No HDD when CD drive is on same IDE cable

[d_stilgar]

I've tried switching which of the devices is plugged into the slave/master end of the cable, but as long as the CD drive is plugged in the computer tries to boot from it. In the CMOS, the HDD is not even recognized anymore. If I unplug the CD drive, however, the computer boots as normal and I have no issues.

Does anyone know what's going on? I think I may just try a different cable, but this is still weird to me. Both the CD drive and the HDD are laptop parts, so there isn't a jumper on either of them. I'm wondering if perhaps the CD drive has a jumper or switch inside it that marks it as master no matter what.

Any help?

[crenn]

On the jumper, there should be a set of 4 pins for the jumper. The top of the HDD should tell you positions.

[d_stilgar]

No, there's no jumper on the HD or CD drives because they are laptop drives. It all has to be controlled by the IDE cable.

[Crazy Buddhist]

A laptop hard drive has 44 pins... plus four more pins for setting the master / slave status... giving 48 pins with one, (number 20), blank as a key.

http://www.more-solutions.co.uk/img/support/laptoppinouts.jpg

What does each pin do?

If you lay a 2.5" laptop hard drive down so that the center KEY pin (number 20) is on the bottom, then here is the configuration:

First two pins at the far right are called A & B. A is on top row. B is on lower row. Next two are C and D. These four pins allow you to install jumper pins so the computer knows whether the drive is master or slave.

If one of these is broken off, AND if the manufacturer uses those pins to designate Master and slave, then you could be in trouble. However, most leave them blank for master so if one is broken off, it will make no difference unless you have two drives installed... such as when you are copying data from one laptop drive to another... If you cannot put jumpers on the AB or CD pins when using two drives, your laptop will not select either drive. The jumper pins are followed by a blank space.

The next 44 pins and spaces are called the "standard 44 way mini IDE Hard Drive configuration pins" by most computer techies."[/URL]

CrazyB

ps Click Here (http://www.more-solutions.co.uk/support/hardrives.html) to go to the source page.

[d_stilgar]

So A/b and c/d set it to master? Or is one set for slave? In any case, thanks. I'll find a jumper and be able to fix the problem hopefully.

[Crazy Buddhist]

Depends on the manufacturer but it will be one jumper on one of the two pairs usually.

CrazyB

[nevermind1534]

Laptop DVD/CD drives are sometimes set to master or slave through software only. I have seen some that actually have a physical switch, instead of a jumper.