Master/Slave Relationships

[Jayarem]

Hi everyone!

Now that I've learned to properly partition/format a drive, my next question would be concerning the Master/Slave configuration.

First:
What I'm curious about is:
Primary Master
Primary Slave
Secondary Master
Secondary Slave

Does the second (Slave) HDD have to be physically connected (via IDE cable) to the Primary Master (my CDROM is currently "Primary Slave" to my HDD)? OR, can it be connected to the other IDE (port/connector?), there are two on my mobo.

I know/think that if both (HDD's) are on the same cable I need to move the CDROM to the second IDE port/connector. Isn't that right?

In either case, the one that gets moved to the second port/connector becomes which? "Secondary Master" or is it "Secondary Slave"?

Are there any benefits/drawbacks to either of these configurations?

Second:
I know that only one drive/partition can be bootable C:\ in Windows.
What about the actual formatting of the slave drive?
Can it be partitioned/formatted from Windows or does it have to be done from DOS?

I'm starting to confuse myself thinking about this so I'm going to end here, for now.

At any rate, I'd like to thank any and all, in advance.
As is my usual, your advice/assistance/suggestions are much appreciated and eagerly awaited.

 

[Killbat]

One IDE controller is the primary, and the other controller is the secondary. Each IDE connector on the motherboard belongs to a controller, and each controller supports up to two drives, master and slave. So, putting the CDROM on the other connector would put it on the secondary controller. Of course, if you do this, you'll have to set the CDROM's jumpers to "master", because it would be alone on the controller

Primary master: HDD
Primary slave: none
Secondary master: CDROM
Secondart slave: none

...if properly set up.

 

[AKA]

Yes you can format your 2nd hard drive from Windows, and its alot faster than from dos.