Just to add to my last post: I tried switching the ribbon cable, using the
"primary master" end on the Maxtor drive and the "primary slave" end on the
Samsung drive and both drives were recognized. But I would still like the
Primary Master to be the Samsung drive.

"mk" <mk@unknown.net> wrote in message
news:Osg9EbvAGHA.740@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>I have a Dell dimension 4100 with the original primary master 10GB Maxtor
>hard drive and a primary slave 60GB Maxtor drive. The 60GB drive was added
>a few years ago. The OS is Win XP Pro and resides on the 60 GB drive. All
>has worked well for years.
>
> I just moved the 60GB drive to a new computer and replaced it with another
> hard drive (30GB Samsung) in the original Dell computer. I changed the
> drives so that the Samsung drive would be the primary master and the
> Maxtor 10GB the primary slave. However, the bios will only acknowledge
> the primary slave position, no matter which drive I connect to it. I have
> tried the jumpers in both the Master/Slave and Cable Select positions.
> Previously it was set up in the Cable Select jumper positions.
>
> Why won't the bios now recognize the Primary Master position? Can anyone
> give me some ideas?
>