Why won't my HP HD work in my Compaq?

Hi,
I have a 6GB Seagate hard drive with an HP label on it. I tried
adding it to my ancient Compaq 4506 with an existing 3.2 GB hard drive
but, alas,I encountered a problem.

I can't get the hp hard drive to be recognized!!! And I don't mean
that it just does not show up along with the original 3.2GB hard drive,
I mean it really does not want to work!!! I placed the jumper in the
cable select position for the HP 6 GB drive and numerous other
positions as well. It just doe not want to be recognized.......

Am I doing anything wrong? I hope it's not just the fact that it is
labled by hp.

Thxs,
Mr. Finch

The Compaq system may be old enough that it has a wierd limitation on hard drive
capacity allowed by the BIOS. Really old Pentium systems had a limit of 2.1GB
(not your system). Most later Pentium systems had a limit of 8.4GB, but some
which had a Phoenix BIOS had a limit around 4GB.

The other distinct possibility is that the Seagate drive is not jumpered
correctly. Get the jumper settings from the Seagate web site... Ben Myers

On 24 May 2006 05:53:20 -0700, wrote:

Hi,
I have a 6GB Seagate hard drive with an HP label on it. I tried
adding it to my ancient Compaq 4506 with an existing 3.2 GB hard drive
but, alas,I encountered a problem.

I can't get the hp hard drive to be recognized!!! And I don't mean
that it just does not show up along with the original 3.2GB hard drive,
I mean it really does not want to work!!! I placed the jumper in the
cable select position for the HP 6 GB drive and numerous other
positions as well. It just doe not want to be recognized.......

Am I doing anything wrong? I hope it's not just the fact that it is
labled by hp.

Thxs,
Mr. Finch

First.... Thxs for the realllllly fast reply Ben. I checked the site
and found the jumper information. I set both hard drive's jumpers on
"Cable Select" then placed them back in the case, booted and
.........same issue. The computer will boot then when I go through the
Bios Setup to check for a new drive, not only do I find that the new
drive does not exist but also the other drives, CD and HD alike
disappear from the list!!! Both drives are made by Seagate and the
original drive works well on its own. Mabey it's a compability
issue?

I do not recall which type of IDE/ATAPI cable Compaq used in these systems.
There are two types. The "cable select" cable has a tiny hole on one of its
wire threads and wants the drives jumpered as CS. You can hold the cable up to
the light to see the little hole. The other type of cable requires drives to be
jumpered as master and slave, one each. You might also try master and slave
jumper settings.

One other possibility: the 6GB drive is not in working order? Can you hear it
spin up? Can you feel the vibrations caused by its spinning? ... Ben

On 24 May 2006 07:46:41 -0700, wrote:

First.... Thxs for the realllllly fast reply Ben. I checked the site
and found the jumper information. I set both hard drive's jumpers on
"Cable Select" then placed them back in the case, booted and
........same issue. The computer will boot then when I go through the
Bios Setup to check for a new drive, not only do I find that the new
drive does not exist but also the other drives, CD and HD alike
disappear from the list!!! Both drives are made by Seagate and the
original drive works well on its own. Mabey it's a compability
issue?