Installed a old hard drive into my new computer ( 2 hard drives now).

[PVPilot]

As the title says. I added a older hard drive out of another computer that had pictures and other data on it. Everything went well. Win recognized it and it is enabled. Win automatically designated it with a letter. I jumper plugged it on the back during install and set it to slave. It was set to CS as per the indicator on the back. My problem I guess is what commands or ?? will allow me to access it to view pics and the other stuff.

Thanks for any help,,and if I need to add any extra info you might need let me know and I will see what I can do.

 

[Paperdoc]

First, I think you need to re-do the jumper settings. Then we'll get to accessing.

From your description I am assuming that the old HDD is an IDE type with a wide data ribbon cable containing 80 wires. But it has 3 connectors on the ribbon, and they each have only 40 (or 39) holes in them. There ought to be a Blue connector on one end, and that goes to the mobo IDE port. There ought to be a Black connector on the other end, and a Grey connector in the middle.

IDE devices have jumpers and pins that need to be set to establish Master or Slave. SATA devices do NOT - they may have jumpers and pins, but for different reasons entirely, and most often you should NOT change the jumpers on a SATA device unless you know why and how. Now back to IDE devices.

Any IDE port can support up to two devices, and hence each needs a unique way to identify it. That is what the Master and Slave settings are for. They are relevant ONLY to IDE ports, and ONLY to the ONE port being shared. There is no such thing as one Master device for the whole machine, with a number of Slaves. In the machine there IS one (usually, but it could be more) BOOT device, and other data devices.

On ONE IDE port you could have one or two devices sharing the port and data ribbon cable. The first one MUST have its jumper set to Master. On some HDD's there is a different setting for Master with no other device, and Master with Slave Present, so set this according to the use of THIS ONE port only. The Master device should be connected to the Black END connector of the ribbon cable. IF you also have a second device to plug into that same cable and port, then its jumper MUST be set to Slave. (If necessary, the Master device's jumpers may need a slight adjustment to the "Slave Present" setting.) This Slave device should be connected to the Grey MIDDLE connector of the cable. IF you have both an optical drive and a hard drive sharing one IDE port/cable, it is recommended that the HDD be the port Master, and the optical drive the Slave.

As an alternative, you CAN set the jumpers on BOTH devices to "CS" (for "Cable Select"); then the one on the END of the cable WILL be the Master, and the middle one WILL be the Slave.

Note that, if you have two IDE devices and two IDE ports/cables, and you connect one device to each port, then BOTH devices MUST have their jumpers to Master, because each is the Master of the one port it is connected to.

Now, if you set up your IDE drives this way they should all work fine. The BIOS should detect them properly (assuming that your IDE ports are Enabled), and Windows should also "see" them as valid hardware devices, assigning them letter names and showing them in My Computer. Your post indicates that did happen up to Windows' giving it a letter name. How do you know that? Where do you see this info?

However, your post indicates that you can't access its files. That is what I don't get. If it has a letter name it ought to be showing in My Computer. Is it? What happens when you click on that drive there? Does it not show you the files and folders?

 

[popatim]

take ownership of the USERS folder and then you will have access to it.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753659.aspx

 

[Hawkeye22]

take ownership of the USERS folder and then you will have access to it.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753659.aspx

He may as well take ownership of the whole drive.

 

[PVPilot]

Thank you all for your answers and for the explanations of what I am dealing with. Was able to access the hard drive after posting and just a a bit of digging. Clicked "start",,then "my computer" and then opened the hard drive to the flies and data. I actually didn't jumper cable it on the back, but just moved the white pin on the back to slave during the install. Wide ribbon connector went to the last remaining port on the MB. The letter designation was already there for the old hard drive when I opened up "my computer". It's making a bit of clicking noises when running,,so it is probably about ready to fail. glad I could skim off the important stuff before that happened. It's still working,,but it's not liking it.

 

[Paperdoc]

Glad you got it to yield your files! Some mobos are smart enough that, if you set the jumper wrong on an IDE drive, it may jst ignore that and use the drive anyway. I'm guessing you are benefiting from that kind of smarts. Getting all your data off it now while you can is a great idea, because I agree the repeated clicking is usually a portent of bigger troubles.

Congratulations on your perseverance and success.

 

[PVPilot]

Ok, missed that about the master and slave settings per drive. I blame it on early morning speed reading by way of too much caffeine, which is never a good thing. The old drive is a old IDE and my newer one is a SATA. A single ribbon cable was used to connect the old drive to the old MB port. As I removed it from the old computer it was connected with the grey end connected to the drive and the black end of the ribbon connected to the MB,,,so I re installed it in to this computer the same way. Would have made it a bit easier to use the blue end of the ribbon because it had more length to it for the reach to the port on the newer MB. Since it was a single drive on the connection it could have been left as Cable Select OR Master on the pins I take it? Yes?

 

[Paperdoc]

Almost yes. I think you're saying that the cable is now in your new machine just like the old one - Black connector to the mobo port, Blue connector (other end) unused, Grey (middle) connector to the HDD. Although that's all wrong, it sort of works. The dilemma is that, with the HDD's jumper set to "CS", it will be the SLAVE since it's connected to the middle connector, and the port has NO Master.

You should go inside the case and change around the cable. Plug the Blue end into the mobo port, the Black (other end) into the HDD. Then it will be correct, whether the HDD's jumper is set to either "Master" OR "CS".

 

[PVPilot]

Funny. It was assembled that way in the old computer and the old computer only had the one hard drive, So it was set to Slave by way of connections, but it was the Master regardless, just due to the fact that it was only the one drive. So going back in and making it correct on the ribbon connections, I can pin it to Master or CS. Which one would be more appropriate?,, or does it matter?

 

[Paperdoc]

Some modern BIOS's are smart enough to save us from simpler mistakes. like mis-setting the Master and Slave jumpers on IDE drives. Maybe that's why it worked in the old machine.

As to your question: I don't think it matters at all. Some people prefer the "CS" setting for everything 'cause it's simple. I do it the older explicit way because that's what I learned, and it is not hard at all. Your choice.

 

[PVPilot]

Ok, thanks. Now this old drive is quiet with no clicking, but it is still working. It's a very old 80GB Western Digital WD 800BB with 57 GB of free space remaining.