hdd detected in bios but not by xp setup

[cracked]

hi. i just got done putting my parents a computer together. when i try to run window xp pro setup however, it can not setup due to the fact that it is not detecting a hard drive. but the hard drive IS detected in the bios. it is a 80gb western digital and i have it set up as primary master. another thing is that when it first enters xp setup, it says something like "setup is now detecing your computers hardware configuration..." and then it takes like 10 minutes to actually start loading setup files after that. ive installed xp many many times and it has NEVER taken that long before. what could the problem be? is the hard drive bad?

[Atomic Rooster]

It could be. Try downloading the diagnostic programs available from Western Digital, stick it on a floppy and run them on that drive. It should tell you wether the drive is good or not.

[DallasDon]

I believe WD hard drives also have a jumper setting called "single'
Might look into the jumper settings.....

[Peter M]

Right. For WD hard disks, "Master" and "Single" configurations each have their own jumper setting. RTM.