Hard Drive Location Number and Master/Slave

[mtnagel]

I have 2 hard drives (C and D) and don't know which is which - they are both 40 gb too. In the device manager, one is location 0 (0) and the other is 1 (1), I'm assuming 0 is master and 1 is slave, correct? Then I could use the jumper settings on the drives to figure out which is which.

Thanks

 

[djpolstee]

Correct. The assignment '0' indicates the primary hard drive. You can also check the jumper settings on each hard drive.

What would prolly be easier though, look at the cable that the hard drives. The primary will be the hard drive plugged into the end of the cable. The secondary or slave drive will be on the cable between the motherboard and the other hard drive. In my experiences, this has always been the case. This is also what happens if you have your jumper settings to cable select.

 

[mtnagel]

Originally posted by: djpolstee
Correct. The assignment '0' indicates the primary hard drive. You can also check the jumper settings on each hard drive.

What would prolly be easier though, look at the cable that the hard drives. The primary will be the hard drive plugged into the end of the cable. The secondary or slave drive will be on the cable between the motherboard and the other hard drive. In my experiences, this has always been the case. This is also what happens if you have your jumper settings to cable select.

I'm pretty sure that the position on the cable has nothing to do with master/slave (maybe I'm wrong), I thought it was the jumper setting. That's why if I know which Location # went with master and which with slave, I could link up the manufacturer of the drive to master or slave and then check the jumper settings to find out which is labeled C and which is D.

I'm building a new computer and I have a new hard drive that I will store Windows and the program files, but I keep a second one just for data backup incase the OS brings down the first hard drive, so I want to move that to the new computer for the same purpose.

 

[eydolic]

It is common practice to put the master on the end of the cable, and the slave on the second (or middle plug). It is BY NO MEANS the only way that it will work. I have seen many systems done otherwise, and the cable-select option does not depend on this. Cable select normally just chooses the drive with the lowest response time as the master. The first one "0" is the master drive, and the second one, "1" is the slave.

 

[compudog]

Originally posted by: eydolic
It is common practice to put the master on the end of the cable, and the slave on the second (or middle plug). It is BY NO MEANS the only way that it will work. I have seen many systems done otherwise, and the cable-select option does not depend on this. Cable select normally just chooses the drive with the lowest response time as the master. The first one "0" is the master drive, and the second one, "1" is the slave.

Wrong. Look here for the real Cable Select answer. LINK.

 

[compudog]

Making matters worse, the 40-conductor IDE/ATA cable select cables have the "master connector" as the middle device and the "slave connector" as the device at the end of the cable, farthest from the host. For signaling reasons, it's best to put a single drive at the end of a cable, not put it in the middle leaving a "stub" of wire hanging off the end of the channel. But if you do this, that single drive sets itself as a slave with no master, a technically illegal configuration. Worse, suppose you do this, and your hard disk sets itself as a slave, and the system boots from it without problem, as most would. Then, you decide to add a new hard disk. You set it to cable select and attach it to the middle connector. The new drive then becomes the master, and thus moves ahead of the old drive in precedence! The system will try to boot from it instead of your old drive (which some people might want, but many do not.)

Before you give bad information, be informed... Master is the FIRST on the cable, Slave is the LAST.

 

[eydolic]

It's the way I was always told, but I assume methods could vary. I've been double checking on the CS issue, and where I have only found a couple sources documenting what I said, I've found many stating what you said. They did finally standardize it that way, in 1999 (PCGuide.com)

But I still say for you to open up any Dell, HP, Compaq, or IBM and look at the way the drives are located in the system. Master is always the last one, and the slave is the second one in line. If it is a single drive, then the drive is always at the end. Seagate has an illustration of this at the bottom of that page.

 

[compudog]

While I tend to agree with your statement about the OEM PCs (Dell, HP etc) it is not always the case. Most OEMs set drives to Cable Select and only put one device at the end of the cable. It is ridiculously confusing. I have an HP Brio sitting on the bench now that has a single hard drive with a single drive cable connected to the primary IDE channel, on the second channel there is a 40 conductor ribbon cable marked CD MASTER (in the middle) and CD SLAVE (at the end.)

 

[mtnagel]

Wow. I didn't mean to start a fight.

 

[compudog]

Not a fight, but a discussion... Many times computer hardware make absolutely NO sense at all.

 

[eydolic]

A fun discussion, actually- and one I learned something from. I did more research on it, and found out that the common accepted method for CSEL is what Compudog linked to. So he was right, and I was wrong. I accept that. As far as OEM PC's, er, yeah- they don't follow standards all the time anyway. Whatever works, works. I'm going to benchmark my hard drive on CS, Master, and Slace, and on connectors among the cable. I'll post the results once I'm done. Any recommended applications? Sandra is not exactly as precise as I would like to be.