Primary drive as slave?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hymer
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H

Hymer

Can you make a drive connected to the slave connecter the boot drive and a
second drive connected the primary connector the slave?

That is, if you have two drives setup correctly with the boot drive
connected the primary connector and the slave to the slave connector, can
you just change master/slave jumpers and have slave as the boot drive?

Thanks,

bob
 
If you have a MBR on that drive and set the drive as your bootable system
drive in the BIOS....then yes.
no need to chnage jumpers.
You can install XP onto a "slave" drive ...you actually get the option of
which drive to install on if you disconnect the master drive all the boot
files will be written to the slave and be bootable.If you do not disconnect
the master the boot files will be writtne to that drive when you pick the
slave drive as the installation drive and the OS will be installed onto the
slave.
peter
 
If you have a MBR on that drive and set the drive as your bootable
system
drive in the BIOS....then yes.
no need to chnage jumpers.
You can install XP onto a "slave" drive ...you actually get the
option of which drive to install on if you disconnect the master
drive all the boot files will be written to the slave and be
bootable.If you do not disconnect the master the boot files will be
writtne to that drive when you pick the slave drive as the
installation drive and the OS will be installed onto the slave.
peter
Click to expand...

Thanks Peter,

I have a system where XP is already installed and functioning well. My
second drive was bad and I replaced that drive - data only on it. So I
am up and running fine.

The problem is that second drive was mounted high in the case and
housed in a removable drive casing. The distance between the two
drives would not permit the slave connector to reach the second drive
because I would have to twist the cable back on itself to connect to
the primary. On the other hand, making the boot drive the slave
permits the cable to reach.

However, I remounted the new second drive closer to the primary boot
drive and am not using the removable casing at this point. I still
have the slave connector in the primary boot drive and the primary
connector in the second drive. But it is working. It is the way it was
connected by the guy that built it so I assume the MBR must be setup
correctly. The jumpers are set so the boot drive is master and the
second drive is slave. That's what confuses me. I would have thought
that the master drive would need to be connected to the primary cable
connector.

Can I just assume that the Bios is set to handle this reverse
drive/connector situation?

Thanks,

Bob
 
Hymer said:
Thanks Peter,

I have a system where XP is already installed and functioning well. My
second drive was bad and I replaced that drive - data only on it. So I am
up and running fine.

The problem is that second drive was mounted high in the case and housed
in a removable drive casing. The distance between the two drives would not
permit the slave connector to reach the second drive > because I would
have to twist the cable back on itself to connect to the primary. On the
other hand, making the boot drive the slave permits the cable to reach.

However, I remounted the new second drive closer to the primary boot drive
and am not using the removable casing at this point. I still have the
slave connector in the primary boot drive and the primary connector in the
second drive. But it is working. It is the way it was connected by the guy
that built it so I assume the MBR must be setup > correctly. The jumpers
are set so the boot drive is master and the second drive is slave. That's
what confuses me. I would have thought that the master drive would need to
be connected to the primary cable > connector.

Can I just assume that the Bios is set to handle this reverse
drive/connector situation?

Thanks,

Bob
Click to expand...


Bob:
Let me offer you another alternative for your situation...
(I understand that the HDDs involved are PATA, not SATA drives)

Having one's desktop PC with one (or better yet, two) removable HDDs is such
a desirable hardware arrangement that I would hate you to jettison even the
one mobile rack you're now working with.

Could you not install your boot drive as Primary Master in your case's top
bay and install your secondary (fixed internal) HDD as Primary Slave in the
bay immediately below the top bay housing your PM. Better yet, would your
case allow you to install another removable HDD (hopefully the same
make/model of your present mobile rack) to house your secondary HDD below
the bay where the PM is installed?

This would be a more desirable configuration it would seem to me since it
would afford you a degree of flexibility (not to say peace of mind)
unmatched by fixed, internal HDDs.

