HDD blues: clarifiaction, plz, so I can procede

  • Thread starter Thread starter Susan B.
  • Start date Start date
S

Susan B.

Hi,
I posted a while back re a problem with my (sole) internal HDD failing
to boot me into WinXPproSP2, which I used to be able to swing.

DL suggested I plop the drive into an external enclosure, put in a fresh
drive, get all working, then connect (he suggested via USB) the "old"
drive to grab data.

Since then, I have looked around for a new drive, as well as an
enclosure, and have some questions (still).

First, when my computer is booting and I hit F2 to go into Bootup/Setup
mode on this Dell, I see:
SATA Primary Device ..Hard Drive
....
Primary Master Drive..Off
IDE Drive UDMA........On

And then the Dell diagnostic tells me everything "passed" (natch,
without mentioning that perhaps that means "passed gas", or whatever).

I wanted to check this because in searching for enclosures I became
aware of PATA, and didn't know what I had. I still don't know /which/
SATA spec my system falls under, but at least I've a start. I'm counting
on backwards compatibility with current SATA enclosures.

So, why do I get "Primary Master Drive ... Off"? Is that an awkward way
of stating what I know, namely that I cannot boof from the drive, or is
it more infomative?

What does "IDE Drive UDMA ..On" mean in this context?

Many, many TIA,
Sue B.
 
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