I have my own problems/questions about IDE drives, master/slave
configurations and the like.

I'm using a Gateway G6-400 running Windows 98, with a Maxtor 10GB drive
as the master, and an older Western Digital 1.2GB drive recovered from
an older pc as the slave.  There are a DVD drive and Sony Superstation
on the secondary IDE channel.

For the first few months after installing the WD drive as the slave all
was well, then it disappeared from all drive listings.  As I was using
that drive to archive copies of files stored elsewhere there was no
great lost, I just assumed that being an older drive it had given up the
ghost.  But then it reappeared in the drive listings months later, and
has been appearing/disappearing as it wants to ever since.  It is as
likley to be seen as it is to be missing whenever I boot the machine.

It occurred to me that the IDE ribbon cable could be defective, so I
replaced it to no effect.  The two hard drives get power from the same
cable; I've switched the plugs, but also without any result.  I've also
upgraded the BIOS to no effect.

That the drive works (if only when it wants to) suggests to me that the
master/slave jumpers, BIOS settings, and the seating of the power and
IDE cables are all correct.

So, what is likely to be the problem here? The BIOS recognizes the drive
sometimes, and sometimes it doesn't.  Is this likely a problem with the
hard disk controller or, as I first thought, just a flakey drive? When
controllers go bad do they do so intermittently?  Wouldn't the Maxtor
drive be affected also if it was problem with the controller? I've
been wanting to replace the WD drive with one of much larger capacity,
but am reluctant to spend the money and still have the same underlying
problem.

If I had a second pc I would test the drive in it.  Unfortunately that's
not the case.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Many thanks,

Leon E. Zimlich
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