i have a WD 160gig harddrive and a dvd drive hooked up on the same ide ribbon, ive tried setting them up as master and slave, and also as cable select, the bios sees them either way, but xp doesn't see them either, way, please help.

Perhaps clarify a little...?

Does XP see the 160Gig when only that is installed etc.; and is that the drive that has the OS installed?

i havent tried just hooking only the hd up yet i shall try that, and no the os is on a 10gig drive on another ribbon.

Any error in device manager?

=====================================
If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

M2

Perhaps install drives as:

OS (10Gig) drive on EIDE-1 - Primary Master;
Second (160Gig) hard-drive drive as Secondary Master (EIDE-2); DVDROM as Primary Slave (EIDE-1).

Either use standard master/slave jumpers approach for all three devices; or cable -select for all three. Do NOT mix 'n match...

Cable-select has master at end of ribbon cable (80pin variety); see

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/i...

for more on various options for instaling/connecting drives...
And is the 160Gig configured (partitioned/formatted)?

Actually, it would be better as

primary master - 10GB HDD
primary slave - DVD-ROM
2ndary master - 160GB
2ndary slave - none

Look for the Harddrive in Disk Management. You may need to format or take ownership of files if the drive has been moved from another system.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

"jam"

kleerly my grey cell warn't were it orta have bin... That "was" wot I intended to suggest; mainly so that one "could" if wished have the page-file on the Secondary Master - for increased performance (if needs-be). Too early in the day for some of us...

One must remember to reed wot one puts to print - before so doing...

And echo OtH re' taking ownership...

Reetreets to dark korner and hides under desk...

What does Disk Management show?

Life's more painless for the brainless.

Jennifer-Rt click my computer-manage-disk management.

per, I THINK jennifer was asking the OP what they see in Disk Management.

Right, OTH. I was.

Life's more painless for the brainless.

misread thx.

FYI,

I have seen numerous statements from posters about using cable select on their drives...

Please note that using cable select requires the use of a special cable select connecting harness (cable). A regular 40 or 80 wire IEDE/IDE cable will not work for cable select as it requires the specific use of the #28 wire to be crossed over and grounded in order to ativate the switch on the harddrive/optical drive.

I have seen this error stated to use cable select or master /slave jumper settings using the same connection cable and it simply is not possible to do unless it is the special cable select cable which allows for both types of set up.

In The Matters Of Style,
swim with the current;
in matters of principle,
Stand Like A Rock

"People demand freedom of speech to make up for the
freedom of thought which they avoid."

Below is an excerpt from a site describing 80 wire cables. The link is below.

Cable Select Support and Drive Assignment: All 80-conductor cables that meet the ATA specifications support the cable select feature automatically. This is accomplished by special connection of the CSEL signal on pin #28. The cable can still be used with drives that have been manually configured as master or slave, of course.

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/i...

Yes but there is still complications on swapping the two cables around

from the same source:

"Aside from the above, the cable can be treated the same way as a 40-conductor cable. Since it is of higher quality, it can be used in place of a 40-conductor cable in older systems without any issues. However, it does not directly replace a 40-conductor cable select cable. "

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/i...

Warning: 80-conductor IDE/ATA cables are often said to be compatible with 40-conductor cables. That's true of normal 40-conductor cables with drives jumpered as master and slave, but not cable select cables. If you swap a regular (non-"Y-shaped") 40-conductor cable select cable with an 80-conductor IDE cable, the master and slave drives will swap logical positions. If you don't that to happen, you'll need to change the order that the devices connect to the cable.

In The Matters Of Style,
swim with the current;
in matters of principle,
Stand Like A Rock

"People demand freedom of speech to make up for the
freedom of thought which they avoid."

There were special 40 wire cables used by OEM vendors. I think they had one pin hole missing in the connector to the MBoard. All 80 wire cables can be used with CS or M/S settings.