I have a pc with a 20G hard drive.  I am trying to install a Western Digital Cavier 160G as a slave.  I have the jumpers set correctly with the 20G on the end of the cable and the 160G in the middle, but computer still doesn't see the 160G.  What am I not doing to fix this?

James SharpJames,

There are lots of possible causes including a bad cable or drive.  Here are some general comments:
- older model PCs/operating systems/bios may not be ABLE to recognize larger drives without added control software (bios utilities, overlays, DDO, drivers, etc.)
- check all cables and connectors.  Pins are EASILY bent or broken if forced
- reboot the computer and listen to make sure the drive motor starts
- in your Bios setup, verify that your drive is recognized
- reboot your computer by pressing the CTRL, ALT and DELETE keys simultaneously. If the drive is recognized after you reboot the system, the computer BIOS test may be completing before the drive is ready
- check for I/O address conflicts
- additional detail and checks are here:  http://www.directron.com/hdts.html#3
And...as always, FOLLOW ESD and electrical safety precautions when working on sensitive electronics.

Dell
Did you partition and format the new drive.It sounds to me that someone is trying to insert a SATA/PATA drive into a legacy IDE connector.

In short, your Motherboard is too old.
You may use a add-on CONTROLLER to support this drive.

You should dump the 20GB drive for performance reasons.You can't hook up a SATA HDD to an IDE controller...where is SATA mentioned in this ? ?

IDE HDD's are backwards compatible all the way to ATA 66 anyways.

patio.  You could backward compatible support your HD. It will never reach the full potential thought.

Most 160GB drives are no longer standard IDE 40pin drives anymore. Even the flat cable is 80pins instead of 40pins.

My conclussion is therefore not misplaced.. SATA/PATA.
And I BELIEVE this is where he is going wrong.. The flat cable.

And your MOBO must understand the geomatry for a 160GB drive.. BIOS updates ** MIGHT ** solve this.