hollywoodkid Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 im more of a software person not a hardware guy but i decided to start making a computer by finding spare parts and stuff. i spent about a year finding stuff and i finally added the last piece of the "puzzle" the hard disk. i added just like the google images showed me (yes i googled don't judge) but i turned on the computer and added the windows xp disk and it said hard disk was not found. Help me whats the matter?The hard disk was from a broken computer so i took it to one of those places that sweep the memory or whatever could the problem be the hard disk is broken?Stuff on sticker: 512 mb ddr 400mhz cl3 hynix and a jumble of letters and numbers that are too long for effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Check the jumper on the hd.. make sure its not set for slave… or master.... depending on what the diagram on the HD says. Some hd's wont work if set as master or slave if its the only drive.Check your bios. maybe you have it turned off there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollywoodkid Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 how do i tell if the bios is on or off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 on top of the drive you should see a label similar to this…If your hd is not on the same cable as your cd drive or… and if it is not on the same cable as another drive... make sure it is set for Cable Select or master/singleSome hard drives dont want a jumper at all if its the only drive. just check the label on the drive. the jumper is the little piece of plastic that connects the two pins.for the bios try pressing f1, f2, f11, or del usually the computer will tell you what to press when you first start it to get into setup mode. in bios you need to look for the ide configuration page and make sure that the ide port 1 is not turned off. Unfortunately all bios screens are different so i cant really walk you through this step too much... it should be self explanitory tho... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollywoodkid Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 thats mine it only has 6 of the little needle things. does this mean its master or single drive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 depends where that grey jumper is set to… look on the top of drive.. it should give you a picture and tell you what setting is master slave or cs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollywoodkid Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 oh i see what you mean it says its CS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollywoodkid Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 ok so now i turn on the computer and it says media failure reboot and select correct boot or insert media disk so i put in the emachines windows xp disk (the comp IS emachines) and it says system recovery! harddisk not found system recovery failed press any key to continue and it shuts off. and before i put the disk in i hit f1 f2 f11 and delete and nothing happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 it might be esc… you have to do it right when you turn on the computer. If i dont know what button it is i try to hit all of them at the same time or hit them all as fast as i can.Can you see the computer detecting the componets, or does it just have an Emachines splash screen. Hopefully you'll see it test the memory, and say primary ide: WD500 or something like that.If you can see something like that but it says primary ide: not installed then bios is not seeing your hd. You have to get into your bios.if you still cant get in just try pressing all the f keys... its different for each computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emblem Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Isn't it F8 for bios? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 f8 is for safemod of windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollywoodkid Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 OK i made some progress!! after fiddling with things and blowing the tip of my finger off i have gotten it to bring up a menu on startup that says (GATEWAY) f2 for bios f10 boot menuBUT! i hit f2 and nothing happens and after a minute or 2 it says can't find cd/dvd drive. i need this ofcourse to install windows xp… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollywoodkid Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 found my problem (i think)the cord doesnt reach to that one thing (name is forgotten)the cord thats shown is labeled p6 and p7 assuming i need 06 in cd drive and p7 in that other thing but it doesnt reachtheres another cord similar to it labeled p2-4 but it didnt work to i think i need that cord to reach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 ok for bios kepp pressing f2 every half second at least until you hear it beep and keeps beeping everytime you press it when you first turn on your computer.as for the cables… you floppy should have its own cord. Your cd can be attached to your hard drive but it is usually better to have it on its own cord.HD should be plugged into IDE0 or IDE1 depending on the mother board.CD should be plugged into IDE1 or IDE2.....If you dont have two ide cables you can have your cd on the same cable as your HD. Just make sure that you set the HD to master, and the CD to slave. If your HD and CD are both set to master it will bork your computer and it wont find the drives. Im not sure exactly what you drew there :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollywoodkid Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 @Gwen:> ok for bios kepp pressing f2 every half second at least until you hear it beep and keeps beeping everytime you press it when you first turn on your computer.> > as for the cables… you floppy should have its own cord. Your cd can be attached to your hard drive but it is usually better to have it on its own cord.> > HD should be plugged into IDE0 or IDE1 depending on the mother board.> CD should be plugged into IDE1 or IDE2.....> > If you dont have two ide cables you can have your cd on the same cable as your HD. Just make sure that you set the HD to master, and the CD to slave. If your HD and CD are both set to master it will bork your computer and it wont find the drives. > > Im not sure exactly what you drew there :Puhhhhhhhh…..... k um idk what an ide is im going to say its the rainbowy cord? in which case yes i have 2. how do i set my cd to slave? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 same as the hard drive… it has a jumper on it, and right above the jumper and pins it should have M S CS or look at the top of the drive like the HD and it should tell you.If you look on your motherboard to where the "rainbow" cords are they should plug into two slots. check if those slots say ide next to them. The ide cable should be flat, and its the only cable that will plug into the cd drive or hard drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollywoodkid Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 k well i made the cd slave and hd master so now to the ide parts one sec. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollywoodkid Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 ok the ide cables are grey and they have master on them right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admiral Refuge Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 This is chitchat, so no worries, but for future reference, please don't doublepost :)Just edit your last post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 depends on the cable.. some have master… mine dont...but if it says master you could make your drives cs and just put your hd on the plug that says master...but if you manually make the jumpers master and slave it wont matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollywoodkid Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 well i made master hd and slave cd and didnt detect cd so i tried vise versa and it detected cd but not hd. ill try cable select really quick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 try to get in bios and make sure that autodetect ide is turned on… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollywoodkid Posted July 10, 2009 Author Share Posted July 10, 2009 ide was already on but i messed around for awhile and now i got it now i just need a video card and ill be fine. ty everyone for the help =D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 great ^_^glad you got it working! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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