Question on PC & Peripherals:

I had a 40GB hard drive and wanted to upgrade to a 320GB one. I didn't need to save anything that was on the 40GB hard drive so I just swapped it. But when I put the 320GB hard drive in my system and turned it on, a message appeared which said the system couldn't read the drive. There was also no option to format it. What should I do?

Submitted by Reader

Answer:

Assuming you are talking about a desktop harddisk replacement, 3.5-inch drives have jumper settings that may need to be set correctly. Check the manual or sticker on the storage device and see which jumpers need to be inserted for Master or Auto mode. Then reinstall the drive and see if it works.

In addition, you can access the BIOS to determine if the machine is detecting the storage device properly. If all else fails, it might be a hardware failure which will require attention at the vendor's service center.