Dell 4300 disk problems

I am having problems with my original EIDE 80gb western digital
harddrive. I got a 40gb IBM Deskstar (I think it is actually Hitatchi).
Anyway I plonked it in - after removing the original disk. The jumpers
seem to be OK - I tried both the "cable select" and "device master"
settings. Anyway as soon as I power up - nothing. The machine doesn't
like the disk. End of story. Can't even interrupt to boot from CD. I
want to do a fresh install of XP on the new disk. Any suggestions?
TIA, Ned

Ned <nedtrilby@hotmail.com> wrote

> I am having problems with my original EIDE 80gb western digital
> harddrive. I got a 40gb IBM Deskstar (I think it is actually Hitatchi).

Nope, Hitachi bought the IBM hard drive operation after that drive was made.

> Anyway I plonked it in - after removing the original disk.
> The jumpers seem to be OK - I tried both the "cable select" and
> "device master" settings. Anyway as soon as I power up - nothing.
> The machine doesn't like the disk. End of story. Can't even interrupt
> to boot from CD. I want to do a fresh install of XP on the new disk.
> Any suggestions?

One obvious possibility is that the original hard drive wasnt the
problem and the fault is elswhere, even just the ribbon cable.

If a system cant see a hard drive properly, it can take
a surprisingly long time to give up, so you may well be
able to boot from a CD if you wait long enough.