IDE controller set up:
Use the jumpers to disable *everything*, FDD, SERIAL, GAME, LPT - but *not* IDE. IDE was set to primary. Settings are normally printed right on the card.
Off the top of my head, I turned off all IDE things in the "chipset" settings of BIOS, including the ultra DMA. Saved CMOS settings and powered on / off.
At this new boot, the onboard IDE is off so I did a IDE auto detect for C, it showed the drive and it's settings, hit return and ESC. When you go to the first thing on the top left of the main menu (was it standard CMOS settings?) it shows the drive as "user" and it's settings, so all is well. I used AUTO for a CDROM one time as "D", but never for the HD, you may get different results.
You have a problem if it doesn't auto detect. Cable plugged in correct?
The drive is set to "device 0" meaning (I assume) master.
Make sure your boot partition is set to active.
The cards I used are generic, ISA pulled out of who knows what. One says "LGS Prime 2c" the other says "SIIG Inc, Fremont CA, Winbond W83758F", they both work, got them at a local used PC shop for $9. Other people have reported using the compUSA card, but I am cheap.
The type doesn't matter, they should all be the same. IDE is not that tough to do hardware wise. I had another one I used a while back, I don't know what exactly it is but it was another generic card.
Check everything, try what you can on another PC that is known working.
