Here, let daddy incubus sort it out ...Master/slave = this is sorted on the actual devices themselves. Read on.
First lets go to base IDE principles.
You see the socket on the CD drive you attach the IDE cable to? On the right of that there should be a power cable. thats good.
First you need to check pin1.
The way you do that is, if you look at the IDE cable, one of the wires should be red, or marked a different colour. make sure that coloured one is at the same side of the socket as the the power connector when you plug it in. tTat's pin 1 sorted.
Scondly, make sure the heirarchy is sorted. the way IDE works, one device (normally the fastest) is set as MASTER, and the other one as SLAVE.
The way to do this is look at the back of both devices. There should be a jumper with several possible configurations.
If you look at the circuitboard directly above the jumpers, you should see markings like MA (master), SL (slave) and CS (cable select). Some times you get DS (drive single) instead of MA.
All you have to do is make one jumper be MA and the other be SL. Then, if you power up, if you have an ok bios, things should be toasty.
If your bios is still nasty to you, there are two ways to clear it to it's base configuration - you will have to set everything up again but the password will be gone.
1. Consult your motherboard manual (you've got one? good...) and find the jumper that clears the CMOS. Switch it over, wait 10 seconds and switch it back. Power up. You can now fuck with the BIOS.
Failing that ...
Get to the motherboard. It's time for some quick-and-dirty solution, so you see the 3v Li-Ion battery? Big round silver thing that looks like a big fuckoff watch battery?
Pull the bastard out.
Wait 15 seconds, and put it back in again. Congratulations, you've achieved step 1.
=)
That's your lot. If this doesn't help, you need brain surgery.
I'm only being this nice 'cos I'm drunk
BR
Mike aka incubus
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-- incubus
As I chase the leaves like the words I never find ...