Possible answers: Primary master? Primary Salve? Secondary Master? Secondary Slave?
2007-02-18 09:23:20 · 5 answers · asked by Joey C 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
Sadly it's not that simple. The hard drive that boots will be the one that is bootable, usually the one Windows is installed upon. If Windows is installed to only 1 of the drives then this should be set to the primary master. However if a blank disk is attached as the master and the Windows disk as the slave (on either primary or secondary channel) then it will still boot ok.
If Windows is installed to more than 1 drive then it gets a little more complicated. Usually the one that will boot will be the primary master. However this may not be the case. Most operating systems older than XP do not allow more than 1 bootable partition, so will fail to boot if more than 1 disk has a Windows installation of it. If you need to try and get data off a disk in this situation it may be easier to try and use a USB adapter or similar for the second disk. Or you can try it and keep your fingers crossed - you may get lucky.
If all the drives are blank you should set the drive you want to install Windows on (usually the newest, fastest drive) as the primary master, and the other hard drive as the primary slave. The cdrom should be set as the seconary master. When you install Windows you need to pick the correct disk to install to, this should be selected by default however.
Note that the a hard disk and a cdrom should NOT be put on the same cable unless necessary. A cdrom is much slower than a hard disk, and the whole connection (both drives on 1 cable) will only run at the fastest speed that BOTH drives will support. Usually this means that the bus will be set to run at DMA33, rather than the DMA100 or 133 that newer hard drives support.
Also note that (on almost every motherboard) you cannot have a slave drive unless you also have a master drive on the same cable. Some drives also have a different setting for when they are master with another slave on the same cable and for when they are a single drive on 1 cable, so check this too.
Hope this helps.
2007-02-18 09:34:56 · answer #1 · answered by Rob J 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Listen carefully:
The Primary Master will be the hard drive with the operating system on it, and set the jumpers to master, and plug it into the Primary Master ribbon cable. The jumpers on the other hard drive should be set as a slave.
The CDRW should have jumpers set as the Master, but use the Secondary Master cable to connect it.
Plug the hard drives both into ONE ribbon cable and the CDRW into a different ribbon cable.
2007-02-18 09:32:45 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The boot drive should be primary master. The cd drive will work better not with the primary, so make it secondary master which leaves the last drive as primary slave.
Hoper this helps
2007-02-18 09:27:52 · answer #3 · answered by pocbr 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you are connecting via a parallel cable (the thick one with the flat head) then the primary Master.
If you are connecting via an SATA cable (much thinner with a smaller connector) the drive settings do not matter.
2007-02-18 09:27:28 · answer #4 · answered by Kevin Doyle 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Primary master will take priority.
2007-02-18 09:25:45 · answer #5 · answered by Josh B 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