so i have this custom built computer its got 2 hdds ad one has failed... the master... so insted of replaceing it with a new one couyld i take the one thats still working (the slave)and make it my master and get my info off my failed hdd? if so could you tell me what i need to do to do that

the failed hdd is a WDC WD1200JB-00CRA1 and the working one is a Maxtor 6Y250P0. any help would be great
also how do i swich the slave to a master

Hello!

Can you explain what do you mean by "failed"? Is it not even turning on (spinning)?
Is the master visible in BIOS?

In order to make the slave your master and vice versa you need to change the jumpers
on both hard drives. There should be a diagram on each disk showing what are the jumper
settings for each mode.

Then the next step depends on :
- if you are OK with formatting the slave (which will become the master). If you can format
it then go ahead and simply install Operating System on it. Once the system is installed
you can check if the old master (current slave) is recognized and if yes then check if you can copy anything! If not then you can right click on "My computer"->"Manage"->"Disk Management". If
the old master is not there then it means that your drive is really dead and you may think about
throwing it to the garbage (or paying a loooot of money for professional data recovery service).

-if you want to keep the data from the old slave you need to either put it into another computer
and simply back your stuff up to another drive, or (if you have 2 cd drives including cd-rw) you can boot up using WindowsXP LiveCD and simply burning your stuff on CDs/DVDs using another CD drive (burner).

NOTE: Booting up using the LiveCD will also allow you to run diagnostics on the broken HDD!

WinXP LiveCD can be obtained from here: http://www.ubcd4win.com/

http://www.d-a-l.com/help/showthread...3&page=3&pp=10
thats my older posts ive just finily gotten around to dealing with this but ive run the SMART test thing and it came up failed so will i have to install the hard drive itself after i do that or will i have to do anyhting in BIOS because im not really confadent about what im doing when i go into BIOS but reformatting the drive wouldnt be a worry

so ive found web stits telling me jumper settings and i think ill be able to do that now is it just a matter of switching the little shunt? i dont have to like instal the hdd of do anyhing in BIOS?

No... All you need to do is to switch the "little shunt" form slave to master and from master to slave. After that just start installing the system on the new master.

o well that wouldnt be that hard

so im confused the one thats set as the slave is set to cable select (what does that mean?) and the one thats set as master well it doesnt have a "little shunt" in it whats this mean?
so acording to this http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....i=&p_topview=1 its set up as a single right now why wouldnt it be set up as a master?

so the harddrive thats working was is set tocable select is that ok? and for some reason the ne that isnt working is set to single i dont no whats up with that but can i just reformat the working one? do i need to disconnect the nonworking one?

Hello!

Sorry about not replying for so long!

Ok... So first a quick note on what is the cable select (from http://freepctech.com/troubleshooting/tsb014.shtml):

Cable select is a scheme that was devised quite sometime back and never really caught on. Nearly all drives you will use have this option available, usually denoted with the CSL or CEL designation on the drive.

Cable select was the idea that the cable should determine which drive was Master and Slave, but it never really caught on and is almost never used today. There are some older Compaq and Dell computers with this configuration, creating issues when an unknowledgeable person adds a new drive. So, unless you run onto these rare systems, it is not an important issue. The one important thing to remember is it requires a special cable.

So as mentioned CSL is not used almost at all. The only reason it properly recognizes your drive set-up to CSL is that you've had another drive (most likely on the same IDE ribbon?) installed with proper jumper settings.

Next, the hard-drive with no jumper on is designed to work as master without jumpers, but in order to set it up to slave you still need to refer to the diagram on the top of it! (What brand/model is it?)

The other hard drive that was set up as CSL needs to be switched (the jumper) to master, otherwise you may have problems with booting up.

To format and install the operating system you need only one drive in the system and it can be the old slave (CSL in this case) which needs to be set up as the master!

After you install the system you can plug the broken drive back in and it needs to be:
- set up as slave if connected to the same IDE ribbon as the working hard drive
- set up as master or slave just if connected to the secondary IDE connector (the other IDE ribbon coming out of the motherboard).

Here is a little image I quickly created so you can see the two possible options:


This diagram is just for two hard drives connected. As I mentioned before you can have just one hard drive set up as master on the primary ribbon and you will be able to install and run Operating System on it without a problem!

Good luck my friend!

ok so i need to disconnent the broken hdd? the 2 HDDs are on the same ribbion it goes from the mother board to the working HDD and from there it goes to the broken one. so what i need to do is make the make the working one the master and dicconnent the ribbion and power from the broken one?

also when opening the case what do i need to do... as in discharg myself or something like that is that the only thing i need to do?

o and i have the jumper settings for both hdds so that wont be a problem