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Dell Precision 530 MT wouldn't recognize newly installed EIDE drive

I am adding a new EIDE hard disk into the primary IDE controller and my machine information is:
1) BIOS A06
2) No SCSI drive at all
3) system setup said "Primary Drive 0 .... OFF" -- cannot change it
4) Secondary IDE controller has one DVD drive and one CD drive

If I unplug the CD drive and replace it with the the EIDE hard disk then I can see the disk on the "Secondary Drive"

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mmcodefive

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sgchang

ASKER

My problem is the primary EIDE controller and it seems that I cannot connect any drive to it and make it recognizable. I tried:
1) connect two EIDE hard disks (using cable select or master/slave)
2) connect the two drives (DVD and CD) that were on the secondary controller

Where can I get bios 11 and instruction for updating bios?

mmcodefive

3) system setup said "Primary Drive 0 .... OFF" -- cannot change it

That is your problem. Can you set that to auto? Can you change that setting for the other three?

mmcodefive

http://support.dell.com/

Go to desktop -> precision -> 530 then to BIOS and get the floppy one. It is the easiest. It has a read me file.

PUNKY

You should reset bios first see if the drive can be detected in bios.

sgchang

ASKER

I was not be able to change the "OFF" setting with BIOS A06 but after upgrading to A11 now I can change the setting to "AUTO" so I am fine now.