# !!!!! IDE DRIVES INSTALLATION ERROR !!!!!! Please help



## scott2kuk5

Hi i have just finshed puting together a computer i have been making, it has a brand new motherboard & Power supply, and an old Hard drive, an old floppy drive and an old CD player in it,

basically my problem is that when i swith my computer on i get this message...
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! ! ! ! IDE DRIVES INSTALLATION ERROR ! ! ! !

For best reliability & performance, please change the stand alone slave drive to master. System Halt. . .

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now in only guessing here but im presuming this is something to do with the Hard drive and the CD drives being the wronge way around if that makes sence,

anyway i hope someone can help me becuase i have tried all sorts of things to get this sortedand anything i have dobne has only made it worse.

thanks in advance to any helpers,


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## Geekgirl

Hello and Welcome to TSF

How do you have the drives configured? The hard drive should be set to master using the jumper on the drive and set on the end of the IDE cable and connected to the Primary Controller on the motherboard. You then should have the cd rom set as master and at the end of the IDE cable and connected to the Secondary Controller on the motherboard. The floppy goes on its own IDE cable also.

Once you get this setup correctly you then need to wipe out the drive and reinstall the O.S
What O.S. are you going to install?


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## scott2kuk5

Geekgirl said:


> How do you have the drives configured?


i dont really understand how i would configure it in the first place



Geekgirl said:


> What O.S. are you going to install?


Im going to be installing XP home edition



Geekgirl said:


> The hard drive should be set to master using the jumper on the drive and set on the end of the IDE cable and connected to the Primary Controller on the motherboard. You then should have the cd rom set as master and at the end of the IDE cable and connected to the Secondary Controller on the motherboard. The floppy goes on its own IDE cable also.


iv got it wired up exacly the same as the sytem in on at the moment that is up and running and working properly so im sure the way it is wired in is correct.

it would be great if someone could give me like a step by step to what i could do that may fix the problem, eg...
... 1. do this
... 2. and then this etc etc...

thanks in advance,


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## whodat

ok then
we are just trying to be clear on this

are you trying to install a hard drive with xp installed already on it... onto a new motherboard, ect. ?


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## Geekgirl

The drive already has data on it from what I understand from the replies. Its going to have to be reformatted first.

I dont mean to sound rude scott2kuk5 but for someone who is putting a computer together you should know the terms and how the system components work together. 

You slapped something together and dont even know how things are to be connected. Building a computer system is not something to take lightly. 

Step1
Open the computer case
Step 2
Remove the hard drive, turn it on its end where the power and cable connect. There should be a jumper (a small black square piece of plastic) over top of pins. There should be a sticker of sorts on the drive that gives a diagram of where that piece of plastic should be for your configuration. Example : Master/Slave/Cable Select
Step 3
Make sure the jumper is set to Master
Step 4
Install the drive back into the computer
Step 5
Connect the power cable from the power supply unit to the hard drive
Step 6
Connect the IDE cable (grey in color) to the hard drive. 
Make sure you connect the oposite end to the Primary Controller on the motherboard, it should be marked.


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