Hi, I tried adding a new hard drive as an extra with my other one, I connected it all up and when tried to boot up my computer said it could not boot up, so when I disconnected it back to normal my computer worked, but I re connected and put in a windows boot disk and setup started but then I cancelled, now with the hard drive this connected as normal when I boot up it just stays in a black blank screen! Please help, thanks a lot

So many things could have been wrong from the start of your secondary hard drive install that it is hard to tell what advice to give you with so little information. For one thing, it is imperative that I know what version of windows you are using; among other things.

However, if you are able to email me offline, I may be able to help you figure this thing out.

Check your Master/Slave settings on all IDE devices.
Harddisks are shipped with the jumper set for Master.
Chances are that you connected the new harddisk as second device on the IDE interface (i.e. there already is a master), and then it must be set for Slave.
Another possibility is that the first installed device is wired for 'single' device on the interface (sometimes Master and Single are the same, but sometimes these settings are different - it depends on the make of the harddisk). In which case you must set it to Master, and of course, the new disk stays Slave.
To summarize:
- if one device is connected to an IDE interface, it must be set to Master/Single or to Single (depends on the make of the device, it usually is printed on the device itself)
- if two devices are connected to an IDE interface, the first must be set to Master/Single (or Master) and NOT to Single and the second device must be set to Slave.
- you must never have only a Slave device on an IDE interface
If these rules are not followed, your BIOS will not recognize the devices and your PC will probably not boot.
Then there are some second level considerations:
- The boot disk usually must be the Master on IDE 0
- A CD burner is best set to Master on IDE 1
- a harddisk has priority over CD and DVD drives (e.g. if a harddisk and a CD drive are connected to the same IDE interface, then the harddisk should not be the Slave).
- A DVD drive has priority over a CD drive