2nd HDD installation problem...help! New Mac user!

[acedickson]

I just received this B&W PM today. Everything works great! The problem I'm having is with the installation of a 2nd hdd I had lying around. It has mandrake linux on it and was set to dual boot linux/XP when i had the windoze machine.

Yes, my mac has the U bracket needed for a second HDD. The problem is when it's installed and I boot the system i get a folder with the ?. I believe it's because the second HDD has the boot agent on there. I want to wipe and reformat but I'm not sure how since i can't get to disk utility.

Also, I'm not sure where the control board is on the mobo so i can set the second HDD to slave. I believe that might make it boot so i can wipe and reformat. I tried googling for a diagram of the jumpers but i had no luck.

All help is welcome!

 

[ChrisFromCanada]

My bet is that you haven't got the jumpers set-up right on the HDs. Make sure that the your boot drive is master and your Win/Linux HD is slave. It shouldn't have anything to do with the mobo. Also are you sure you have a Rev 2?

 

[Nermal]

Hold Option when you power on and it'll ask which drive you want to boot from. If it doesn't see your regular drive, check the jumpers again. With newer Macs both drives should be set to Cable Select, but I'm not sure about a B&W.

 

[spacepower7]

BW G3

I have no solution, this is just what I know.....


They use ATA/33, so if the drive is bigger than 128GB, the rest will not be seen by the CPU. This all depends how things are formated on the drive.

If you have the U-Bracket than your Mac is a rev B, that can support 4 ATA devices on 2 chains. The rev A can support 2 devices on one ATA chain and only one ATA device on the second chain.

Good Luck

 

[Mechcozmo]

They use ATA/33, so if the drive is bigger than 128GB, the rest will not be seen by the CPU. This all depends how things are formated on the drive.

Actually it is that the drive controller is unable to use 48-bit addressing. It is the drive controller chips themselves that are unable to figure out "what is beyond that 128th GB?" The CPU is fine. Get a controller card (like an ATA/133 card) and you will be able to use larger drivers and use them faster.

 

[acedickson]

OK, got it. It was the jumpers, once I got them right everything works fine. I'm writing over and reformatting now. I'm sure I'll be back for more help later...