Adding a Second Hard Drive - PC Hardware Questions & Answers

Harvey writes in with a hardware question.
Question:I want to add a hard drive to an E-Machines model T1100. The "C" drive is connected by it self with no second connector. However the CD R/W drive does have a second connector on it. When plugged into this slot, the computer did not recognize the CD R/W drive any longer. What can I do to insert this second hard drive?

Answer: So you are saying you have your hard drive by itself on one IDE port and the CDROM by itself on the other IDE port? You can have 2 devices per IDE port so if you got a different cable for your hard drive that has 2 connectors you can connect it that way. Of if you put it on the cable with the CDROM just make sure that your jumpers are correct so it doesn't get confused. One device must be the master and the other the slave. If your CDROM is set as master and your new hard drive is set as master as well then that will not work. Check for a label on the drive that shows what state the drive is in. Make it the opposite of the CDROM. It doesn't matter on a secondary drive which drive is master and which is slave. If you put the new drive with your existing hard drive make sure that the new drive is set to slave since the original will be master.

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