Prev: test
Next: Safety of USB "Y" connectors for power?
From: Rod Speed on 23 Apr 2010 22:43
M.L. wrote:

> I'm trying to swap a SATA hard drive from a defunct desktop into a
> working desktop (Sony VAIO VGC-RA840G) that has no hard drive.
> The defunct computer and its hard drive have been sitting in a
> basement for about 2 years collecting dust.

> After installing the drive according to instructions from the Sony
> website, the BIOS only shows the 2 DVD drives being detected.

> Primary IDE Master [Sony DVD RW D]
> Primary IDE Slave [HL-DT-STDVD-ROM]

> The Hardware tab of the BIOS shows:

> SCSI-0: ST3160023A5

> which is the correct model of the newly installed 160 GB hard drive.

Most likely you just need to partition and format the drive now.

The XP install will allow you to do that.

> The overall installation was easy. I've never installed a hard drive
> before so I'm wondering if I missed setting something properly.

Yes, the drive needs to be partitioned and formatted.

> I noticed a set of jumper pins on the hard drive but there was
> no plastic jumper on them to set as Master, Slave, or Select,

There is no master and slave with SATA drives.

> and I've read that SATA drives don't need to be jumpered anyway.

It should be jumpered correctly given that it came out of a system.

> Any help with troubleshooting this issue will be greatly appreciated.

Just proceed with the installation of XP, the install
should see the drive and allow you to format the drive.

> Right now I just want the drive to be detected so I can install Win XP MCE from a boot CD.

Just boot from that CD and install XP.


First  |  Prev  | 
Pages: 1 2
Prev: test
Next: Safety of USB "Y" connectors for power?