Replacing Hard Drives, BIOS and all that rubbish

Reeves · Tue 26 Sep, 2006 19.27

My long list of PC-related threads continue...

I was talking to my uncle about why my PC (or Windows I should say) isn't recognising one of my hard drives. I mentioned about checking to see if the hard drive works on another PC, and he replied saying that the BIOS will need to be configured and any other technical bollocks.

I've been looking around for what he actually means, and by what I have read up on, including "PCs for Dummies", simply connecting the hard drive to the PC is the only step, a bit llike sticking a USB Memory Key into a PC.

Is there more to simply shoving it in or is my uncle just trying to make me think something's more awkward then it actually is? If my uncle is correct, what is the procedure of configuring the BIOS?

Many thanks

Andrew Wood · Tue 26 Sep, 2006 19.48

Also, ensuring you have the correct jumper set on the drive depending on it being master, slave or 'cable select'. In the BIOS you'll need to set auto detect for hard drives - or maybe have to enter in its configuration if it's an oddity.

Sput · Tue 26 Sep, 2006 19.52

You might also have to set the BIOS to "Auto" for the drive in question, because it might be set up as "None", which means it wouldn't even try and find it.

One other thing, turn the computer off before installing a hard drive, it's very much unlike a USB device in that respect

Reeves · Wed 27 Sep, 2006 15.43

So what you're saying is when the hard drive's installed I just hit the Auto Detect thing in the BIOS?

Sput · Wed 27 Sep, 2006 16.17

Yeh probably, though it's hard to say because I don't know your bios.

Reeves · Wed 27 Sep, 2006 18.19

Well there is a section which tlaks about drives and then when you bring up it's details there is an option called "Auto-Detect Drive" or somehting along those lines. When you hit enter it displays "Detecting your drive" and then disappears.

Lorns · Wed 27 Sep, 2006 18.23

If your uncle is that pootah literate, can you not get him to come round and sort it out for you. I believe in finding the easy way out of a hard time.

Reeves · Wed 27 Sep, 2006 19.44

miss hellfire wrote:If your uncle is that pootah literate, can you not get him to come round and sort it out for you. I believe in finding the easy way out of a hard time.

Well he said he'd be popping down sometime this week but alot of the time he makes out the simplest of things being more confusing then 3-2-1.

Neil Jones · Wed 27 Sep, 2006 22.20

Reeves wrote:Is there more to simply shoving it in or is my uncle just trying to make me think something's more awkward then it actually is? If my uncle is correct, what is the procedure of configuring the BIOS?

Any BIOS set up properly will automatically ask the drive about its configuration and setup every time it's loaded, and change said configuration in its own mind (so to speak) at the part just before Windows loads. This is usually default out of the box so unless somebody's been playing around in there you should be able to shove the new drive in and it just works.

James H · Thu 28 Sep, 2006 00.30

Reeves, do you run a computer company in Stretford?