Assigned Drive Order

[RonAKA]

Assembling a PC for the first time in a few years, and finding these things are not really getting simpler. It used to be that you had the FDD circuit, and the HD IDE circuit and if you got things right with master and slave all was well. Not anymore.

In this PC I have a SATAII hard drive which I have connected to SATA1 and jumpered as master.

I have a SATA DVD ROM drive which I connected to SATA3, which my motherboard calls a slave. Not sure where the jumper is.

Also have a DVD RW drive which is IDE, and I have connected as an IDE master (jumper as master and used last connector on ribbon cable).

When I installed they came out in this order:

C: Removeable Disk
D: Removeable Disk
E: DVD RW (IDE Master)
F: DVD ROM (SATA3 Slave)
G: SATA HD

What I would like is my SATA HD to be C:. the DVD RW to be D:, and DVD ROM to be E:, and I currently have not removeable disks, so don't want them to show at all.

My thoughts are to unplug all the USB connections to see if that solves the Removeable Disk problem, and start over. However, I want the SATA HD to be first or C: Wondering how I can force that? All suggestions appreciated.

Change the DVD RW to a slave with the jumper? Check that the jumper on the DVD ROM is set for slave?

Floppy drive not working either, but that is another problem. It still seems to show up as A:

Ron

 

[ForumMaster]

SATA doesn't have jumpers because there is only one peripheral per channel. you can do somethng much easier though.

right click my computer and choose manage.
then, choose disk management. right click G and choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths."

end of story. you will probably need to reboot though.

floppy drives are always A.

 

[John]

Originally posted by: RonAKA
My thoughts are to unplug all the USB connections to see if that solves the Removeable Disk problem, and start over. However, I want the SATA HD to be first or C: Wondering how I can force that? All suggestions appreciated.

Backup your data, turn off and disconnect any USB devices (card readers, etc) and reinstall Windows. During setup you may need to delete and recreate the partition on your SATA HDD.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: ForumMaster
right click my computer and choose manage.
then, choose disk management. right click G and choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths."

I don't think this works with the boot drive...

I think you'll have to reinstall OP, with only the SATA drive plugged into port one. If it really does have jumpers, which I've never seen on a SATA drive, then just leave them all open.

 

[John]

If it really does have jumpers, which I've never seen on a SATA drive, then just leave them all open.

The SATA drives that have jumpers are not used to force M/S/CS. The ones that have jumper blocks typically allow you to force 1.5G compatibility, PM2, and SSC mode.

 

[RonAKA]

Backup your data, turn off and disconnect any USB devices (card readers, etc) and reinstall Windows. During setup you may need to delete and recreate the partition on your SATA HDD.

Trying that now, and it seems to be working, ... HD is formatting as C:. Had to re-arrange the boot order to get the Windows to boot off the DVD drive instead of the HD. Once it sees the HD it wanted to keep the G: designation, and would not let me delete the partition. Said it had install files on it, and I could not delete.

I suspect I can use the Windows change drive name command for the DVD's once I have them both working if they don't come out in the order I like. Reluctant to change the drive name of the HD, as I did that once before when upgrading HD's, and it caused all sorts of problems, as software remembers where files are and uses the drive name. Perhaps with Windows only installed, I may have gotten away with it. Easier now to be safe than sorry.

Thanks for the help on this. It may not be my last call for help, as I don't understand why the floppy is not working...short of it being defective. I'm presuming there shouldn't be anything special about installing a 7 in 1 floppy that has a bunch of memory card slots? I think all the memory slots go to a USB, which I now have unplugged.

Ron

 

[Zepper]

Yeah, the floppy part of those combo drives are usually a standard floppy that uses a standard floppy connection. Though I think I've seen one that might be all USB.

.bh.

 

[RonAKA]

Thanks, I had the ribbon cable connection reversed on the floppy end. I had changed it once before, but must have just put it back on the same (wrong) way again.

Most things are working now, as I am responding to this with the new computer!

Ron