I have a compaq presario desktop pc with windows xp on it with 40 and 250 gig western digital drives.

I have had a 250 gig hard drive for the past couple of years that has all of my data backed up on it from a long time. Each time I get a new machine I move it over and keep it as a slave drive. I have never had any problems with the drive whatsoever. In fact the drives health is perfect and I can access it on other peoples computers but not on my own.

The way it is set up is that they are both set to cable select and the drive with windows is at the end and the slave drive is all the way at the end.

I had it like that and it was working fine for a long time and then I needed to reinstall windows on my machine. I disconnected the SLAVE drive and I reinstalled windows on the other. I registered windows and then I installed all of the drivers. Then with the computer off, I reconnected my slave drive and turned the computer back on,

For some reason, the SLAVE drive took control of the title of "C" drive. The C drive is now showing up as "J"

This worked fine for a while, I would just double click on the C: SLAVE for all of my stored data, and if I ever needed to access my WINDOWS or PROGRAM FILES I would just go through J:

Now after about a week, the C: SLAVE is unaccessable but I can still access the "J" drive. I cut the computer off and put in only the system drive and it will change to C: but I put the slave back in and it assumes control of the title "C" and is still unaccessable

I have tried 2 things
1: I have tried to change positions on the cable using cable select and the computer will not start and will ask me to insert a system disk and restart

2: I have tried to chance to the slave and master settings but that will not allow me to get past the COMPAQ screen, where you have the PRESS F1 FOR SETUP OR F10 FOR RECOVERY.......

Please someone help me with this. I have so much stuff on my slave, and I can't seem to access it. I cannot lose this data it has over 6 years of my life on there.

Thank you in advance anyone with suggestions.

8/1/2006 1:36:15 PM

Quote :

"I have a compaq "

honestly, i stopped reading.

8/1/2006 1:42:17 PM

Have you tried the drives on different IDE channels? Also, back up that data somewhere else. The drive will fail eventually.

8/1/2006 1:53:01 PM

You should the slave in the middle connector and the master on the connector farthest from the motherboard if they are all set to Cable Select.

You may have to reinstall windows so that it correctly knows where to look for the bootable partition (on the master) if you had those in the wrong places.

8/1/2006 2:05:27 PM

[quote]You may have to reinstall windows so that it correctly knows where to look for the bootable partition (on the master) if you had those in the wrong places.

I think that is what I will have to do... I don't have internet at my new house yet. Is there a way to save the drivers off of my current windows setting onto a disk (computer will boot with slave disconnected)...?

8/1/2006 2:39:15 PM

use master and slave jumper settings and set them up in bios setup and be done with it.

when it says press f1 or f10, press f1, then use auto detect to set up the hard drives in the bios.

8/1/2006 4:47:42 PM

Most of us won't be able to help with you specific BIOS settings, especially on a Compaq.

As has been stated, try using different IDE channels. On the secondary channel, set the CD-ROM to master and the 250 gig drive to slave. Reboot, try again.

Also, what other things do you have installed right now which are taking up drive letters? Seems really odd it would automagically choose something as high as "J" rather than "E" or "F".

8/1/2006 8:57:25 PM

Change the jumper on the c drive to master. plug that one in by iteself. boot computer and make sure that works.

then set the jumper on the 250gb drive to slave. plug that into the appropriate spot on the cable. boot up and see if you can see the drive. if you can see it go into the bios, reset the bios to factory defaults, then make sure both all ide channels are set to auto detect.

it should work after you take these steps. you can always reinstall windows on the c drive if that doesnt work...just make sure the 250gb isnt plugged in when you do this

Quote :

"Is there a way to save the drivers off of my current windows setting onto a disk"

no

Quote :

"so, back up that data somewhere else. The drive will fail eventually."

Yes, if the data on that drive is that important you really need another backup of it...because its mechanical and it will fail.

Quote :

"As has been stated, try using different IDE channels. On the secondary channel, set the CD-ROM to master and the 250 gig drive to slave. Reboot, try again."

Thats a good idea for troubleshooting. Though you want both hard drives on the same channel for your final setup.

Quote :

"Also, what other things do you have installed right now which are taking up drive letters? Seems really odd it would automagically choose something as high as "J" rather than "E" or "F"."

He could have a X-in 1 media card reader...those take up all kinds of drive letters. Could also have emulation taking up a fre drive letters.

8/1/2006 9:27:21 PM

A lot of this really helps, I appreciate it.
I have to do the steps that would end in both drives being on the same ide cable, becuase of the way the case is, and the fact that I have 2 dvdrw drives at the very top. I will try that, and also, what disk utility lets you change the drive letter? I may have overlooked this.

thanks again.

8/1/2006 10:58:06 PM

So I put the slave drive to the jumper setting of slave and put it on the middle IDE connector and I put the master to the master setting and put it at the end.

Everything started up but the slave which is set to slave and is in the middle of the ide cabel still calls itself the C: SLAVE and the master shows up to the right of it and calls it self I: LOCAL DISK.

Good news is that all of my information is still there... bad news is that I'll probably be reinstalling windows...

8/2/2006 8:55:44 AM