Master & Slave Combo not working

[khaos11]

I am trying to hook up two hdd's to my server I have a WD400 which would be my master and a Barracuda 7200.10 as my slave, both IDE. But for some reason I can't get it to boot. It comes up to the Windows Splash loading screen for a long time then to a blinking white cursor.

I have them on the same IDE ribbon with the master on the end and the slave on the middle connector (have also tried switching).

According to the WD400 the jumper setting should be set in the center for "Master w/ Slave" and the Barracuda should have no jumper to be a slave. According to here: http://seagate.com/support/disc/iguides/ata/100402370a.pdf (have tried this and other jumper settings)

My BIOS is very limited, in fact from going off memory it doesnt even show my hdd normally when looking at the IDE drives just the two CD-ROMs, but everything is set to auto.

Thanks for any help.

 

[wathman]

I've always hated working with IDE components specifically because of this reason. As zipzoomflyhigh said, system specs will help troubleshoot, I have a few possible ideas also, but it depends on what your hardware is. Have you tried moving one of your drives to the other IDE bus as Master, and setting both CD ROM drives to slave?

 

[khaos11]

Turning the CD ROM into a slave and the second hdd as master on the same ribbon worked. Though it takes quite a while for it to load to the interactive logon after the splash screen. And also makes a small high pitched squeal now. It does recognize the hdd and I can browse it in Explorer.

As far as specs, its an old Pent. III Gateway, running Server 2003 R2.
I will have to get back to you on the model of it and of the mobo--It's not printed on any visible areas and I didnt want to go a take it apart to try and find it. So I will download a program and find it. I will also list the BIOS ver. when I get the info on the mobo.


EDIT

I found the issue to the long load and squeal...I had disabled some services and was causing so sort of loop. Anyways...
Specs:
MOBO:
Manufacturer GATEWAY
Model Tabor3 WS440BX
Version Tabor3 4000585-213

BIOS:
BIOS Vendor Intel Corp.
BIOS Version 4W4SB0X0.15A.0015.P10
Firmware Version 83.66
BIOS Date 09/28/1999
BIOS Size 512 KB
DMI Version 2.1
Characteristics - supports ISA
- supports PCI
- supports Plug-and-Play
- supports APM
- upgradeable (Flash) BIOS
- allows BIOS shadowing
- ESCD support is available
- supports booting from CD-ROM
- supports selectable boot
- supports Enhanced Disk Drive specification
- supports INT 13 for Japanese Toshiba 1.2M floppy (3.5-inch, 360rpm)
- supports INT 13 5.25-inch/360K floppy services
- supports INT 13 5.25-inch/1.2M floppy services
- supports INT 13 3.5-inch/720K floppy services
- supports INT 13 3.5-inch/2.88M floppy services
- supports INT 05 print-screen
- supports INT 09 and 8042 keyboard services
- supports INT 14 serial services
- supports INT 17 printer services
- supports INT 10 CGA/Mono video services
- supports ACPI
- supports legacy USB
- supports AGP
- supports booting from LS-120
- supports booting from ATAPI ZIP drive
- Enable Targeted Content Distribution