BIOS settings questions

[mikehende]

When I look into the BIOS, this is what I see:

Primary Drive 0....................Hard drive
Primary Drive 1....................Hard drive
Secondary Drive 0...............CD-ROM Reader
Secondary Drive 1...............Unkown device

Can anyone confirm this for me please?

1] Primary Drive 0 refers to the "end" connector of the IDE1 controller?
Primary Drive 1 refers to the "inside" connector of the IDE1 controller?

2] Master drives "must" be on the end connector therefore Slaves drives have to be on the inside connector?

[Sylvander]

Primary Drive 0
Is the Master drive connected to the Primary IDE Controller socket.
A drive could be made the Master by...
a. Beng jumpered using "Cable Select" and connected to the end of the IDE cable.
b. Being Jumpered as Master. Ideally it would then be fitted to the end of the IDE cable, but not essential.

Primary Drive 1
Is the Slave drive connected to the Primary IDE Controller socket.
A drive could be made the Slave by...
a. Beng jumpered using "Cable Select" and connected to the Middle of the IDE cable.
b. Being Jumpered as Slave. Ideally it would then be fitted to the middle of the IDE cable, but not essential.

Secondary Drive 0
Is the Master drive connected to the Secondary IDE Controller socket.
A drive could be made the Master by...
a. Beng jumpered using "Cable Select" and connected to the end of the IDE cable.
b. Being Jumpered as master. Ideally it would then be fitted to the end of the IDE cable, but not essential.

Secondary Drive 1
Is the Slave drive connected to the Secondary IDE Controller socket.
A drive could be made the Slave by...
a. Beng jumpered using "Cable Select" and connected to the middle of the IDE cable.
b. Being Jumpered as Slave. Ideally it would then be fitted to the middle of the IDE cable, but not essential.

[mikehende]

Alright, so if I understand you correctly, it does not matter which connector on a cable you use that makes it Master or Slave but the Jumper settings, is this correct?

[Sylvander]

"it does not matter which connector on a cable you use that makes it Master or Slave"
It does IF, and only IF...you use "Cable Select".
In that case, [when you use "Cable Select"] the position on the cable to which you connect is what decides if it is Master or Slave.

[mikehende]

Ok so to sum this up

cable select--> for Master= End
cable select--> for Slave=middle

jumpered master=End but not mandatory
jumpered slave =Middle but not mandatory

and in "general", Master goes on End, Slave goes in the Middle

This table accurate?

[jlreich]

Hmm, it's been awhile, but if I remember right there are some instances where it is required to put the master on the end and the slave on the middle (when not using cable select).

We had a big discussion about this a couple years ago. Again if I remember right, I think we came to the general consensus that it was at least best practice to put master/slave on end/middle connector.

Personally I use cable select because I do a lot of drive swapping. PITA sometimes having to re-jumper two HDD's every time I make a change (some HDD's have both a master and master w/slave position). But many around here don't like cable select but prefer to tell the system what is master and what is slave.

[mikehende]

Alright so I'll do just that and keep it simple Master/End Slave/middle.

[jlreich]

Sometimes it's weird. I have a system that will only boot a single HDD if the jumper is set to CS. XP would format and install with it jumpered to master, but when it would reboot to finish the install, it was not able to find it. :confused: Put it on CS and all is well.

Ah well, computers are strange sometimes. :p

[Sylvander]

Strange but true
If you were to put a lone HDD [a Master drive] on the middle connecter...
It's possible, but not certain, that [depending on the frequency of the electromagnetic waves of the signals iin the wires] there could be set up "standing waves" in the "tail" of unused cable.
It's a bit like having an organ pipe that produces a certain note as vibrations are set up in the air inside it as determined by its physical dimensions.
Those electro-magnetic oscillations could then interfere with the signals going back and forth between the HDD and the controller.
Hence you should ideally put a lone [Master] HDD on the end connector.

"Standing Waves" are vibrations whose peaks and troughs remain in unmoving locations in 3-D space.