Temporarily replace DVD drive with disk

  • Thread starter Thread starter Swifty
  • Start date Start date
S

Swifty

I'm being sent an internal IDE drive so I can take an encrypted image of
my system and mail it to a well-known software vendor for problem
determination.

My system uses a SATA harddrive but has an internal IDE DVD drive. I
plan on pulling the power/IDE from the DVD drive and plugging in the IDE
drive temporarily. I'll make it master before starting. The IDE cable
has only one device socket, and I don't have a double IDE cable. I
probably don't have a spare power connector either, so I have little
choice. I don't want to buy an external USB IDE caddy either.

So, there is some scope for my system becoming confused about what its
primary IDE device is. I anticipate drive letter problems, but I know
how to fix those (providing my SATA C: drive stays as C:)

Am I like the man in the barrel, heading for Niagara falls, or is this
likely to end happily (with my DVD connected back up and still F:)
 
Swifty said:
I'm being sent an internal IDE drive so I can take an encrypted image of
my system and mail it to a well-known software vendor for problem
determination.

My system uses a SATA harddrive but has an internal IDE DVD drive. I plan
on pulling the power/IDE from the DVD drive and plugging in the IDE drive
temporarily. I'll make it master before starting. The IDE cable has only
one device socket, and I don't have a double IDE cable. I probably don't
have a spare power connector either, so I have little choice. I don't want
to buy an external USB IDE caddy either.

So, there is some scope for my system becoming confused about what its
primary IDE device is. I anticipate drive letter problems, but I know how
to fix those (providing my SATA C: drive stays as C:)

Am I like the man in the barrel, heading for Niagara falls, or is this
likely to end happily (with my DVD connected back up and still F:)
Click to expand...

You should have no problem. The IDE drive may take the drive letter of your
DVD drive, but as you will be removing it before reconnecting the DVD drive,
there should be no problem as it will be free for the DVD to reclaim.
 
M.I.5¾ said:
You should have no problem. The IDE drive may take the drive letter of your
DVD drive, but as you will be removing it before reconnecting the DVD drive,
there should be no problem as it will be free for the DVD to reclaim.
Click to expand...

Well, I'll take the opportunity to thank you for those words of comfort
now, before I actually do the experiment over the weekend, or next week.

If you never hear from me again, you can assume that I ran into an
un-anticipated problem... :-)
 
Swifty said:
Well, I'll take the opportunity to thank you for those words of comfort
now, before I actually do the experiment over the weekend, or next week.

If you never hear from me again, you can assume that I ran into an
un-anticipated problem... :-)
Click to expand...

You should always try to identify the unanticipated problems in advance.
 
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