Disk manager "issue"

[Dr Teeth]

I have two hard disks (SATA) and they were connected to the same
controller. My main hard disk (with Win XP) was disk 0, the second
disk 1.

Since I moved the second hard disk to the other controller on my
motherboard, the main hard disk has become disk 1 and the second one
disk 0.

The PC works fine, but I would like it better is things were as they
were previously, as in para 1.

Is this possible without putting the disks on the same controller?

TIA,

Guy

--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

 

[thecreator]

Hi Guy,

Move the Main Hard Drive to the motherboard Controller and move the one you connected to the motherboard, back.

 

[Dr Teeth]

I was just thinking how wonderful life was, when "thecreator"

Move the Main Hard Drive to the motherboard Controller and move the one you connected to the motherboard, back.

Sorry I did not make myself clear. Both controllers are on the m/b
(ASUS A8N SLI-SE nVidia 4). SATA 1+2 sockets are on one, SATA 3+4
sockets are on the other.

Originally, disks were connected to SATA 1+2, now SATA 1+3. Main disk
is on SATA 1 and always has been.

--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

 

[thecreator]

Hi Guy,

In other words, you made both Hard Drives, Masters. Correct?

But in the past, you had both Hard Drives on one Interface Cable, plugged into what you had believed to be Sockets 1+3. And no Hard Drive plugged into Socket 2+4. What I am saying is that maybe Socket 1+3 was really 2+4.

So I am suggesting that you change them and really see what happens. Maybe the Sockets are / were mislabeled.

 

[Dr Teeth]

I was just thinking how wonderful life was, when "thecreator"

In other words, you made both Hard Drives, Masters. Correct?
Yes.

But in the past, you had both Hard Drives on one Interface Cable,

No. With SATA it's one drive per cable, it's PATA that can have two
drives per cable.

plugged into what you had believed to be Sockets 1+3.

No, they were in Sockets 1+2.
I do not believe that there is any error in the labeling, as due to a
bug in Mandriva Linux 2006, I had to disable the SATA controller that
did not have any drives attached...both drives are visible in Linux,
therefore no mislabeling.

I do not wish to swap things back as h/d performance seems better with
the drives on separate controllers.

--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

 

[Pop`]

Hi Guy,

In other words, you made both Hard Drives, Masters. Correct?

But in the past, you had both Hard Drives on one Interface Cable,
plugged into what you had believed to be Sockets 1+3. And no Hard
Drive plugged into Socket 2+4. What I am saying is that maybe Socket
1+3 was really 2+4.

So I am suggesting that you change them and really see what
happens. Maybe the Sockets are / were mislabeled.

Umm, there is no "Master/Slave" relationship with SATA drives. Each SATA
connector is exactly one SATA port and controls exactly one SATA drive.
Letters are assigned in Disk Manager, and which one is the boot device is
set in the System BIOS. That's all there is to it. With SATA, forget about
master/slave; it no longer applies.

HTH
Pop`

 

[Pop`]

....

I do not wish to swap things back as h/d performance seems better with
the drives on separate controllers.

I don't know why that would be, but I'll take your word for it. Whichever
you want to be the boot drive, you just go to the BIOS settings (press F8
repeatedly during boot) and set it as the boot device in the selection
window. IMO the sequence should be similar to Floppy (if you have one),
DVD/CD drive, SATA x (whichever one you have the boot files on), and
whatever other boot devices you might have, if any.

SATA has made the world much simpler, but for some reason the above
information isn't very noticeable and doesn't stand out well. The SATA
drive I just bought in fact, from WD, had absolutely nothing with it for how
to install it. I tossed it in a slot, connected the cables, set a drive
letter, and formatted; that was it.

Pop`

 

[Dr Teeth]

I was just thinking how wonderful life was, when "Pop`"

I don't know why that would be, but I'll take your word for it.

I do lots of moving stuff around between my hard disks, and I have one
program downloading (writing) to one whilst I am using another. I also
have my pagefile on the second hard disk.

Whichever
you want to be the boot drive, you just go to the BIOS settings (press F8
repeatedly during boot) and set it as the boot device in the selection
window.

The PC works perfectly, it's a cosmetic thing in Disk Manager and
PartitionMagic. It just does not seem right that the main disk (i.e.
with C:\ on it) is listed as the second hard disk when it should be
the first.

--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

 

[John John]

Well then the disks are not on the controller that you think they are
on. Move them around and about but, the pc may not boot if the drive
number doesn't agree with the arc path in the boot.ini file.

It's unconceivable to me that both the Disk Manager as well as Partition
Magic would have the wrong disk information or that both of them would
improperly register the HDD number, after all, Partition Magic can do
its things while Windows is offline, boot it on its own and if it tells
you that the drive is not as you expect it then the drives are on the
wrong controller. What does the boot.ini file say?

John

 

[Dr Teeth]

I was just thinking how wonderful life was, when John John

Well then the disks are not on the controller that you think they are
on. Move them around and about but, the pc may not boot if the drive
number doesn't agree with the arc path in the boot.ini file.

It's unconceivable to me that both the Disk Manager as well as Partition
Magic would have the wrong disk information or that both of them would
improperly register the HDD number, after all, Partition Magic can do
its things while Windows is offline, boot it on its own and if it tells
you that the drive is not as you expect it then the drives are on the
wrong controller. What does the boot.ini file say?

Hi John,

The main disk, with Win XP was not moved, it was disk0 is now disk1.

My boot.ini:-

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /usepmtimer /NoExecute=OptIn

All I did was to move my second disk from SATA 2 socket (same
controller as SATA 1) to SATA 3.

I would stress that this is purely a cosmetic problem, the PC is
*fully* functional. I would just like the disk with XP to be disk0.

I would also like to understand how the XP disk became disk1 when it
was not moved...was and still is connected to SATA 1.

TIA.

--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

 

[John John]

And what about the BIOS? How does it report your drives? Does it show
them as HDD0, HDD1? Are they in the expected order there?

John

I was just thinking how wonderful life was, when John John

Well then the disks are not on the controller that you think they are
on. Move them around and about but, the pc may not boot if the drive
number doesn't agree with the arc path in the boot.ini file.

It's unconceivable to me that both the Disk Manager as well as Partition
Magic would have the wrong disk information or that both of them would
improperly register the HDD number, after all, Partition Magic can do
its things while Windows is offline, boot it on its own and if it tells
you that the drive is not as you expect it then the drives are on the
wrong controller. What does the boot.ini file say?

Hi John,

The main disk, with Win XP was not moved, it was disk0 is now disk1.

My boot.ini:-

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /usepmtimer /NoExecute=OptIn

All I did was to move my second disk from SATA 2 socket (same
controller as SATA 1) to SATA 3.

I would stress that this is purely a cosmetic problem, the PC is
*fully* functional. I would just like the disk with XP to be disk0.

I would also like to understand how the XP disk became disk1 when it
was not moved...was and still is connected to SATA 1.

TIA.

 

[Dr Teeth]

I was just thinking how wonderful life was, when John John

And what about the BIOS? How does it report your drives? Does it show
them as HDD0, HDD1? Are they in the expected order there?

Difficult to tell as they are identical drives. However, one did show
up as master on SATA 1 and the other as master on SATA 3, which is
what I'd expect.

In any case, I had to put disk 2 back into SATA 2 as I had come across
a 'gotcha'. BootMagic threw a fit as the disks had their IDs swapped
from what it was expecting and the config could not be changed.

Putting the cable back got everything back to the way it was, but
there should not have been an issue in the first place and it would be
handy to know what went on and why there was.

--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

 

[John John]

What happens if you disconnect disk 2? Does the computer boot?

John