Trying to install slave HD...

I have posted a similar topic to this one on WarezWaldo.com, and I was advised to come here.

Right now, I have a hard drive in my hands that has some very important files on it. My greatest artistic accomplishment can only be found on this hard drive. However, the task of installing it probably won't be easy, if even possible. I'll be forever indebted to anyone who can help me fix this.

You see, at about the same time, the only two computers in my house died. This was about two years ago. One of them was my fault, I admit; I tried installing a new OS on it, and I didn't really know what the h*** I was doing. However, the other accident shouldn't have happened. It really sucks that it did. I don't remember the exact details, but the computer just no longer worked. I don't know what happened, and what did happen I don't remember, but the OS is probably corrupt. When I tried installing the hard drive onto this computer, the closest I got was having both of the hard drives show up (that is, the corrupt one and the one originally on this computer). However, I think it somehow wanted to make the corrupt one the master HD, because before the OS could load, it came up with a message that said something like "NTLDR is missing." I'm assuming it's some system file. In the BIOS, it is mentioned that the 5900-some MB hard drive (the one in this computer) is Hard Drive 1, and there is no Hard Drive 0. The one success I had made the 10 GB hard drive (the corrupt one) appear as number 0, and it brought up the NTLDR problem.

I have a 300 MHz Acer Aspire MT II computer. The operating system on both hard drives is Windows ME. I've gone to the device manager, and it says that there is a "Primary IDE Controller (dual fifo)" and a "Secondary IDE Controller (dual fifo)." Upon clicking "Properties" for both of them, there is no mention of problems in the "Device Status." Under the "Resources" tab, both devices mention that their parent device is the "Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller," and both say there are "No conflicts."

The same person on WarezWaldo that sent me here told me I should give you all the make/model of the hard drives, the make/model of the motherboard, and the BIOS version. Here is what I found:

Drive 1 (one that came with the computer):
Maxtor DiamondMax 2880 Ultra ATA
Model: 90576D4

Drive 2 (the corrupt one):
Western Digital WD Caviar
MDL: WD100AA
—60ANA0

On the BIOS is this tag:

V65XA
BIOS
U37
V-3, 1R01-B0R1
© Copyright
Acer Inc.

On the motherboard, I found two Intel chips. One had this label:

AGPset
FW82443EX
L815|A32
SL2SA
Intel©®'96

The other had this label:

PCIset
FW82371AB
L811|E76
SL23P
Intel©®'96

Not sure if I understood you correctly but both HDs have OS's which are corruped and won't boot? Considering these are on FAT32, boot to DOS and transfer files that you wan't to save from one computer to another and then format the drive and install the OS. If they are on NTFS and you to try to fix the OS installation , try Windows Recovery Console or Super WinPE. BTW thanks for that site.

edit : after reading your post at warezwaldo
it sounds like you do not know how to install a HD?
Dude I'm actually confused now. Google is your friend http://www.harddriveupgrade.com/

Well, the computer I am using now is the one that I have the hard drives in. The original (Maxtor) is in perfect condition and has a running Windows ME operating system. The other (Western Digital), however, is corrupt. Keep in mind, I am looking for a specific file on the corrupt hard drive, and the computer will not recognize the drive (in the BIOS). I cannot find it in My Computer, either, though it does mention it in the Device Manager... Or am I interpreting this Device Manager information as something else? Thanks.

-Daniel

Edit: Agh. C'mon, I know how to install a hard drive. No offense to anyone is intended here, but I hate it when I appear to be some retarded n00b. I'm real good with computers. I've followed all the advice in the topic, and I have not yet solved the problem. I took the IDE cable that the good hard drive is attached to and attached it also to the corrupt hard drive. I've set all the jumper pins and put in all the power supply cords. And I did that all by myself.

Well, first of all the computer should boot with your maxtor as Master and WD as slave. There's no reason for it to do otherwise unless you have the jumpers wrong, or the ide cable is defective. There could be a setting in your motherboard bios that controls which ide channel to boot from first.


Anyway, you can copy a new ntldr and ntdetect.com from your windows cd to the harddrive.

At the Command Prompt type the following (where "X" is your CD-Rom drive letter) allowing the files to overwrite the old files
COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C:
COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:


You can also try FIXBOOT command at your c prompt.