First of all I have searched for this problem and haven't found it. I hope I am not reposting it. If I am please forgive me. But I couldn't find it.

I have a harddrive from the computer I have been using up to now. The computer is a homebuilt one with a Pentium 4 and 512 mb ram. The hard drive is a Samsung Spin POINT 60 G. I am trying to put it into another computer. I don't want to format it because it contains all my data. The computer I am trying to put it into is a Compaq Presario 6000. It has an AMD Athlon and 512 mg ram. It currently does not have a hard drive. When I put my hard drive into this computer it does not detect it. I have tried moving the jumpers and everything but it still does not work. When I put the hard drive back into my original computer it works fine. I even put a different hard drive into the compaq. It worked fine. It just won't work with my hard drive. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong? Or how I can fix this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.... Pat:

A few questions may help us help you:


When you say "it will not detect it" do you mean the BIOS does not detect it, or do you mean the computer will not start Windows?

Are you getting any error messages or beeps? If so, what do the messages say or how many beeps do you hear?

Do you know how to enter the BIOS setup and configure it to automatically detect the hard drive?

Did you jumper the hard drive as master or as single or as cable select?

DocHi Doc. Thank You for replying to my message.

To answer your first question...The computer will not start Windows.

I get no error messages and no beeps. It just says no hard drive detected when I try to boot it up.

I know how to get into the BIOS. I've already been there and configured it to automatically detect the hard drive and to boot from the hard drive first.

I jumpered the hard drive as master.

I have taken this hard drive out of a Pentium 4 computer and I'm trying to put it into an AMD Athlon computer. I took a different hard drive out of another Pentium 4 computer and tried it in the computer with the AMD Athlon. It would not boot up either. It did the same thing as the first hard drive. So then I tried my wife's hard drive, which came out of a computer with an AMD Athlon PROCESSOR, it worked perfectly. No problems at all. It seems like it is having a problem switching from the Pentium 4 processor to the AMD Athlon processor. What do you think? If this is the problem how could I fix it?

Thank You...I appreciate your help. GPat:

Sorry about the delay.

Try setting the jumper on the hard drive as single instead of master. If that doesn't work, try setting the jumper as cable select and MAKING sure it is on the IDE cable CONNECTOR furthest from the motherboard.

Make sure the IDE cable and the Molex connector from the power supply are firmly connected to both the motherboard and the hard drive. Make sure the red stripe is connected to pin 1 on the motherboard and pin 1 on the hard drive. Check to see that the BIOS indicates it SEES the hard drive before you try to boot to Windows.

Doc