problem installing new hard drive on ME

[menmom4]

I tried installing a hard drive on my childrens computer.  It was running ME.  I put in a Western Digital 300 GB and the bios did not recognize this even though I booted from the CD.  I was afraid that the 300 GB was too big so I installed a 160 GB WD.  The bios will still not recognize this drive even when booting from the CD-ROM.  I do not have any jumpers on this drive as it is considered a single.  What am I doing wrong.  I installed one on my mothers computer with no problem at all with the same operating system.  HELP!!  menmom4

[truenorth]

memmom, The 1st item that needs to be enlarged upon are the specifics of the computer that you are trying to introduce these HDD's to as there can be definite limitations as to compatibility based on age of the computer and thus it's ability to accept these devices. So give us the specs on the computer. The impression is that you are wanting to "add" this HD thus it will definitely need to be jumpered to slave for it to be recognized.Eventually once recognized items like formatting,partitioning and perhaps other considerations will also need to be addressed. Are these drives new out of the box or are they units removed from another computer with data still on them?If they are new you should be able to contact the tech support of the Mgr. for assistance in configuring them to your computer. My experience has been that most HD Msgr's. do provide very good telephone tech support (particularly at the set up stage which is what you are doing).So give us some more info and i am sure there will be some guidance forthcoming. good luck( and by the way welcome to CH forums)truenorth

[dahlarbear]

Need more info:

1.  What are the model numbers for the Western Digital 160 GByte and 300 GByte hard drives?

2.  What CD are you attempting to boot from (and why)?  Western Digital CD? Microsoft Windows Installation CD?  OEM Recovery CD?

3.  PC Manufacturer/Model Number (if "Brand Name" computer), otherwise Manufacturer/Model Number of the motherboard.

4.  Approximate manufacture date (month/year) of the computer?

5.  Which operating system is the computer using (or will be using)?  Windows ME or Windows XP?

6.  Are you planning to reinstall the operating system onto the new hard drive in a single drive configuration?

7.  Opinion.  An older BIOS (date) and operating system may limit the size (capacity) of hard drive that you may access.  Without loading special sector addressing software, you may be up against the 137 GByte limit.  For example, I'm running Windows ME on an HP Pavilion 6736 computer manufactured July 2000.  Because I decided not to use the special addressing software, I'm only able to access 137 GBytes of my 160 GByte Seagate hard drive.  I did this to avoid corrupting my data should some well intentioned person slave the drive to another system to recover data without the necessary addressing software.  I seem to recall both Western Digital and Seagate have information regarding the addressing limitation, but I can't seem to wrap my mind around the problem without getting a headache.

    using a drive larger than 137GB

My unsolicited advice is to work with the Western Digital 160 GByte drive and if it gives you 137 GBytes without doing anything special, then take it and move on.

[dahlarbear]

The bios will still not recognize this drive even when booting from the CD-ROM.

From the Western Digital website:
EIDE drive not detected or recognized by the system BIOS

configure a WD EIDE drive using the Alternate Jumper Settings

[patio]

Meanwhile, she's gone missing...