Missing Secondary IDE

[GaryGnu]

I'm in the process of reimaging a computer for a friend. The computer sort of crashed. I salvaged all the files, and am trying to reinstall the OS. I had a heck of a time getting the CD ROM recoginzed before installing Win98 SE. Connected to the Master Secondary IDE, I kept getting an error that said "No Drives found, aborting installation." The only way I could get the CD ROM recognized was to hook it up as the Primary Slave. That worked, and I got the OS installed, but now if I try to move it back over to the Secondary IDE, the OS can't find it. My jumpers are correct, and I've fiddled with the BIOS settings for the secondary IDE. If I go to Control Panel->System->Device Manager, there is no Seconday IDE controller installed. I've tried using the Gateway restore CD to get the CD ROM installed. It doesn't work. Its not the IDE cable. I've tried a few. The DVD ROM works fine as the Primary Slave. I've tried removing the jumper too.

How do I get that secondary IDE controller installed?

I've got a DVD ROM and a CD burner to install. I really need to hook this up on the Secondary IDE. Primary Slave is not going to cut it.

Any help would be appreciated.

I have Win98 SE installed on a Gateway G6-400. 400MHz PII. The DVD ROM is a Toshiba DVD III.

Thanks.

Gary

 

[sgopal2]

check the cables again.
Repeated tugging on the cables can cause small separations between the plastic and wire. I've had this happen once and had to replace the entire cable.

Try a new cable.

 

[GaryGnu]

I've tried 3 different cables. And wouldn't the secondary hard disk controller exist in the device manager even if the cables were not working?

 

[nolovenohope]

Yes, Gary, that is correct, it should recognize the controller anyways. If you have time, I would try putting on a different OS. That way if you know that you have tried a different OS and still no dice, we now know that more or less the problem could be traced to a physical problem/defect on the motherboard.

 

[GaryGnu]

OK, so the motherboard could be at fault... If I got a PCI hard disk controller, I could solve this problem by creating 2 additional IDE controllers, correct? In fact, I have one on my other PC, and I don't even use the secondary IDE controller on the motherboard.

 

[GaryGnu]

Problem solved. There was an IDE setting in the BIOS as Primary/Secondary/Both. It was set to Primary. Even in the Primary mode, it allowed me to make changes to the individual Secondary settings. This is somewhat misleading. However, once I changed the IDE setting to Both, the secondary IDE controller was back, and the CD Rom drive is now recognized. Every BIOS is different!