Can hard drives from DVD recorder be reused in computers?

[dvp7]

I got 2 old hard drives (1 80G & 1 160G) taken out from Pioneer 520H & 720H. I wonder if it is possible to use it again in computer under XP os. I have tried connecting it as a slave internal drive but the window XP can't boot at all. As a external IDE, the computer can't recognize it. Anyone have tried to reuse these old drives in computer? Thx.

[AlanHK]

Maybe the jumpers are incorrect for a PC.

Is there a manufacturer and model number?

Most hard disks have a little diagram on them telling how to set the jumpers to be slave, master or cable-select.

[dvp7]

Maybe the jumpers are incorrect for a PC.

Is there a manufacturer and model number?

Most hard disks have a little diagram on them telling how to set the jumpers to be slave, master or cable-select.

Thx. You mean the computer under XP will recognise the drive if I set it as a slave? Perhaps I might have set it as "cable-select" when I tried it before.

[gll99]

With many drives it's not just the slave that has to be set but the master as well. You may have originally set the master jumpers to a master only setting. Many drives have a "master with slave" jumper setting that needs to be adjusted when you have 2 drives on the same ribbon.

Assuming you didn't reverse the ribbon if they aren't notched, the worse that should happen is for the slave to be ignored if the file system is unrecognised. The fact that the xp master won't boot is what makes me suspect the master is also wrongly jumped.

[AlanHK]

Thx. You mean the computer under XP will recognise the drive if I set it as a slave? Perhaps I might have set it as "cable-select" when I tried it before.

Normally your boot drive would be the master, and the other on the same cable a slave.

Also, when starting up, you should see the computer BIOS testing. Sometimes this is hidden, often hitting F2 will go into BIOS setup. That will have a screen showing you what drives are detected.

[dvp7]

Thanks all for your advice. My pc can recognize the old drives now. It's all about the cable and jumper selection problem. :P