MSI Pro2a - need help w/ adding new and old hard drive

[TGirl]

I have my system up and running, now my husband wants to add his old Quantum Big Foot 6G hard drive into my system since his power supply just crapped out. I have a 45G IBM 100ATA inside using the 100 ATA ribbon cable that came with my mb.

Could I use the same ribbon to make this a master/slave configuration or should We use a seperate ribbon and put the connection into IDE2 on the mb since this his HD is not 100ATA?

If we do seperately, one cable into IDE1 and the other into IDE2, would there be any problems with boot partitions, etc.? It came out of his Compaq 233Mhz model 4814.

We don't want to erase anything off his hd so I guess for now it would have to be the primary hd. It has W95 on it. Is this possible? If I first put Windows 2000 on my IBM would I be able to import this older hd?

Thanks, all

TGirl

 

[Davegod75]

i think you can have them on the same cable. either way you should be fine.

 

[Whisper]

I know that I have my dma66 hdd and dvd drive on the same cable, and one runs at 33 while the other at 66. Also have a friend who runs an ata100 drive on the same cable as an ata33 drive without hitch, so it seems to be possible at least.

I believe if you're going to use the compaq drive for booting then it'll have to be your primary master. You could also always try adjusting the bios settings for boot device from hdd-0 to whichever labeling the secondary master would get (hdd-2 maybe..?).

I know that on my old be6-2 I had two drives hooked up (one as primary master and the other secondary master), and if I did what I mentioned above -switching the boot device settings from one drive to the other- then everything seemed to work fine. Hope it helps.

 

[Marqui]

To answer your questions, you can connect your drives on the same cable. I would choose to use the other IDE bus instead, but that is just me. As for the booting, you can choose in the bios exactly which bus you want it to use for booting (scsi, ide1, ide2, floppy, cd-rom etc). So if you wanted to use your husbands older drive to boot from you could, BUT I would high discourage you from doing this in the state the drive is currently in. Mainly because the older drive has a configuration of a totally different computer. I would see a few things happening. Best case scenario (especially since you are using Windows 95), is that you try and boot up from that drive, and it manages to somehow start windows properly (maybe in safe mode), and most of your programs do not function correctly. But what most likely will happen is that your computer will never make it into windows and either blue screen or lock up somewhere in the booting stage. I've had both different scenarios happen.

I would boot up off your current IBM and just have your current OS locate the new (older 6 gigger). From there I would try to move over as much as I could in the form of DATA. Most of the programs installed will not run from the new system. You will have to move all your data over and be prepared to sacrafice alot of programs (hopefully you have copies of your programs on disk/cd-rom). Saving data is not too difficult, but be sure you don't forget something.

Or just go out and spend 25-30 dollars on a new power supply for his old compaq and save yourself a head ache.

 

[Nelmster]

Hang on, here. I thought that if you put a 33 on the same cable as a 100, that the 100 would subsequently run at 33. Now, I know that drives aren't reaching speeds of 100, yet, but they ARE doing better than 33. So, that would slow the performance of the drive. IF I am correct, place the 2nd hard drive on another cable.

Having said all that, I agree with all 3 paragraphs of Marqui and strongly advise the same! 1) Boot from the IBM. 2) Move the data. OR...buy a new power supply.

 

[Nelmster]

By the way, I've just GOT to ask: what does the T stand for, TGirl?

OFF TOPIC Alert

 

[TGirl]

Thanks everyone. I'm very interested if having the older hd or cdrom attached as a slave to my IBM would slow down the IBM performance? Good question! We finally got that old 6G hd working and 95 up and running but with many driver updates. I wish my husband would just go get a new powersupply for HIS old crappy computer and leave MINE alone, you guys are right on! I hand picked all the components and we put it together, I think it's rather bada**, myself. I'll keep my fingers crossed - too bad for my husband if it doesn't. Somehow it's now OUR computer.

Nelmster, TGirl is for my name, Tara and Thunderbird, my 1G processor. I have SB Live Value, not working yet; Elsa Gladiac video card - 32Mg; 128 Crucial pc133 Cas2, and a new box arrived from the friendly UPS man - another 128 of memory that is the same specs but not Crucial (couldn't pass it up for $53.

