IDE master / Slave Question

[MC]

I bought a Maxtor 120 gig drive last weekend to add to my system, which
previously had 2 20 gig drives. I intended to make the Maxtor the main
drive, holding programs and data, and have the two 20's for data drives.
Problem - the Maxblast software could not successfully copy my old C:
partition. Even the newest version from Maxtor's site would complete the
transfer OK, but then the system would not boot off the new drive.

I don't have time for now to reinstall everything onto the new drive, so I
just set it up as a slave to the old one and bumped my other 20 gig drive
onto the second IDE channel.

So now I have the Maxtor 6Y120PO Slaved to my old Quantum Fireball LM 20.5.
The other 20 gig drive (Maxtor 52049U4) is the master on the second channel,
with a CDR drive as slave.

Is there any inherent problem with this configuration? I know that you are
always supposed to put the newest drive as the master, but this arrangement
actually works fine for me. My programs take up only 8 gigs on the C:
drive, the large drive (D is strictly a data drive (and that is where I
have need for the large storage capacity.)

TIA -

MCC

 

[Dave Hau]

If you need to access two drives concurrently, you need to put them on
separate channels. From your description, I get the impression that you
need to access your old system drive and your new large data drive
concurrently. If that's the case, I would put them on separate
channels, for example the system drive on primary master, and the data
drive on secondary master.

Regarding not being able to boot off the new drive after copying the old
system partition to the new drive using MaxBlast, my guess is maybe
Maxblast did not copy over the MBR for you. Try booting off of the
Windows installation disk, go to repair console, and do "fixmbr". See
if you can now boot from that disk.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Rod Speed]

I bought a Maxtor 120 gig drive last weekend to add to my system, which
previously had 2 20 gig drives. I intended to make the Maxtor the main
drive, holding programs and data, and have the two 20's for data drives.

Thats generally the best approach with that collection of drives,
just because the new drive will normally be quite a bit faster.

Problem - the Maxblast software could not successfully copy my old C:
partition. Even the newest version from Maxtor's site would complete
the transfer OK, but then the system would not boot off the new drive.

Yeah, those hard drive manufacturer's utes arent that great.

You dont say what OS you are using. xxcopy, not the
standard xcopy, should work fine for all except XP.

Ghost and Drive Image will work, but they arent free.

I don't have time for now to reinstall everything onto the
new drive, so I just set it up as a slave to the old one and
bumped my other 20 gig drive onto the second IDE channel.

Reasonable approach.

So now I have the Maxtor 6Y120PO Slaved to my old Quantum
Fireball LM 20.5. The other 20 gig drive (Maxtor 52049U4) is the
master on the second channel, with a CDR drive as slave.

Is there any inherent problem with this configuration?

Nope, it'll work fine.

I know that you are always supposed to put the newest drive
as the master, but this arrangement actually works fine for me.

You'll find its noticeably faster with the 120GB drive as the C

My programs take up only 8 gigs on the C: drive,
the large drive (D is strictly a data drive (and that
is where I have need for the large storage capacity.)

Sure, but its generally better to have just one
120GB C drive with almost everything on it.

 

[John]

Get hold of a copy of Norton Ghost (not free) and do a "DISK to DISK" copy.

I think you will find it's worth the effort, as the new 120GB drive is
likely to be much faster than the old 20GB drive.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

If you need to access two drives concurrently, you need to put them on
separate channels.

For concurrent >read< access, yes.

 

[MC]

If you need to access two drives concurrently, you need to put them on
separate channels. From your description, I get the impression that you
need to access your old system drive and your new large data drive
concurrently. If that's the case, I would put them on separate
channels, for example the system drive on primary master, and the data
drive on secondary master.

Thanks - that sounds like a good idea. It seems like that would also solve
the speed problem related to having the new drive slaved to the old, at
least re teh new drive.

Regarding not being able to boot off the new drive after copying the old
system partition to the new drive using MaxBlast, my guess is maybe
Maxblast did not copy over the MBR for you. Try booting off of the
Windows installation disk, go to repair console, and do "fixmbr". See
if you can now boot from that disk.

I think the problem with the system transfer is more extensive than that. I
tried several times - the older Maxblast would just abort with an error. The
new version of the software would complete the transfer without incident.
The first time it completed this I could boot my system, but the user
settings were all messed up - Win XP came up like a brand new install,
re-initialized itself, and about halft my apps and personal settings were
gone. The second and htird times Win Xp woudl start to boot and then crash
due to missing files. After the third try I ran chkdsk and wound up with
abut 4 gigs of files in the Found folder. At that point I decided I could
not trust the software to the system.

Thanks - I'll switch the drive onto the other channel till I get a chance to
re-install.

- MCC

 

[MC]

Get hold of a copy of Norton Ghost (not free) and do a "DISK to DISK" copy.

I think you will find it's worth the effort, as the new 120GB drive is
likely to be much faster than the old 20GB drive.

