Adding 3rd harddrive

[StevenF]

I have a Compaq Presario 9546. It has a primary and secondary IDE controller. The primary has two hard drives attached. The secondary has a CDROM attached with a cable that only supports one drive. Can I use a cable with two connectors (like the one on the primary controller) to add another hard drive? Is the cable the same? How do I have to configure the drives?

Thanks,

Steve

[ggre123]

Yes, you can hook up the hard drive and CD-ROM with a dual cable. Don't forget to re-jumper the CD-ROM in the proper master/slave relationship.

[StevenF]

Does it matter if the CDROM is master or slave?

[Mole]

Yes, it does matter. All IDE devices must be either Master or Slave.

If there's only 1 device on your IDE controller, then it should be configured as Master.

In this case, your new HD must be configured as Master and your CD-ROM as Slave.

At the back of your CD-ROM drive, you can see jumpers with these markings: MA, SL, CS

MA = Master
SL = Slave
CS = Cable Select (Just ignore this entry)

Make sure you've connected the IDE cable correctly on your HD. The red strip on the cable should point towards the power connector to the HD.

The Compaq should be able to autodetect the HD automatically. If not, you'll need to get into the BIOS and make it detect your HD's. I don't quite remember how to get into Compaq BIOS.

[daveyp]

Just a quick thought - 3 hdd will generate A LOT of heat! Make sure that your PC is well cooled!

Davey P