Troubleshooting an internal ATA drive .

Computer Hardware Detection Issue - Check Master/Slave Jumper Configuration

Check Jumper Configuration

Jumper settings are very important when configuring a Parallel ATA (IDE) hard drive.

Jumper Illustrations

For Seagate Drives .

For Maxtor drives .

For Western Digital drives .

Check Power and Data Cables

So far you have checked your jumper settings. Now it is time to check the cables.
When troubleshooting hard drive problems it is important to check the cables. Parallel ATA (IDE) hard drives have two cables, a data cable and a power cable.

Ultra ATA Data Cables
Be sure you are using the latest in cabling technology, the UltraATA cable. These cables have additional conductors built into the cable to provide better signal quality at high speeds. If your drive runs in UltraATA modes higher than UltraATA33 (and any drive larger than 20 GB will) then these cables are required.
Figure 1 below shows a picture of an 80-conductor cable and a 40-conductor cable. Note that the 80-conductor cable has more ridges. Most 80-conductor cables are also color-coded (see figure 2 for more information). The maximum length for an UltraATA cable is 18 inches.
UltraATA cables also have specific placing for the master and slave drives. If the drive is the only drive on the cable or if the drive is the primary drive (master) it should be at the end of the cable (black connector). If the drive is an additional drive on the cable (slave), it should be in the middle of the cable (gray). The host adapter (motherboard) should be plugged into the other end of the cable (blue).