If, for some reason, the design of your case makes it impractical to connect
the secondary HDD as Primary Slave, could you not connect it either as
Master or Slave on the motherboard's secondary IDE channel? (I'm assuming of
course your MB supports two IDE channels).
Anna
 
ADDENDUM TO MY PREVIOUS POST...

I fear I didn't make it clear in my previous post that when I suggest first
installing your boot drive as Primary Master in the top bay of your desktop
PC case, I am referring to installing that drive in your mobile rack as a
removable HDD.
Anna
 
if it works...why fix it??
peter
Hymer said:
Thanks Peter,

I have a system where XP is already installed and functioning well. My
second drive was bad and I replaced that drive - data only on it. So I am
up and running fine.

The problem is that second drive was mounted high in the case and housed
in a removable drive casing. The distance between the two drives would not
permit the slave connector to reach the second drive because I would have
to twist the cable back on itself to connect to the primary. On the other
hand, making the boot drive the slave permits the cable to reach.

However, I remounted the new second drive closer to the primary boot drive
and am not using the removable casing at this point. I still have the
slave connector in the primary boot drive and the primary connector in the
second drive. But it is working. It is the way it was connected by the guy
that built it so I assume the MBR must be setup correctly. The jumpers are
set so the boot drive is master and the second drive is slave. That's what
confuses me. I would have thought that the master drive would need to be
connected to the primary cable connector.

Can I just assume that the Bios is set to handle this reverse
drive/connector situation?

Thanks,

Bob
Click to expand...
 
The cable connector positions that the two drives are connected to
only matter when the drives are jumpered cable select (CS). If, on the
other hand, you jumper the drive connected to the middle connector as
master, then the drive is the master, and the drive connected to the
end connector must be jumpered as slave, which makes it the slave
drive.

As far as which drive is the boot drive, that is set in the BIOS. In
other words, you can set the BIOS to boot from a drive that is
configured as a slave drive.
 
Hymer said:
Can you make a drive connected to the slave connecter the boot drive and a
second drive connected the primary connector the slave?

That is, if you have two drives setup correctly with the boot drive
connected the primary connector and the slave to the slave connector, can
you just change master/slave jumpers and have slave as the boot drive?

Thanks,

bob
Click to expand...

Can be a problem. This upsets the ide timing for master and slave.
Guessing that's why the spec says master on the end of the ribbon cable.
Dave
 
Bob:
Let me offer you another alternative for your situation...
(I understand that the HDDs involved are PATA, not SATA drives)

Having one's desktop PC with one (or better yet, two) removable HDDs
is such a desirable hardware arrangement that I would hate you to
jettison even the one mobile rack you're now working with.

Could you not install your boot drive as Primary Master in your
case's top bay and install your secondary (fixed internal) HDD as
Primary Slave in the bay immediately below the top bay housing your
PM. Better yet, would your case allow you to install another
removable HDD (hopefully the same make/model of your present mobile
rack) to house your secondary HDD below the bay where the PM is
installed?

This would be a more desirable configuration it would seem to me
since it would afford you a degree of flexibility (not to say peace
of mind) unmatched by fixed, internal HDDs.

If, for some reason, the design of your case makes it impractical to
connect the secondary HDD as Primary Slave, could you not connect it
either as Master or Slave on the motherboard's secondary IDE
channel? (I'm assuming of course your MB supports two IDE channels).
Anna
Click to expand...


Thanks for all the tips. I think I will accept my current setup with
the boot drive as slave since it is working and the cable can reach
the drives. But I am going to take another shot at installing the
second data drive back into the removable enclosure.

Thanks Again,

Bob
 
No experiences here with ATA RAID. With few rare exceptions, all I see now
are ATA RAID add-on cards. If you want to add a removable ide/ata tray
system (not modify your current ide layout that may be full), you have to
get an add-on card. If you save image files (not clone) to such a drive,
the restoration portion of the program has to recognize the ATA RAID card to
restore the image from the attached hard drive. Many won't. Any
experiences in that arena?
Dave
 
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