Also, I'm pretty confused with the numerous bios settings. Maybe you guys could help. What should I put for the SRAM settings, the only one I know for sure is CAS2 not the 3. What about the normal,medium, fast, etc. above that setting? Also for processor speed - do I choose 100 and then multiply by 10? my choices are 100 or 132, and then the multipliers start at 8. Should I flash my bios first to enable a 133 bus? I'm VERY new at this and all the various settings are a little over my head in some areas.

Are there any web sites that explain the choices better than the book that came with our MSI?

Thanks everyone for helping me out. Your lifesavers. I love these forums.

 

[rb56]

You can check out my site for the bios settings that should work pretty well. In the case of memory use SPD auto for the best memory scores. I have the same Crucial memory and it works great. Go to the MSI website and install the Live bios program (there's a link on my site to it) and then flash to the newest bios update, it's very simple to use.

rb56

 

[Nelmster]

TGirl,

First, I would like to say that I was wrong. It is only on older mobo's (like mine - see sig), that you have to worry about 33 & 100 being on the same cable. Newer chipsets have "independent device timing". However, I have read several places that state the 100 needs to be on the end of the cable and set to Master. It used to be that it didn't matter where you put the master on the cable (it could be in the middle, with the slave at the end).

A few questions that are none of my business, since I don't know your particulars:

1) Why can't you boot from the 100? Your 33 could be another drive assignment, and it could still run programs. But your newer, MAIN programs could be on the faster 100.

2) How many other IDE devices do you have? Depending on how many other IDE devices you have, you could give each one of your drives their own slot with a Master designation. You can use the BIOS to tell your computer that you want to boot up to the IDE slot w/ the 100.

A few other issues:

1) You mentioned the multiplier settings. Yes, start at 100 FSB (with a multiplier of 10). If you are overclocking, you can either: increase the speed of the FSB, increase the multiplier, or both. If you are overclocking, I assume you already know about closing the L1 bridges.

2) Next, you mentioned flashing the BIOS to enable the 133 MHz bus. The Pro-2A uses the KT133 chipset, but it does not support a 133 FSB for the processor. It supports 133 MHz RAM and a 100 MHz processor (double-pumped = 200 MHz FSB). The KT133A will support the 133 (double-pumped to 266 MHz) FSB. So, the moral of the story is: most people have maxed out their overclocking efforts at about 110 MHz on the Pro-2A.

That's all I can answer for now! Have fun getting it set up!

 

[rbV5]

Whatever you do, DO NOT BOOT UP THAT BOARD WITH WIN95 unless you have flashed your bios to 2.1 (be careful if using live bios) there is an issue with that MB and win95 (will kill your cmos chip) that is fixed in bios 2.1.

 

[dt]

I would move the data from any Quantum Big foot HDD. They were some of the worst HDD ever made. I have replaced over the years at least a dozen bad "Big foot" drives.

 

[TGirl]

Nelmster,

I already booted it up (95)! It seems to work after much driver updating. This is my setup:

IDE1 - master (IBM HD), slave (Quantum)which is currently unplugged from ribbon and power supply.

IDE2 - (I/O Magic 40x cdrom) only

I plan move over what I can from quantum to IBM after I have Installed what I can of the apps. Unfortunately, it only came with a Quick restore so I'm not sure if I can use that to install some of the old programs like Quicken or not? Anyone know?

I am really confused about the bus issue. I did change the bios for the DRAM to bus + 33 since my ram is PC133, is that correct? How do you double pump? Should I? I guess I better flash the bios first and then mess with that.

RB56, Thanks so much! I'm headed to your site next.

One more issue, I can't get my sb live value to work. I have disabled both settings in the bios for the onboard sound but I still hear nothing. I believe I have 98 set up correctly so I'm not sure what to do now. I guess I'm also headed over to their website for help. I have seen many people having problems with this on the forums. There are four slots on the sb card to plug speakers and a microphone into. The one for the microphone is obvious but the other three all use identical symbols. Does anyone know which other hole my speakers would go into? I bought this from an indiv off these forums and it was an OEM with no instructions.

Thanks all,

TGirl