSU…. probably not.

The machine boots and runs with the new HD.
You have previously replaced the PSU.
No way of guaranteeing how long a PSU will last in service, but I've got two Dell machines in service right now, that have been laboring away for over 8 years each pretty much 24/7/365.

The problem only appears when you connect the old (faulty) HD.

That kinda narrows down your diagnostic.
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As to recovering important data and files…

That definitely sound problematic at this point.

You may improve your chances by:

** Installing a fresh 80 wire IDE ribbon.
** Trying to install as Slave or Cable select into a different known-good machine.
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No.
I have never before heard of connecting a HD to cause a blinking amber power button light.

Wish I had better news for you.

Best Regards

I agree with Doug about Dell's claim about the max size of the PSU, there are only 2 things that determine the size of a PSU, 1st the unit MUST be able to supply the power requirements of the board\hardware of a system, so it is a minimum issue, not a maximum one, 2nd is the physical size of the unit, and being a Dell I suspect that is the only limiting factor here, because they do use non standard sizes at times, but reputable makers offer units to fit some of they're systems, I know PCP&C (and are the leaders in this field IMHO) do, they have a section specific to replacing Dell PSU's, so it may be worth your while seeing what they offer, because 250w is pretty low powered compared to modern systems, and it may well be a factor in some of your issue.

Doug and 8210GUY….thanks for your time and info, it is much appreciated. I guess I will just have to forget about my old data and start from scratch, kinda sucks but oh well. Although this is not a hardware question maybe you guys will have an answer… Why do I keep getting my ROM BOIS screen before Windows boots up? My boot sequence has C: first on the list. Is there a way to change this so I don't have to always hit F1 to boot OS? Thanks again Steve

My daughters system has just started doing this, I need to find out whats going on myself, the message I suspect your getting is not as simple as you think, if it is what I suspect it is telling you the system has failed, and has reset the CMOS settings, if this is the case it will offer you 2 choices, first hit F1 to accept the defaults and continue to boot (this is what I suspect your doing), otherwise it asks you to go into the settings and make the relevant changes before proceeding. My suspicions at this time for my system is CMOS battery, or worse the PSU, but I need to run some checks and do some research first, but from what you've said I think you may be facing the same problem as me.