old HDD in old computer

I have an older compter, it's not bad, but it's hard drive failed to work so I decided it was time for a new one anyways.

Recently I got a HDD from my dads friend, just a simple 20 GB HDD. I plugged into my computer it made a little bit of a high pitched whine, but it wasn't too bad. I got system disk error, which seemed normal, because it still doesnt have an OS installed. So I'm going to find my xp disc for this computer, but now I have a problem... When I turn on my computer it won't give power to the HDD, but it gives power to all the cd drives and it gives power to the older faulty HDD, what could fix this?

 

buy a new 20gb hdd for like 30$ http://forums.majorgeeks.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

 

or better yet, wait for another hard drive deal. it just died saturday but Best Buy had a 160GB Western Digital for $100 out the door, and $20 after $80 in rebates

 

Yeah, this week you can get a 120Gb drive for $39.99 after rebates. Still a pretty good deal.

 

Have you tried using a power connector off of one of the other devices that you say you definately know is getting power??

If not try that...if it's still the same story...then you DO need to just part from the cash and get a NEW hard drive!! I understand not everyone is made of money (including myself!!!!) but if it is any constellation...like the others said...you can get hard drives pretty cheap these days!!

If you are like me...despise mail in rebates...then check out this price list at Tiger Direct...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_hdd.asp?CatId=134

I myself use Tiger Direct because they have a store close to my house, but others swear that Newegg has better prices...here is the link there...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ice=&MaxPrice=&SubCategory=14&Submit=Property

Good Luck, and let us know what you come up with!!!!

Roger

 

"but if it is any constellation"

What does a group of stars have to do with anything.

 

hey thanks so muh I heard the same thing about new egg I'll give both those a try, yes I did try the cords from the cd roms and everything else I could try I'll post when I find the one best for me thanks very much

 

Not sure what you mean by "won't give power to the HDD". How do you know that? The standard desktop PC has no way to determine which peripherals get power from the PSU and which don't. If a power lead is plugged in to a device, it gets power. What the device does with that power is another question.

Are you saying that it doesn't show in the BIOS boot screen? If so, that's not a question of whether the drive is getting power. What error message is coming up with respect to that drive?