Good as Slave, but not as Master??

Hello, everyone..

I searched through the older threads, but found nothing similar to this..

My problem is with a WD800JB.. Kept it in my puter as a slave for several months, then gave it to a friend.. Now, the thing is it works flawlessly as a slave, but i can't get it to work as a Master.. For some reason, the puter can't see it as a Master (same puter i used it on as slave).. BIOS detects it, but i get the "Disk boot error" after the quick POST..

Tried booting from the CD, but the WIN XP setup wouldn't recognise it either.. (known good disc, which still serves me well).. I guess i could try a Linux boot, but i'm still a newbie at that, and i don't think i'd know where to begin with the check..

The HD was originally Master on my puter, so it USED to work..

Please help, i wanna help my friend (his current Master drive is a 10GB drive which is kinda acting up)..

Thanks in advance,
John

PS: Before you ask, i know how to set the jumpers, and how to set it in BIOS, so that's not the problem.. Haven't tried WDDiag yet, i'm not sure the "0-fill" would do anything..

 

Have you tried ''Cable Select'' Jumper setting ??

 

Depending on your operating system, using your drive as Master in the other computer, was possible in windows 98, but I found it was not possible in XP.
However, if cable select does not work,it is possible that the setup, in his computer has corrupted your boot file (mbr)

 

Also, check the IDE channel. Is it on the Primary IDE controller and is it attached to the end of the cable (not part of cable for slave device). Cables are attached properly? I think Baklogic is right, though. I am certain it will work once you reinstall the OS. I had a similar problem before where I tried to add a HDD with an OS on it to a very different system. Got the boot error. Had to reinstall OS and it worked fine.

 

Thanks guys, but that's not it, i'm afraid.. as i said, i know how to set it up, i've got 11 some years in working with computers, but this just got me stunned.. As i said earlier, i can't install an OS on it, cause it can't find the drive..

@baklogic: i thought it somehow damaged the mbr too, but it has nothing to do with Win 98, i formatted the drive (without creating partitions, so i wouldn't run into any problems - guess Murphy should've been around, huh?? ) before i tried it as master.. then i installed Win XP on the other drive, and it works now as slave.. But it's a shame to keep it as slave, especially since the master is an old 10Gb drive..

I understand what you mean though, Win98 not recognizing NTFS sometimes (if not always) damages the HD (i'm not sure if permanently or not) when inserted..

Any hints on how to, maybe, use a linux boot disk or maybe something like Hiren's Boot CD to check if it can be fixed?

Thanks again for your support, i hope someone can help..

 

You might have sime luck with this

http://majorgeeks.com/TestDisk_d4803.html

 

Give Western Digital support a try too, it couldn't hurt.