Hmmm - I have an older version of Ghost on a Norton System Works 2000 CD. I
had to uninstall it when I went to Win-Xp. If I recall correctly, Ghost can
be run from the DOS prompt. Maybe I can get it to work by booting off a
Win98 boot disk and running Ghost from the command prompt. The second drive
is formatted a NTFS though.

Thanks for the suggestion -

MCC

 

[J.Clarke]

Hmmm - I have an older version of Ghost on a Norton System Works 2000
CD. I had to uninstall it when I went to Win-Xp. If I recall
correctly, Ghost can be run from the DOS prompt. Maybe I can get it to
work by booting off a Win98 boot disk and running Ghost from the
command prompt. The second drive is formatted a NTFS though.

Thanks for the suggestion -

Get the current version. Microsoft is still tweaking NTFS and something
that worked for 2K may not reliably transfer XP due to the tweaks.

 

[John]

Hmmm - I have an older version of Ghost on a Norton System Works 2000 CD. I
had to uninstall it when I went to Win-Xp. If I recall correctly, Ghost can
be run from the DOS prompt. Maybe I can get it to work by booting off a
Win98 boot disk and running Ghost from the command prompt. The second drive
is formatted a NTFS though.

Thanks for the suggestion -

MCC

Yep. Ghost runs fine if you boot from a Win98 floppy. Then insert the Ghost
floppy.

The older versions of Ghost might not copy XP partitions properly.

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks - that sounds like a good idea.

I bet you wouldnt be able to pick it in a double blind trial without using a
benchmark or diagnostic. And most dont copy between drives that much.

The only time you are likely to notice anything is if you
image one of the 20GB drives to the new 120GB drive.

It seems like that would also solve the speed problem related
to having the new drive slaved to the old, at least re teh new drive.

Nope, that doesnt happen. The new drive will operate at the same speed
regardless of whether its master or slave, or the only drive on a particular cable.

I think the problem with the system transfer is more extensive than that.

Yeah, looks like it.

I tried several times - the older Maxblast would just abort with an error.
The new version of the software would complete the transfer without
incident. The first time it completed this I could boot my system, but the
user settings were all messed up - Win XP came up like a brand new install,
re-initialized itself, and about halft my apps and personal settings were gone.
Urk.

The second and htird times Win Xp woudl start to boot and then
crash due to missing files. After the third try I ran chkdsk and
wound up with abut 4 gigs of files in the Found folder. At that
point I decided I could not trust the software to the system.

Yeah, its obviously making a complete hash of the copy.

Ghost or Drive Image will do it fine, but they aint free.

Thanks - I'll switch the drive onto the other
channel till I get a chance to re-install.

No point if its only short term.

And you might decide to buy Ghost or
Drive Image instead of doing a reinstall.

 

[Dave Hau]

I bet you wouldnt be able to pick it in a double blind trial without using a
benchmark or diagnostic. And most dont copy between drives that much.

The only time you are likely to notice anything is if you
image one of the 20GB drives to the new 120GB drive.

Another scenario: you're watching a divx movie while surfing the web. The
divx movie comes from the large data drive, surfing the web requires access
to the browser cache on the system drive. I do this all the time.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Dave Hau]

Thanks - that sounds like a good idea. It seems like that would also solve
the speed problem related to having the new drive slaved to the old, at
least re teh new drive.


I think the problem with the system transfer is more extensive than that. I
tried several times - the older Maxblast would just abort with an error. The
new version of the software would complete the transfer without incident.
The first time it completed this I could boot my system, but the user
settings were all messed up - Win XP came up like a brand new install,
re-initialized itself, and about halft my apps and personal settings were
gone. The second and htird times Win Xp woudl start to boot and then crash
due to missing files. After the third try I ran chkdsk and wound up with
abut 4 gigs of files in the Found folder. At that point I decided I could
not trust the software to the system.

Sounds like it's time to give up on MaxBlast and get a copy of Ghost 2003.
;-)

Norton Systemworks Pro 2003 contains Ghost and sells for as low as $11 on
pricewatch. Go to http://www.pricewatch.com and do a search for
"systemworks pro 2003".

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Rod Speed]

Another scenario: you're watching a divx movie while surfing the web.
The divx movie comes from the large data drive, surfing the web requires
access to the browser cache on the system drive. I do this all the time.

Time to invest in a decent DVD player |-)

 

[Rod Speed]

My thanks to everyone who took the time to answer my questions.

As it turns out, I've been able to copy the drive over using Maxblast
afterall.

I'll skip the details of how I bungled through it, but basically I wound up
re-partioning the new drive and then formatting it as FAT32. After that the
disk copy under Maxblast went fine. I then setup the new drive as the
master and converted it to NTFS using the Win XP conversion tool.

So now I'm where I wanted to be, with most everything on C:, D: as a
scractch drive for Photoshop, and E: as a holding pen for stuff to burn on
CDR's.

Thanks again!

Thats for the feedback, much too rare in my opinion.