How to Change the Master/Slave Designation on a Hard Drive?

Answer 1

You should change Jumper Settings of your Hard Disk to Change the Master/Slave Designation

Jumper Settings

Jumpers are metal pins that have small black plastic sleeves that slot on them, they are used to configure certain devices including hard drives.

For the location of the jumper selector look at the back side of hard disk the jumper settings should be displayed on the hard drive or in the manufacturer's book.

Single Drive - If this is your only hard drive then set the jumper selector to master

Two Drives - if the new drive will be the main drive, set the jumper to master, if you want it as a secondary drive then set it to slave, alternatively you could use a separate IDE cable on the motherboard's secondary IDE interface (see motherboard manual).


The IDE cable will be marked down one side with a red or black strip, this denotes Pin 1, match this with the Pin 1 indicator on the back of the hard drive.

If you are simply installing a secondary hard drive for storage, you don't have to make any changes to the configuration of your current hard drive. However, you will need to set jumpers if you are installing an IDE or SCSI drive, in order to tell the computer that your new drive is not the primary drive.


Setting Jumpers: IDE Drives
IDE can accommodate two drives per channel, with most computers having two channels built in (although newer Intel motherboards that accept LGA775 chips only have one channel). The primary drive on a channel is called the Master, and the secondary one is called the Slave. The IDE channels are also labeled as Primary (or IDE1) and Secondary (or IDE2). The hard drive that the system boots from is usually the primary master, generally if you're adding a second hard drive you would set it up as the primary slave. (The secondary master and slave are usually used for optical drives, although they can accommodate hard drives if needed.)
Most drives come set to be used as masters, so if you want to use one as a slave, you'll have to change the jumpers, which are located between the power connector and the IDE connector. Each manufacturer has different jumper settings, so I can't give you exact instructions here. However, there is often a diagram on the top of the drive telling you how to set the jumpers, and if not there will certainly be instructions in your hard drive's manual (which you can download from the manufacturer's website if your hard drive didn't come with one).

Another jumper setting, which you can use if you have an 80-conductor ribbon cable, is Cable Select. 80-conductor cables can be identified by their much finer wires compared to 40-conductor cables and by their connector colors (the motherboard end will be blue, red, or green, and the drive connectors will be black for the one on the end and gray for the one on the middle). With both drives set to Cable Select, the computer will recognize the drive hooked up to the black end connector as the master and the one hooked up to the middle gray connector as the slave.

Setting Jumpers: SCSI Drives
SCSI (pronounced "skuzzy") is not as common as it used to be, but if you are using a server or high-end workstation, chances are you will have SCSI drives. You can have up to 15 devices on a SCSI chain, compared to two on an IDE channel; each one needs a unique "SCSI ID" so that the controller knows which one is which. Your first SCSI device will have ID 0, your second, ID 1, and so on. SCSI drives usually have jumpers on them that you can use to set the ID. They are often arranged in a base-2 setup - depending on whether a jumper is closed or not, it will add a certain amount to the SCSI ID. The following chart gives all the possibilities for SCSI ID configurations:



go to the URL below for full details

http://www.helpwithpcs.com/upgrading/install-hard-drive.htm
http://www.pcmech.com/show/harddrive/43/

Answer 2

First you need to take out the hard drive out of the computer...in the back of the hard drive there are atleast 1 or 2 white or black plastics jumpers that you need to change according to the settings on the hard drive or a instruction paper for that drive...different hard drives have different settings...on the instruction should tell you where to place those jumpers...Slave/Master or Cable Select....

Answer 3

in between the power connector and the ide connector assuming you have a PATA drive and not an SATA drive which do not have jumpers for master slave. look on the top of the drive on the sticker to find out how to set the jumpers for master or slave.

Answer 4

You need to jumper setting when you remove jumper on your hard drive then it runs as a slave drive. and when you give the jumper in the first pin it runs as a master drive. all about this function is write on the label of your hard drive .

Answer 5

On an IDE drive (ribbon cable) there should be some jumpers on the back of the drive. There will be something to tell which position does what.
If you have a SATA drive (small connectors) then you don't need to do anything.

Answer 6

By changing the jumper position,which is behind your hard disk.

Answer 7

Just change the jumper settings..Which is behinde ur hd..

Answer 8

It is better if you consult your computer serviceman .It may may create some problem....

Answer 9

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